In cruising the web today looking for actions related to the death of Ronald Reagan, I discovered these two notices, which should be of interest.
When I walked by the corner of Castro and 18th streets on Thursday in the late afternoon, no memorial of any sort had been erected at this site. That San Francisco cornered was overwhelmed with remembrances, candles and momentous when Princess Di and Matthew Shepard died.
Maybe both the streets of the Castro and the gay community center will soon become sites where San Francisco's citizens, across the political and social spectrums, but especially gays and lesbians, will publicly recognize the death of Reagan and his AIDS legacy.
^^^
Thrive SF's Yahoo group
Dear Friends,
I'M READY TO ACT! I have been contacting every media outlet I know and I feel like no one is hearing me. I am sick and tired of the amnesia the media is displaying. Too many of my friends and loved ones have died due to Reagans inaction. I'm ready to put on my Silence=Death t-shirt, make a sign saying "Reagan isn't MY hero", and light a candle. I will be staging a silent protest on JUNE 11TH, NOON, @ THE CORNER OF 18TH/CASTRO. Please Join me if you feel like I do. Bring your own sign and candle.
Lee Jewell
(415) 552-5552
Cell (415) 420-5038
rlj_sf@yahoo.com
*Please feel free to circulate this memo.
-
SF gay center
June 11, 2004
1800 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 865-5555
e-mail info@sfcenter.org
event: National Day of Mourning
starts: 12pm / ends: 10pm
President George Bush has named Friday a National Day of Mourning in commemoration of the death of former President Ronald Reagan. In light of President Reagans failure to acknowledge the extent of AIDS on our community and on our nation, the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center will recognize this day by lighting candles in the lobby to honor all of those who have died of this terrible pandemic. Materials will also be available to visitors of the building to document their feelings about this day.
To be held in the main lobby of the Center.
Reports, proud muckraking, photos, videos and musings from the veteran LGBT and AIDS human rights advocate Michael Petrelis. Based in San Francisco since 1995. Contact: MPetrelis_at_AOL_dot_com. Vote Petrelis for BART Board District 9 in November!
Friday, June 11, 2004
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Thanks to Rex Wockner in San Diego, who read the full transcript of Reagan's Sept. 1985 news conference where he made his first comments about AIDS, I now know that Reagan was also asked about children with AIDS attending school.
Please note that the president didn't say the word AIDS once in his reply to the question about kids with AIDS.
^^^
Reagan's Speeches
The President's News Conference
September 17, 1985
The President. Good evening. Please be seated. I have a statement here.
[snip]
Federal Support for AIDS Research
Q. Mr. President, the Nation's best-known AIDS scientist says the time has come now to boost existing research into what he called a minor moonshot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the Nation's health workers and even its schoolchildren. Would you support a massive government research program against AIDS like the one that President Nixon launched against cancer?
The President. I have been supporting it for more than 4 years now. It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be 126 million next year. So, this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer.
Q. If I could follow up, sir. The scientist who talked about this, who does work for the Government, is in the National Cancer Institute. He was referring to your program and the increase that you proposed as being not nearly enough at this stage to go forward and really attack the problem.
The President. I think with our budgetary constraints and all, it seems to me that $126 million in a single year for research has got to be something of a vital contribution.
[snip]
School Attendance of Children With AIDS
Q. Mr. President, returning to something that Mike [Mike Putzel, Associated Press] said, if you had younger children, would you send them to a school with a child who had AIDS?
The President. I'm glad I'm not faced with that problem today. And I can well understand the plight of the parents and how they feel about it. I also have compassion, as I think we all do, for the child that has this and doesn't know and can't have it explained to him why somehow he is now an outcast and can no longer associate with his playmates and schoolmates. On the other hand, I can understand the problem with the parents. It is true that some medical sources had said that this cannot be communicated in any way other than the ones we already know and which would not involve a child being in the school. And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said, ``This we know for a fact, that it is safe.'' And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.
Please note that the president didn't say the word AIDS once in his reply to the question about kids with AIDS.
^^^
Reagan's Speeches
The President's News Conference
September 17, 1985
The President. Good evening. Please be seated. I have a statement here.
[snip]
Federal Support for AIDS Research
Q. Mr. President, the Nation's best-known AIDS scientist says the time has come now to boost existing research into what he called a minor moonshot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the Nation's health workers and even its schoolchildren. Would you support a massive government research program against AIDS like the one that President Nixon launched against cancer?
The President. I have been supporting it for more than 4 years now. It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be 126 million next year. So, this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer.
Q. If I could follow up, sir. The scientist who talked about this, who does work for the Government, is in the National Cancer Institute. He was referring to your program and the increase that you proposed as being not nearly enough at this stage to go forward and really attack the problem.
The President. I think with our budgetary constraints and all, it seems to me that $126 million in a single year for research has got to be something of a vital contribution.
[snip]
School Attendance of Children With AIDS
Q. Mr. President, returning to something that Mike [Mike Putzel, Associated Press] said, if you had younger children, would you send them to a school with a child who had AIDS?
The President. I'm glad I'm not faced with that problem today. And I can well understand the plight of the parents and how they feel about it. I also have compassion, as I think we all do, for the child that has this and doesn't know and can't have it explained to him why somehow he is now an outcast and can no longer associate with his playmates and schoolmates. On the other hand, I can understand the problem with the parents. It is true that some medical sources had said that this cannot be communicated in any way other than the ones we already know and which would not involve a child being in the school. And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said, ``This we know for a fact, that it is safe.'' And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.
A friend has located a videotape on the web of Reagan's September 17, 1985, news conference. This is where I believe Reagan first publicly said the word AIDS.
As an AIDS patient on disability, I can't afford the fee to order and view the tape, to hear and see for myself what he said.
The fee for the tape is $200.
Anyone out there feel like donating that amount to me, so I can order and view the tape? Hopefully someone out there will purchase the tape and help settle the question of when Reagan first spoke about AIDS.
Here the link to the videotape for sale:
Vanderbilt University Television News Archive
As an AIDS patient on disability, I can't afford the fee to order and view the tape, to hear and see for myself what he said.
The fee for the tape is $200.
Anyone out there feel like donating that amount to me, so I can order and view the tape? Hopefully someone out there will purchase the tape and help settle the question of when Reagan first spoke about AIDS.
Here the link to the videotape for sale:
Vanderbilt University Television News Archive
The New York Times
September 18, 1985, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section B; Page 7, Column 6; National Desk
REAGAN DEFENDS FINANCING FOR AIDS
BYLINE: By PHILIP BOFFEY, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Sept. 17
President Reagan, who has been accused of public indifference to the AIDS crisis by groups representing victims of the deadly disease, said last night that his Administration was already making a ''vital contribution'' to research on the disease within the limits imposed by ''budgetary restraints.''
