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January 2004

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The Truth About Reagan And AIDS

By Michael Bronski
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T he last two months I’ve been teaching a course entitled “Plagues and Politics: The Impact of AIDS on U.S. Culture.” So when the political flap over the historic accuracy of “The Reagans”—the CBS mini-series, starring James Brolin and Judy Davis, which was pulled from the network’s lineup and dumped into their cable outlet—hit the headlines I was intrigued to see that one of the main complaints was that the original script (no one has actually seen the final version of the series) accuses President Reagan of religious intolerance and prejudice against homosexuals. In a scene in which Nancy asks Ron to do something to help people with AIDS, he responds by answering, “Those who live in sin shall die in sin.”

Elizabeth Egloff, who authored the script, has conceded that Reagan’s answer is a fictionalized invention and, indeed, Reagan rarely used religious sentiments or metaphors in political situations. The show’s critics have made a strong, salient point—having Ronald Reagan use the language of conservative Christianity to explain why his Administration did almost nothing for the first seven years of the AIDS epidemic is historically irresponsible and misleading. 

From everything that we can ascertain from the historical record, Reagan’s religious background, feelings, or beliefs had nothing to do with his political response to the AIDS epidemic. His appalling policies led to enormous setbacks for HIV/AIDS science and research, discrimination against people with AIDS, and the lack of any comprehensive outreach for prevention or education work, all adding to the already staggering amount of mounting deaths. His policies on AIDS were a product of indifference, disdain, self-imposed ignorance, and political capitulation to a staunchly reactionary and religious Republican constituency that was to reshape not only the party, but also the state of U.S. politics. 

Although AIDS was first reported in the medical and popular press in 1981, it was only in October 1987 that President Reagan publicly spoke about the epidemic. By the end of that year 59,572 AIDS cases had been reported and 27,909 of those women and men had died. How could this happen? How could Reagan not say anything? Do anything? 

The Reagan administration’s reaction to AIDS is complex and goes far beyond Reagan’s refusal to speak out about the epidemic. A great deal of his power base was born-again Christian Republican conservatives who embraced a reactionary social agenda that included a virulent, demonizing homophobia. In the media, people like Reverends Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell portrayed gay people as diseased sinners and promoted the idea that AIDS was a punishment from God and that the gay rights movement had to be stopped. In the Republican Party, zealous right-wingers, such as Representative William Dannenmeyer (CA) and Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), hammered home this same message. In the Reagan White House, people such as Secretary of Education William Bennett and Gary Bauer, his chief domestic advisor, worked to enact it in the Administration’s policies. 

In practical terms this meant AIDS research was chronically underfunded. When doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute for Health asked for more funding for their work on AIDS, they were routinely denied it. Between June 1981 and May 1982, the CDC spent less than $1 million on AIDS, but $9 million on Legionnaire’s Disease. At that point over 1,000 of the 2,000 AIDS cases reported resulted in death; there were fewer than 50 deaths from Legionnaire’s Disease. This drastic lack of funding would continue through the Reagan years. 

When health and support groups in the gay community instigated education and prevention programs, they were denied federal funding. In October 1987 Jesse Helms amended a federal appropriation bill that prohibited AIDS education efforts that “encourage or promoted homosexual activity”(that is, tell gay men how to have safe sex). 

When almost all medical opinion spoke out against mandatory HIV testing (since it would drive those at risk away from being tested) and the ACLU and Lambda Legal Defense were fighting discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, Republicans such as Vice President George Bush in 1987 and William Dannenmeyer (in a California state referendum in 1988) called for mandatory HIV testing. 

Throughout all of this Ronald Reagan did nothing. When Rock Hudson, a friend and colleague of the Reagan’s, was diagnosed and died in 1985 (one of the 20,740 cases reported that year), Reagan still did not speak out. When family friend William F. Buckley, in a March 18, 1986 New York Times article, called for mandatory testing of HIV and said that HIV+ gay men should have this information forcibly tattooed on their buttocks (and IV drug users on their arms), Reagan said nothing. In 1986 (after five years of complete silence) when Surgeon General C. Everett Koop released a report calling for AIDS education in schools, Bennett and Bauer did everything possible to undercut and prevent funding for Koop’s too-little too-late initiative. By the end of 1986, 37,061 AIDS cases had been reported; 16,301 people had died. 

The most memorable Reagan AIDS moment was at the 1986 centenary rededication of the Statue of Liberty. The Reagan’s were there sitting next to the French Prime Minister and his wife, Francois and Danielle Mitterrand. Bob Hope was on stage entertaining the all-star audience. In the middle of a series of one-liners, Hope quipped, “I just heard that the Statue of Liberty has AIDS, but she doesn’t know if she got it from the mouth of the Hudson or the Staten Island Fairy.” As the television camera panned the audience, the Mitterrands looked appalled. The Reagans were laughing. By the end of 1989, 115,786 women and men had been diagnosed with AIDS in the United States—more then 70,000 of them had died. 

The Republican protest against “The Reagans” is really nothing more than a grotesque political sideshow with conservatives flexing their muscles (and threatening an economic boycott) to protect their version of history. The television miniseries, even one based in contemporary history, is by its nature a project of interpretation, a fact that seems to have escaped the protestors. But the irony is that their complaints about Ronald Regan being branded anti-gay because of his religious convictions, while wrong, is the generous interpretation. It is clear that Reagan’s inactions during the first decade of the AIDS epidemic were due to indifference, emotional callousness, and greed for political power. In a way, I agree with those who protested “The Reagans”—CBS should have told us the truth.

Michael Bronski is an activist and writer. His most recent book is Pulp Friction . 

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