1982 Reagan White House Press Conference

Gay men dying was a big joke to the press and WH back in 1982.  Reading this transcript brings my blood to the boiling point all over again.  That kind of anger never goes away.  Valuable time lost to insensitivity and homophobia.

Between 1980 when it all began to hit the fan, known then as GRID (Gay Related Immune Disease, or something close to that), and 1992  I lost virtually all of my old friends.  The image at right suggests how many of us, those who eventually died ignored, and those of us survivors and care-givers who were also ignored feel about Ronald Reagan and his non-AIDS policy. 

Just a snippet: (As usual, click the image below to embiggen.)

None of these people are laughing any longer, except Reagan, and only because he can't remember that he's dead.

It would be 5 long years before Reagan publicly uttered the word AIDS.  And only because he was forced to acknowledge the enormity of the epidemic in 1987.  So many lives lost that may have been prevented if he had ordered research early.  The fact that he never really put force behind research - even cutting funds to the CDC - and mocking his own Surgeon General, for suggesting sex education in middle school.

This is why St. Ronnie isn't a saint to anyone touched, or hammered by AIDS.

h/t JMG.

And so it goes.
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