Mr. Reagan was asked at his news conference if he could support ''a massive Government research program against AIDS like the program that President Nixon launched against cancer,'' in which Mr. Nixon called in 1971 for a ''total national commitment'' to ''conquering this dread disease.'' Mr. Reagan said that he had been supporting research into AIDS, acquired immune deficiency sydrome, for the last four years and that the effort was a ''top priority'' for the Administration.
The President also expressed sympathy for both sides in the controversy over whether children suffering from AIDS should be permitted to attend school with healthy children.
His remarks appeared to be the first time he has publicly addressed the issue of the lethal disease that has claimed thousands of victims, primarily among male homosexuals, intravenous drug addicts and hemophilliacs whose condition requires frequent blood transfusions. Although the Department of Health and Human Services has declared AIDS its ''number one priority,'' Mr. Reagan himself has been criticized by groups calling for more Government action on the disease.
No Cure or Vaccine for Disease
The disease is belived to be caused by a virus that destroys the body's immune system, leaving it vulnerable to attack by other infections that then kill the victim. The disease is almost uniformly fatal. Thus far some 13,000 cases have been reported in this country. There is, as yet, no cure and no vaccine to prevent the disease.
Mr. Reagan was told by one questioner that the ''best-known AIDS scientist in the country'' had said the time had come to embark on ''a minor moon shot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the nation's health workers and even in school children.'' The scientist was later identified by The Associated Press as Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute, who discovered the virus that is believed to cause AIDS and who reportedly made the remarks in an interview with The A.P. earlier this year.
Reagan Cites Spending Effort
But Mr. Reagan resisted the suggestion that more money was needed. He said that AIDS had been ''one of the top priorities with us'' and that the Administration had provided or appropriated some half a billion dollars for research on AIDS since he took office in 1981. He included in that figure the $126 million that the Administration is seeking for the next budget year. ''So this is a top priority with us,'' he said. ''Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this, and the need to find an answer.''
When told that the top AIDS scientist had said the Administration's budgets were ''not nearly enough at this stage to go forward and really attack the problem,'' Mr. Reagan replied: ''I think with our bdugetary restraints and all it seems to me that $126 million in a single year for research has got to be something of a vital contribution.''
Albert R. Brashear, a White House spokesman, said that Mr. Reagan intended to suggest that current spending levels, which have been increasing steadily, were enough.
However, a House appropriations subcommittee recently voted to boost the Administration's proposed budget for AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health next year by $70 million, which would double the amount of research proposed at that agency by the Administration. Congress has increased the Administration's proposed spending levels for AIDS research in each of the last three budgets. Total health research spending by the Federal Government was estimated at $4.96 billion in the fiscal year 1985 and is to rise to $5.20 billion in the fiscal year 1986 which begins Oct. 1.
On the issue of schools, Mr. Reagan was asked, ''If you had younger children, would you send them to a school with a child who had AIDS?''
He said he was ''glad I'm not faced with that problem today.'' He said he could ''well understand'' the plight of parents worried about the safety of their children and had compassion for children suffering from AIDS who might be made outcasts.
Mr. Reagan said ''it is true that some medical sources'' say that AIDS cannot be transmitted in ways that involve a child in school. The known routes of transmission, according to health experts, are sexual intercourse and exchanges of contaminated blood through needles or transfusions. ''And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said, this we know for a fact that it is safe,'' the President said. ''And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.''
-
Los Angeles Times
September 19, 1985, Thursday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part 1; Page 18; Column 1; National Desk
HEALTH EXPERTS GLAD REAGAN CITED AIDS;
PLEASED BY ATTENTION, DISAPPOINTED HE DID NOT QUELL SCHOOL FEAR
By MARLENE CIMONS, Times Staff Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
While expressing disappointment that President Reagan did not use his nationally televised news conference to urge -- as the federal Centers for Disease Control have done -- that parents allow their children to attend school with AIDS victims, researchers, doctors and parents of AIDS victims said Wednesday that they were gratified that "at least he is talking" about the disease.
Reagan, asked at his news conference Tuesday night whether he would send a child of his own to school with classmates who had AIDS, expressed sympathy for both sides in the furor. But he failed to endorse recommendations issued recently by the CDC saying that children with AIDS pose no risk and should be permitted to attend regular classes.
"The recommendations came about as a result of a panel of experts including a whole variety of people," said Dr. Ann Hardy, a CDC epidemiologist in the AIDS branch. "We stand by them. We feel they are good."
Missed 'Opportunity'
Dr. Brian Novick, clinical professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, who is treating about 90 children with AIDS, said that he was "glad someone asked him about AIDS" but that the President missed "an opportunity to make some very positive, direct statements about AIDS and children."
Novick said he fears now that parents will "quote the President and say, 'Gee, even the President doesn't come out and support the medical experts -- how can he expect us to send our children to school?' Given the current information and the circumstances, he could have been much more definite."
"He is actually commenting on it publicly -- that's a start," said Dr. Paul A. Volberding, an AIDS researcher and oncologist who directs the AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. "I had been concerned that there has been no comment at all from his office, given the seriousness of the epidemic."
'Normal Activities'
However, on the question of whether children with AIDS should be allowed to attend school, Volberding added: "I don't think the President's remarks reflect what most experts in the field feel about that issue. Most of us feel that kids with AIDS should be allowed to participate in normal activities. Perhaps his reaction means he hasn't learned enough about AIDS yet. The information is clearly there, and I hope he is becoming more educated."
Jeanne White, the mother of Ryan, a 13-year-old AIDS victim from Kokomo, Ind., who has been barred from his school, said she believes that Reagan did not forcefully back the health agency recommendations because he "just didn't want to hear from a bunch of angry parents."
Ryan White, a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS through the use of contaminated blood products, has been monitoring his classes via a telephone hookup in his home.
'People Are Afraid'
"He (President Reagan) knows the facts," White's mother said. "But he also knows people are afraid. He's just concerned about all the letters he might get from parents. It's easy to step away from the situation if you don't know anyone with AIDS."
She said she would like to say to the President: " 'Do you want to meet a great kid -- who has AIDS?' I bet he'd say, 'Yeah.' And I bet he wouldn't be afraid to shake his hand or anything."
AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is an incurable, usually fatal disease caused by a virus that destroys the body's immune system, leaving it vulnerable to otherwise rare infections.
Infected Mothers Cited
In adults, the disease is transmitted through sexual contact by the exchange of bodily fluids, through sharing unsterilized hypodermic needles and through transfusions of contaminated blood or blood products. Those at highest risk include male homosexuals and bisexuals, intravenous drug users and their steady sexual partners. The majority of infected children acquired the disease from infected mothers during pregnancy or through transfusions.
-
The Associated Press
September 19, 1985, Thursday, PM cycle
Studds Says Reagan Has Shown Little Concern Over AIDS
BYLINE: By DANIEL BEEGAN, Associated Press Writer
Even though he labels AIDS research a top administration priority, President Reagan has only spoken out once about the deadly disease, and then only when prompted by reporters, says Rep. Gerry E. Studds, the only acknowledged homosexual in Congress.
"... The president said last night it is one of the top priorities of the last four years," the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview Wednesday. "Under those circumstances, it is more than a little difficult to imagine why he has never mentioned it once before in public."
"This is a major national public health crisis," Studds said. "There are medical authorities who think it is one of the very worst we have faced in a very long time."
At his news conference Tuesday night, Reagan, responding to reporters' questions, said more than $500 million had been spent to try to find ways of combatting AIDS, a fatal virus which attacks the body's ability to fight disease.
But Studds said Reagan's requests to Congress for fiscal years 1982 through 1986 were far less than that amount, and the money was appropriated only because Congress went beyond administration requests.
"The administration's request for the five fiscal years in question, '82, '83, '84, '85 and '86, adds up to $213.5 million," Studds said. "The way I read that, it's less than 'over half a billion' by a substantial amount."
Studds said the administration's original fiscal year 1986 request was for $85.6 million, less than the $97.4 million Congress actually appropriated last year for AIDs research.
After Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., pressured the administration, Studds said, that request was increased to $126 million.
Congress likely will approve more than that, Studds said. One subcommittee in the House has authorized a $196 million spending level, and if it is approved, Congress will have provided $389 million over those same five years, he noted.
"I think the country has a right to expect a great deal more than this from our president," he said.
The White House press office did not return telephone calls Wednesday seeking comment about Studds' remarks on AIDS spending.
Studds said he was concerned that what he feels is the administration's lack of response could be because acquired immune deficiency syndrome started out in the United States as a "gay disease."
AIDS most frequently strikes male homosexuals, recipients of contaminated blood transfusions and intravenous drug abusers.
As of Sept. 9, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta had tabulated 13,074 cases of AIDS, of whom 6,611 had died. No one has recovered.
Studds said he also was disappointed that Reagan didn't speak out more strongly when asked if he would send a young child of his own to a school with students who had AIDS.
Medical experts have said there is no evidence AIDS can be spread from casual contact, such as a child going to school with someone who has the disease, Studds said.
Studds made his sexual orientation public in 1983, when he was censured by the House for a relationship he had 10 years earlier with a House page.
September 18, 1985, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section B; Page 7, Column 6; National Desk
REAGAN DEFENDS FINANCING FOR AIDS
BYLINE: By PHILIP BOFFEY, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Sept. 17
President Reagan, who has been accused of public indifference to the AIDS crisis by groups representing victims of the deadly disease, said last night that his Administration was already making a ''vital contribution'' to research on the disease within the limits imposed by ''budgetary restraints.''
Mr. Reagan was asked at his news conference if he could support ''a massive Government research program against AIDS like the program that President Nixon launched against cancer,'' in which Mr. Nixon called in 1971 for a ''total national commitment'' to ''conquering this dread disease.'' Mr. Reagan said that he had been supporting research into AIDS, acquired immune deficiency sydrome, for the last four years and that the effort was a ''top priority'' for the Administration.
The President also expressed sympathy for both sides in the controversy over whether children suffering from AIDS should be permitted to attend school with healthy children.
His remarks appeared to be the first time he has publicly addressed the issue of the lethal disease that has claimed thousands of victims, primarily among male homosexuals, intravenous drug addicts and hemophilliacs whose condition requires frequent blood transfusions. Although the Department of Health and Human Services has declared AIDS its ''number one priority,'' Mr. Reagan himself has been criticized by groups calling for more Government action on the disease.
No Cure or Vaccine for Disease
The disease is belived to be caused by a virus that destroys the body's immune system, leaving it vulnerable to attack by other infections that then kill the victim. The disease is almost uniformly fatal. Thus far some 13,000 cases have been reported in this country. There is, as yet, no cure and no vaccine to prevent the disease.
Mr. Reagan was told by one questioner that the ''best-known AIDS scientist in the country'' had said the time had come to embark on ''a minor moon shot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the nation's health workers and even in school children.'' The scientist was later identified by The Associated Press as Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute, who discovered the virus that is believed to cause AIDS and who reportedly made the remarks in an interview with The A.P. earlier this year.
Reagan Cites Spending Effort
But Mr. Reagan resisted the suggestion that more money was needed. He said that AIDS had been ''one of the top priorities with us'' and that the Administration had provided or appropriated some half a billion dollars for research on AIDS since he took office in 1981. He included in that figure the $126 million that the Administration is seeking for the next budget year. ''So this is a top priority with us,'' he said. ''Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this, and the need to find an answer.''
When told that the top AIDS scientist had said the Administration's budgets were ''not nearly enough at this stage to go forward and really attack the problem,'' Mr. Reagan replied: ''I think with our bdugetary restraints and all it seems to me that $126 million in a single year for research has got to be something of a vital contribution.''
Albert R. Brashear, a White House spokesman, said that Mr. Reagan intended to suggest that current spending levels, which have been increasing steadily, were enough.
However, a House appropriations subcommittee recently voted to boost the Administration's proposed budget for AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health next year by $70 million, which would double the amount of research proposed at that agency by the Administration. Congress has increased the Administration's proposed spending levels for AIDS research in each of the last three budgets. Total health research spending by the Federal Government was estimated at $4.96 billion in the fiscal year 1985 and is to rise to $5.20 billion in the fiscal year 1986 which begins Oct. 1.
On the issue of schools, Mr. Reagan was asked, ''If you had younger children, would you send them to a school with a child who had AIDS?''
He said he was ''glad I'm not faced with that problem today.'' He said he could ''well understand'' the plight of parents worried about the safety of their children and had compassion for children suffering from AIDS who might be made outcasts.
Mr. Reagan said ''it is true that some medical sources'' say that AIDS cannot be transmitted in ways that involve a child in school. The known routes of transmission, according to health experts, are sexual intercourse and exchanges of contaminated blood through needles or transfusions. ''And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said, this we know for a fact that it is safe,'' the President said. ''And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.''
-
Los Angeles Times
September 19, 1985, Thursday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part 1; Page 18; Column 1; National Desk
HEALTH EXPERTS GLAD REAGAN CITED AIDS;
PLEASED BY ATTENTION, DISAPPOINTED HE DID NOT QUELL SCHOOL FEAR
By MARLENE CIMONS, Times Staff Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
While expressing disappointment that President Reagan did not use his nationally televised news conference to urge -- as the federal Centers for Disease Control have done -- that parents allow their children to attend school with AIDS victims, researchers, doctors and parents of AIDS victims said Wednesday that they were gratified that "at least he is talking" about the disease.
Reagan, asked at his news conference Tuesday night whether he would send a child of his own to school with classmates who had AIDS, expressed sympathy for both sides in the furor. But he failed to endorse recommendations issued recently by the CDC saying that children with AIDS pose no risk and should be permitted to attend regular classes.
"The recommendations came about as a result of a panel of experts including a whole variety of people," said Dr. Ann Hardy, a CDC epidemiologist in the AIDS branch. "We stand by them. We feel they are good."
Missed 'Opportunity'
Dr. Brian Novick, clinical professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, who is treating about 90 children with AIDS, said that he was "glad someone asked him about AIDS" but that the President missed "an opportunity to make some very positive, direct statements about AIDS and children."
Novick said he fears now that parents will "quote the President and say, 'Gee, even the President doesn't come out and support the medical experts -- how can he expect us to send our children to school?' Given the current information and the circumstances, he could have been much more definite."
"He is actually commenting on it publicly -- that's a start," said Dr. Paul A. Volberding, an AIDS researcher and oncologist who directs the AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. "I had been concerned that there has been no comment at all from his office, given the seriousness of the epidemic."
'Normal Activities'
However, on the question of whether children with AIDS should be allowed to attend school, Volberding added: "I don't think the President's remarks reflect what most experts in the field feel about that issue. Most of us feel that kids with AIDS should be allowed to participate in normal activities. Perhaps his reaction means he hasn't learned enough about AIDS yet. The information is clearly there, and I hope he is becoming more educated."
Jeanne White, the mother of Ryan, a 13-year-old AIDS victim from Kokomo, Ind., who has been barred from his school, said she believes that Reagan did not forcefully back the health agency recommendations because he "just didn't want to hear from a bunch of angry parents."
Ryan White, a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS through the use of contaminated blood products, has been monitoring his classes via a telephone hookup in his home.
'People Are Afraid'
"He (President Reagan) knows the facts," White's mother said. "But he also knows people are afraid. He's just concerned about all the letters he might get from parents. It's easy to step away from the situation if you don't know anyone with AIDS."
She said she would like to say to the President: " 'Do you want to meet a great kid -- who has AIDS?' I bet he'd say, 'Yeah.' And I bet he wouldn't be afraid to shake his hand or anything."
AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is an incurable, usually fatal disease caused by a virus that destroys the body's immune system, leaving it vulnerable to otherwise rare infections.
Infected Mothers Cited
In adults, the disease is transmitted through sexual contact by the exchange of bodily fluids, through sharing unsterilized hypodermic needles and through transfusions of contaminated blood or blood products. Those at highest risk include male homosexuals and bisexuals, intravenous drug users and their steady sexual partners. The majority of infected children acquired the disease from infected mothers during pregnancy or through transfusions.
-
The Associated Press
September 19, 1985, Thursday, PM cycle
Studds Says Reagan Has Shown Little Concern Over AIDS
BYLINE: By DANIEL BEEGAN, Associated Press Writer
Even though he labels AIDS research a top administration priority, President Reagan has only spoken out once about the deadly disease, and then only when prompted by reporters, says Rep. Gerry E. Studds, the only acknowledged homosexual in Congress.
"... The president said last night it is one of the top priorities of the last four years," the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview Wednesday. "Under those circumstances, it is more than a little difficult to imagine why he has never mentioned it once before in public."
"This is a major national public health crisis," Studds said. "There are medical authorities who think it is one of the very worst we have faced in a very long time."
At his news conference Tuesday night, Reagan, responding to reporters' questions, said more than $500 million had been spent to try to find ways of combatting AIDS, a fatal virus which attacks the body's ability to fight disease.
But Studds said Reagan's requests to Congress for fiscal years 1982 through 1986 were far less than that amount, and the money was appropriated only because Congress went beyond administration requests.
"The administration's request for the five fiscal years in question, '82, '83, '84, '85 and '86, adds up to $213.5 million," Studds said. "The way I read that, it's less than 'over half a billion' by a substantial amount."
Studds said the administration's original fiscal year 1986 request was for $85.6 million, less than the $97.4 million Congress actually appropriated last year for AIDs research.
After Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., pressured the administration, Studds said, that request was increased to $126 million.
Congress likely will approve more than that, Studds said. One subcommittee in the House has authorized a $196 million spending level, and if it is approved, Congress will have provided $389 million over those same five years, he noted.
"I think the country has a right to expect a great deal more than this from our president," he said.
The White House press office did not return telephone calls Wednesday seeking comment about Studds' remarks on AIDS spending.
Studds said he was concerned that what he feels is the administration's lack of response could be because acquired immune deficiency syndrome started out in the United States as a "gay disease."
AIDS most frequently strikes male homosexuals, recipients of contaminated blood transfusions and intravenous drug abusers.
As of Sept. 9, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta had tabulated 13,074 cases of AIDS, of whom 6,611 had died. No one has recovered.
Studds said he also was disappointed that Reagan didn't speak out more strongly when asked if he would send a young child of his own to a school with students who had AIDS.
Medical experts have said there is no evidence AIDS can be spread from casual contact, such as a child going to school with someone who has the disease, Studds said.
Studds made his sexual orientation public in 1983, when he was censured by the House for a relationship he had 10 years earlier with a House page.
Many thanks to all of you who have helped me determine when Reagan first publicly said the word AIDS and addressed the epidemic.
At first, I believed he said something about AIDS at an AmFAR benefit hosted by Liz Taylor in Washington in May of 1987.
Next, I found the text of a written message Reagan sent to Congress on February 6, 1986, and mistakenly thought he had spoken the words.
Now, as you can read below, Reagan was asked about the AIDS epidemic at a news conference in 1985.
Although he finally spoke about AIDS at that time, in my opinion, it simply wasn't enough of an effort to halt the spread of AIDS and find effective treatments to keep people with AIDS alive.
Regardless of when Reagan initially said the word AIDS, for many of us, his legacy on AIDS is a shameful one and shouldn't be ignored by reporters and historians.
^^^
Reagan's Speeches
The President's News Conference
September 17, 1985
The President. Good evening. Please be seated. I have a statement here.
[snip]
Federal Support for AIDS Research
Q. Mr. President, the Nation's best-known AIDS scientist says the time has come now to boost existing research into what he called a minor moonshot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the Nation's health workers and even its schoolchildren. Would you support a massive government research program against AIDS like the one that President Nixon launched against cancer?
The President. I have been supporting it for more than 4 years now. It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be 126 million next year. So, this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer.
Q. If I could follow up, sir. The scientist who talked about this, who does work for the Government, is in the National Cancer Institute. He was referring to your program and the increase that you proposed as being not nearly enough at this stage to go forward and really attack the problem.
The President. I think with our budgetary constraints and all, it seems to me that $126 million in a single year for research has got to be something of a vital contribution.
[snip]
At first, I believed he said something about AIDS at an AmFAR benefit hosted by Liz Taylor in Washington in May of 1987.
Next, I found the text of a written message Reagan sent to Congress on February 6, 1986, and mistakenly thought he had spoken the words.
Now, as you can read below, Reagan was asked about the AIDS epidemic at a news conference in 1985.
Although he finally spoke about AIDS at that time, in my opinion, it simply wasn't enough of an effort to halt the spread of AIDS and find effective treatments to keep people with AIDS alive.
Regardless of when Reagan initially said the word AIDS, for many of us, his legacy on AIDS is a shameful one and shouldn't be ignored by reporters and historians.
^^^
Reagan's Speeches
The President's News Conference
September 17, 1985
The President. Good evening. Please be seated. I have a statement here.
[snip]
Federal Support for AIDS Research
Q. Mr. President, the Nation's best-known AIDS scientist says the time has come now to boost existing research into what he called a minor moonshot program to attack this AIDS epidemic that has struck fear into the Nation's health workers and even its schoolchildren. Would you support a massive government research program against AIDS like the one that President Nixon launched against cancer?
The President. I have been supporting it for more than 4 years now. It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be 126 million next year. So, this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer.
Q. If I could follow up, sir. The scientist who talked about this, who does work for the Government, is in the National Cancer Institute. He was referring to your program and the increase that you proposed as being not nearly enough at this stage to go forward and really attack the problem.
The President. I think with our budgetary constraints and all, it seems to me that $126 million in a single year for research has got to be something of a vital contribution.
[snip]
Monday, June 07, 2004
ADOLF REAGAN
By Larry Kramer
(The following piece will appear in The Advocate issue dated July 6th, which will be on sale from June 22nd.)
Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even. In all the tributes to his passing, as I write this two days after his death, not one that I have seen has mentioned this. The hateful New York Times (“all the news that’s fit to print”) of course said nothing about this. We still are not fit to write about with total honesty in their pages. Not really. Just as we were not fit for Ronald Reagan to talk about us. What kind of president is that?
I have been writing a long work of history which I call The American People. I chose this title because in every speech he ever made Reagan went on and on about “the American People.” We of course were never a part of his American People. And we knew it. Year after year of his hateful and endless reign we knew we were not a part of the American People he was President of. He would never talk about us, of course, or do anything for us except murder us. There were no social services for us. There was no research into our health. Even as we were dying like flies. How could he not have seen us dying? The answer is he did see us dying and he chose to do nothing. There was no representation in his government of us. There was never anything for us but his ignoble dismissal of us. All of Washington, indeed the world, knew that Reagan hated us. How could they not? Most of them did, too. And when Daddy doesn’t love you, who is there who will stand up to Daddy? This is a trick that Hitler used and which I believe the young Reagan learned from him. He never had to say much out loud himself about his hatreds; but everyone knew what they were. Gays were as hated under Reagan as Jews were under Hitler. It is a trick that both George Bushes have carbon-copied. We have not been included among their American people either.
I could never understand why Reagan’s hatred of us was so intense and manifest and never-ending. Some of Nancy Reagan’s best friends were gay, the self-loathing Jerry Zipkin, at one time her principle “walker,” chief among them. It is said he taught her how to dress. In my play, Just Say No, I dramatized my own theory of why she and her husband kept gays off their agenda as if we were the plague, which of course, as in some hideous self-fulfilling prophecy, we became. Ron Reagan, Jr. That is why. It was no secret in an ever-widening circle that Ron Reagan, Jr. was suspected of being gay. In his freshman year at Yale (I believe this was his only year there; perhaps there were two) I have been told he had numerous gay experiences. I am well known at Yale. Indeed, I have established the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale to document the evil acts that American “history” has performed on us.
And just as damning of the son’s reputation of course, because it could not be hidden, was that Ron Reagan, Jr. was a ballet dancer. This did not look good and was obviously exceedingly embarrassing to a father who rode so many horses. So off with the tutu and on with a wedding ring. Junior was married off and sent to far-off places in positions of low visibility. I have gay friends in Hollywood, equally closeted, who knew him and know him and protect him. To know him is to be sworn to some sort of pact of secrecy. What a hideous life Ron, Jr. must have led all these years. To be denied a life and to have been so utterly gutless about fighting back. (Well, we know all about that.) While his own mother was gallivanting around with some of the biggest fairies in the world. What hateful parents to have had in the prime of your life, “the great communicator” of a father out there communicating how much he hated you and his wife out there going along with this. I suspect by now Ron Reagan, Jr. actually believes he is straight. By now he may very well be. He may well have been all along. He just looked so suspicious, and of course it was this perceived suspicion that, one way or the other, is what caused his father to murder so many of us. Why does history not recognize this monstrous and never-ending history of hatred and the inestimable number of deaths it continues to cause?
People magazine called me for a quote on Reagan’s death. “I wish he had died before he was elected” is what I told them. I wonder what they will run.
It is remarkable that two of the so-called “greatest presidents” have also allowed the greatest perpetrations and perpetuations of mass murder. Franklin D. Roosevelt was shamefully inept in dealing with “the Jewish question,” (see my play The Normal Heart), most ironically since so many Jews were his most loyal supporters, the Jerry Zipkins of their day. No one really writes about this. Roosevelt is one of history’s great gods. Just as no one really writes about Reagan and “the gay question.” These two major murderers so far have got away with helping to cause the two major holocausts of modern history. Just as Jews are asked to never forget their Holocaust I implore all gay people never to forget our holocaust and who caused it and why. Ronald Reagan did not even say the word “AIDS” out loud for the first seven years of his reign. Because of this some 70 million people, so far, have become infected with HIV/AIDS. I wonder what it feels like to be the son and the wife of a man responsible for over 70 million people so far becoming infected with a virus that has killed over half of us so far. I wonder what it felt like while he was alive to ponder this. For surely he must have thought about it. How could he not? He has been called the consummate actor who came to believe all his lines. Does this not make his legacy even more grotesque? It should.
Hitler knew what he was doing. How could Ronald Reagan not have known what he was doing?
But of course no one is writing about this. Reagan too is one of history's gods.
So far he has got away with murder.
By Larry Kramer
(The following piece will appear in The Advocate issue dated July 6th, which will be on sale from June 22nd.)
Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even. In all the tributes to his passing, as I write this two days after his death, not one that I have seen has mentioned this. The hateful New York Times (“all the news that’s fit to print”) of course said nothing about this. We still are not fit to write about with total honesty in their pages. Not really. Just as we were not fit for Ronald Reagan to talk about us. What kind of president is that?
I have been writing a long work of history which I call The American People. I chose this title because in every speech he ever made Reagan went on and on about “the American People.” We of course were never a part of his American People. And we knew it. Year after year of his hateful and endless reign we knew we were not a part of the American People he was President of. He would never talk about us, of course, or do anything for us except murder us. There were no social services for us. There was no research into our health. Even as we were dying like flies. How could he not have seen us dying? The answer is he did see us dying and he chose to do nothing. There was no representation in his government of us. There was never anything for us but his ignoble dismissal of us. All of Washington, indeed the world, knew that Reagan hated us. How could they not? Most of them did, too. And when Daddy doesn’t love you, who is there who will stand up to Daddy? This is a trick that Hitler used and which I believe the young Reagan learned from him. He never had to say much out loud himself about his hatreds; but everyone knew what they were. Gays were as hated under Reagan as Jews were under Hitler. It is a trick that both George Bushes have carbon-copied. We have not been included among their American people either.
I could never understand why Reagan’s hatred of us was so intense and manifest and never-ending. Some of Nancy Reagan’s best friends were gay, the self-loathing Jerry Zipkin, at one time her principle “walker,” chief among them. It is said he taught her how to dress. In my play, Just Say No, I dramatized my own theory of why she and her husband kept gays off their agenda as if we were the plague, which of course, as in some hideous self-fulfilling prophecy, we became. Ron Reagan, Jr. That is why. It was no secret in an ever-widening circle that Ron Reagan, Jr. was suspected of being gay. In his freshman year at Yale (I believe this was his only year there; perhaps there were two) I have been told he had numerous gay experiences. I am well known at Yale. Indeed, I have established the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale to document the evil acts that American “history” has performed on us.
And just as damning of the son’s reputation of course, because it could not be hidden, was that Ron Reagan, Jr. was a ballet dancer. This did not look good and was obviously exceedingly embarrassing to a father who rode so many horses. So off with the tutu and on with a wedding ring. Junior was married off and sent to far-off places in positions of low visibility. I have gay friends in Hollywood, equally closeted, who knew him and know him and protect him. To know him is to be sworn to some sort of pact of secrecy. What a hideous life Ron, Jr. must have led all these years. To be denied a life and to have been so utterly gutless about fighting back. (Well, we know all about that.) While his own mother was gallivanting around with some of the biggest fairies in the world. What hateful parents to have had in the prime of your life, “the great communicator” of a father out there communicating how much he hated you and his wife out there going along with this. I suspect by now Ron Reagan, Jr. actually believes he is straight. By now he may very well be. He may well have been all along. He just looked so suspicious, and of course it was this perceived suspicion that, one way or the other, is what caused his father to murder so many of us. Why does history not recognize this monstrous and never-ending history of hatred and the inestimable number of deaths it continues to cause?
People magazine called me for a quote on Reagan’s death. “I wish he had died before he was elected” is what I told them. I wonder what they will run.
It is remarkable that two of the so-called “greatest presidents” have also allowed the greatest perpetrations and perpetuations of mass murder. Franklin D. Roosevelt was shamefully inept in dealing with “the Jewish question,” (see my play The Normal Heart), most ironically since so many Jews were his most loyal supporters, the Jerry Zipkins of their day. No one really writes about this. Roosevelt is one of history’s great gods. Just as no one really writes about Reagan and “the gay question.” These two major murderers so far have got away with helping to cause the two major holocausts of modern history. Just as Jews are asked to never forget their Holocaust I implore all gay people never to forget our holocaust and who caused it and why. Ronald Reagan did not even say the word “AIDS” out loud for the first seven years of his reign. Because of this some 70 million people, so far, have become infected with HIV/AIDS. I wonder what it feels like to be the son and the wife of a man responsible for over 70 million people so far becoming infected with a virus that has killed over half of us so far. I wonder what it felt like while he was alive to ponder this. For surely he must have thought about it. How could he not? He has been called the consummate actor who came to believe all his lines. Does this not make his legacy even more grotesque? It should.
Hitler knew what he was doing. How could Ronald Reagan not have known what he was doing?
But of course no one is writing about this. Reagan too is one of history's gods.
So far he has got away with murder.
It appears as though I was wrong in an earlier post about when Reagan may have first spoken the word AIDS in public.
Several friends and AIDS activists have informed me that Reagan's February 6, 1986, directive to Congress was only a written message. Reagan did not actually speak those words publicly.
So 'm back to saying his first public utterance of the word AIDS was at AmFAR's 1987 benefit in Washington.
My friend James Wentzy, of ACT UP New York, has footage of Reagan saying AIDS at the 1987 event. You can email him at actupny@panix.com.
Several friends and AIDS activists have informed me that Reagan's February 6, 1986, directive to Congress was only a written message. Reagan did not actually speak those words publicly.
So 'm back to saying his first public utterance of the word AIDS was at AmFAR's 1987 benefit in Washington.
My friend James Wentzy, of ACT UP New York, has footage of Reagan saying AIDS at the 1987 event. You can email him at actupny@panix.com.
There's been some debate lately over when Reagan first uttered the word AIDS in public, and I've always thought it was in the spring of 1987.
AmFAR, with great assistance from their spokesperson Liz Taylor, organized a benefit in Washington, at which Reagan spoke about AIDS. Among the guests was Larry Kramer.
Well, conservative supporters of the Gipper claim otherwise. They say Reagan initially addressed AIDS in a February 6, 1986, speech to the nation, two days after he delivered his State of the Union address.
Here's the pertinent excerpt from that talk:
"We will continue, as a high priority, the fight against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). An unprecedented research effort is underway to deal with this major epidemic public health threat. The number of AIDS cases is expected to increase. While there are hopes for drugs and vaccines against AIDS, none is immediately at hand. Consequently, efforts should focus on prevention, to inform and to lower risks of further transmission of the AIDS virus. To this end, I am asking the Surgeon General to prepare a report to the American people on AIDS."
(Source: Reagan speeches)
So it appears Reagan did mention the AIDS epidemic prior to 1987. Still, for many dead Americans and others around the world, including Rock Hudson, it was too little, too late.
For what it's worth, the New York Times ran a correction earlier this year making the claim that Reagan issued an AIDS directive in 1986.
^^^
New York Times
SCIENCE DESK | December 16, 2003, Tuesday
ESSAY; AIDS After 'Angels': Not Gone, Not Forgotten
By DUDLEY CLENDINEN (NYT) 1691 words
Late Edition - Final , Section F , Page 1 , Column 3
DISPLAYING FIRST 50 OF 1691 WORDS - The young clerk at one of the video stores near me vanished last month, after two-and-a-half years in which he went from noticeably thin to gaunt, with red welts that appeared and disappeared, and a personality that changed, behind the counter, from polite to brittle, and then to something more...
Correction: January 8, 2004, Thursday
An essay in Science Times on Dec. 16 about changes in the lives of people with AIDS since the mid-1980's, when the play ''Angels in America'' was set, referred incorrectly to the history of President Ronald Reagan's public statements about the disease. He indeed mentioned it in public in the mid-1980's; occurrences included a directive by the president in 1986 for the surgeon general to prepare a major report on AIDS that would outline research efforts and ways to seek a cure for the disease.
AmFAR, with great assistance from their spokesperson Liz Taylor, organized a benefit in Washington, at which Reagan spoke about AIDS. Among the guests was Larry Kramer.
Well, conservative supporters of the Gipper claim otherwise. They say Reagan initially addressed AIDS in a February 6, 1986, speech to the nation, two days after he delivered his State of the Union address.
Here's the pertinent excerpt from that talk:
"We will continue, as a high priority, the fight against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). An unprecedented research effort is underway to deal with this major epidemic public health threat. The number of AIDS cases is expected to increase. While there are hopes for drugs and vaccines against AIDS, none is immediately at hand. Consequently, efforts should focus on prevention, to inform and to lower risks of further transmission of the AIDS virus. To this end, I am asking the Surgeon General to prepare a report to the American people on AIDS."
(Source: Reagan speeches)
So it appears Reagan did mention the AIDS epidemic prior to 1987. Still, for many dead Americans and others around the world, including Rock Hudson, it was too little, too late.
For what it's worth, the New York Times ran a correction earlier this year making the claim that Reagan issued an AIDS directive in 1986.
^^^
New York Times
SCIENCE DESK | December 16, 2003, Tuesday
ESSAY; AIDS After 'Angels': Not Gone, Not Forgotten
By DUDLEY CLENDINEN (NYT) 1691 words
Late Edition - Final , Section F , Page 1 , Column 3
DISPLAYING FIRST 50 OF 1691 WORDS - The young clerk at one of the video stores near me vanished last month, after two-and-a-half years in which he went from noticeably thin to gaunt, with red welts that appeared and disappeared, and a personality that changed, behind the counter, from polite to brittle, and then to something more...
Correction: January 8, 2004, Thursday
An essay in Science Times on Dec. 16 about changes in the lives of people with AIDS since the mid-1980's, when the play ''Angels in America'' was set, referred incorrectly to the history of President Ronald Reagan's public statements about the disease. He indeed mentioned it in public in the mid-1980's; occurrences included a directive by the president in 1986 for the surgeon general to prepare a major report on AIDS that would outline research efforts and ways to seek a cure for the disease.
Sunday, June 06, 2004
While millions of others around the globe are mourning the death of Ronald Reagan, and the media have gone into overkill praising the man and his life, his record on AIDS has been ignored.
I did a search on aegis.org for a possible apology from Reagan, after he left the White House, for his neglect of the AIDS epidemic during his tenure. Gay journalist Rex Wockner sent a query to his audience asking if anyone remembers Reagan issuing such an apology, and I couldn't, but knew if he had, then something about it would be on the aegis.org site.
Lo and behold, in 1990 San Francisco newspapers ran the item below, saying some AIDS bureaucrats interpreted Reagan's appearance in a public service announcement for an AIDS organization as an apology. I think the papers and bureaucrats read too much into Reagan's statements in the ad.
Let's ask and hope that the mainstream media soon end their fawning approach to his legacy and look critically at Reagan's shameful record on AIDS and how he did nothing until it was too late.
^^^^
"AIDSWEEK: Reagan--Better Late Than Never?"
San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle (02/04/90), P. A4
Hilton, Bruce
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract: Insiders say Ronald Reagan's AIDS public service announcement amounts to an apology for his neglect of the epidemic while in the White House. The announcement was aired last Monday for the benefit of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Reagan said, "We can all grow and learn in our lives and I've learned all kinds of people can get AIDS, even children." The former president says you can't get AIDS from hugging someone and asks for compassion for people with AIDS....The $7 million in profit from actor Paul Newman's food company went to charity; more than $600,000 went to AIDS-related groups....Reports persisted at the funeral of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that he died of HIV-related conditions. Although Rajneesh was seriously ill for several years, there is no way to confirm the rumors because his body was cremated three hours after his death.
-
"AIDS Protesters Greet Reagan at Penn's Anniversary Fete"
United Press International (05/17/90)
Baker, Paul
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract: Philadelphia--Roughly 200 AIDS activists and other protesters greeted Ronald Reagan yesterday at the University of Pennsylvania's 250th anniversary celebration. Protesters demonstrated outside as Reagan spoke because they said he did virtually nothing for AIDS research during his presidency. "We are here to condemn Ronald Reagan for crimes against humanity," said Michael Marsico, spokesman for ACT UP. "We don't think he should be honored because of his horrendous record, especially concerning AIDS." Police said 20 demonstrators had been arrested by mid-morning for obstructing a highway and that they expected more arrests. Protesters held a die-in, drawing chalk outlines of human bodies on the sidewalk, and chanted "Seventy-thousand dead, where was Ron?"
-
"500 Protesters Have Different View of Event"
Los Angeles Times (11/05/91), P. A27
Lozano, Carlos V.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract: A $57 million library that was dedicated by former President Ronald Reagan on Monday received much criticizm from groups of protesters. More than 500 demonstraters gathered at the ceremonies in the Simi Valley to protest the policies of the current and former cheif executives. The protesters that received the most attention were those who expressed outrage at Reagan's and President Bush's policies on AIDS. One protest sign read, "Reagan Can't Remember, History Won't Forget." Approximately 200 gay rights protesters from ACT UP/LA and Queer Nation were seen carrying cardboard tombstones and foam skulls to remind the executives of the many people who have died from AIDS. Reagan failed to take a stance on the issue of AIDS when it first arrived in the early 1980s, said the demonstrators. One protester said that Reagan "took 5 1/2 years just to say the word AIDS. He was more concerned about the Evil Empire than with his own people." Another protester pointed out that the money spent for the library could have easily saved many lives.
-
Gone Too Far
Washington Times (07/19/94) P. A6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ex-president Ronald Reagan has hired Los Angeles law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to file a lawsuit on his behalf against Italian fashion firm Benetton over a recent ad campaign in which the company portrays Reagan as an AIDS patient. The controversial picture of the former chief, retouched to give the impression of AIDS-related lesions, was accompanied by an editorial "obituary." Oliviero Toscani, Benetton's editorial director, said the picture aligns with Reagan's failure to promote condom use. "He did nothing to sensitize the people to the risk of contracting" AIDS, he said.
I did a search on aegis.org for a possible apology from Reagan, after he left the White House, for his neglect of the AIDS epidemic during his tenure. Gay journalist Rex Wockner sent a query to his audience asking if anyone remembers Reagan issuing such an apology, and I couldn't, but knew if he had, then something about it would be on the aegis.org site.
Lo and behold, in 1990 San Francisco newspapers ran the item below, saying some AIDS bureaucrats interpreted Reagan's appearance in a public service announcement for an AIDS organization as an apology. I think the papers and bureaucrats read too much into Reagan's statements in the ad.
Let's ask and hope that the mainstream media soon end their fawning approach to his legacy and look critically at Reagan's shameful record on AIDS and how he did nothing until it was too late.
^^^^
"AIDSWEEK: Reagan--Better Late Than Never?"
San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle (02/04/90), P. A4
Hilton, Bruce
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract: Insiders say Ronald Reagan's AIDS public service announcement amounts to an apology for his neglect of the epidemic while in the White House. The announcement was aired last Monday for the benefit of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Reagan said, "We can all grow and learn in our lives and I've learned all kinds of people can get AIDS, even children." The former president says you can't get AIDS from hugging someone and asks for compassion for people with AIDS....The $7 million in profit from actor Paul Newman's food company went to charity; more than $600,000 went to AIDS-related groups....Reports persisted at the funeral of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that he died of HIV-related conditions. Although Rajneesh was seriously ill for several years, there is no way to confirm the rumors because his body was cremated three hours after his death.
-
"AIDS Protesters Greet Reagan at Penn's Anniversary Fete"
United Press International (05/17/90)
Baker, Paul
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract: Philadelphia--Roughly 200 AIDS activists and other protesters greeted Ronald Reagan yesterday at the University of Pennsylvania's 250th anniversary celebration. Protesters demonstrated outside as Reagan spoke because they said he did virtually nothing for AIDS research during his presidency. "We are here to condemn Ronald Reagan for crimes against humanity," said Michael Marsico, spokesman for ACT UP. "We don't think he should be honored because of his horrendous record, especially concerning AIDS." Police said 20 demonstrators had been arrested by mid-morning for obstructing a highway and that they expected more arrests. Protesters held a die-in, drawing chalk outlines of human bodies on the sidewalk, and chanted "Seventy-thousand dead, where was Ron?"
-
"500 Protesters Have Different View of Event"
Los Angeles Times (11/05/91), P. A27
Lozano, Carlos V.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract: A $57 million library that was dedicated by former President Ronald Reagan on Monday received much criticizm from groups of protesters. More than 500 demonstraters gathered at the ceremonies in the Simi Valley to protest the policies of the current and former cheif executives. The protesters that received the most attention were those who expressed outrage at Reagan's and President Bush's policies on AIDS. One protest sign read, "Reagan Can't Remember, History Won't Forget." Approximately 200 gay rights protesters from ACT UP/LA and Queer Nation were seen carrying cardboard tombstones and foam skulls to remind the executives of the many people who have died from AIDS. Reagan failed to take a stance on the issue of AIDS when it first arrived in the early 1980s, said the demonstrators. One protester said that Reagan "took 5 1/2 years just to say the word AIDS. He was more concerned about the Evil Empire than with his own people." Another protester pointed out that the money spent for the library could have easily saved many lives.
-
Gone Too Far
Washington Times (07/19/94) P. A6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ex-president Ronald Reagan has hired Los Angeles law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to file a lawsuit on his behalf against Italian fashion firm Benetton over a recent ad campaign in which the company portrays Reagan as an AIDS patient. The controversial picture of the former chief, retouched to give the impression of AIDS-related lesions, was accompanied by an editorial "obituary." Oliviero Toscani, Benetton's editorial director, said the picture aligns with Reagan's failure to promote condom use. "He did nothing to sensitize the people to the risk of contracting" AIDS, he said.
Friday, June 04, 2004
[This letter snail mailed to Renne today.]
June 4, 2004
Louise Renne
Police Commission
850 Bryant Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Dear Ms. Renne:
I attended the June 2 meeting of the commission and during public comment suggested that commission meetings be broadcast as they happen on the San Francisco Government TV outlet, channel 26.
As you may recall, other members of the public applauded when I made my suggestion, which I believe shows some degree of support for airing the meetings live on public access television.
Since the commission now meets regularly in Room 400 of City Hall, and the hearing room is fully equipped with cameras, it should be a simple matter of flipping a switch to broadcast the meetings.
This letter is a formal request to you, as president of the police commission, and other members of the body, to immediately begin airing all commission meetings.
Doing so would greatly aid the public, the commission, the police department, the press, police accountability activists, along with the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors, in better understanding the workings of the commission and the police force.
I can see no reason why the commission meetings should not be broadcast on SFGTV, channel 26, and hope to soon watch commission meetings on television.
I look forward to a prompt reply.
Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
Ph: 415-621-6267
Email: mpetrelis@aol.com
2215-R Market Street, #413
San Francisco, CA 94114
Cc:
Kevin Allen, Office of Citizen Complaints
Tom Ammiano, Supervisor
Joe Caruso, Mayor’s Office
Matt Gonzalez, Supervisor
Steve Kawa, Mayor’s Office
Sophie Maxwell, Supervisor
Jim Pimentel, San Francisco Examiner
Mary Ratcliff, Bay View
Tim Redmond, Bay Guardian
June 4, 2004
Louise Renne
Police Commission
850 Bryant Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Dear Ms. Renne:
I attended the June 2 meeting of the commission and during public comment suggested that commission meetings be broadcast as they happen on the San Francisco Government TV outlet, channel 26.
As you may recall, other members of the public applauded when I made my suggestion, which I believe shows some degree of support for airing the meetings live on public access television.
Since the commission now meets regularly in Room 400 of City Hall, and the hearing room is fully equipped with cameras, it should be a simple matter of flipping a switch to broadcast the meetings.
This letter is a formal request to you, as president of the police commission, and other members of the body, to immediately begin airing all commission meetings.
Doing so would greatly aid the public, the commission, the police department, the press, police accountability activists, along with the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors, in better understanding the workings of the commission and the police force.
I can see no reason why the commission meetings should not be broadcast on SFGTV, channel 26, and hope to soon watch commission meetings on television.
I look forward to a prompt reply.
Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
Ph: 415-621-6267
Email: mpetrelis@aol.com
2215-R Market Street, #413
San Francisco, CA 94114
Cc:
Kevin Allen, Office of Citizen Complaints
Tom Ammiano, Supervisor
Joe Caruso, Mayor’s Office
Matt Gonzalez, Supervisor
Steve Kawa, Mayor’s Office
Sophie Maxwell, Supervisor
Jim Pimentel, San Francisco Examiner
Mary Ratcliff, Bay View
Tim Redmond, Bay Guardian
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