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Reagan's AIDS Legacy
Silence equals
death
Allen White
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/08/EDG777163F1.DTL
As America
remembers the life of Ronald Reagan, it must never forget his
shameful abdication of leadership in the fight against AIDS.
History may ultimately judge his presidency by the thousands who
have and will die of AIDS.
Following discovery
of the first cases in 1981, it soon became clear a national
health crisis was developing. But President Reagan's response
was "halting and ineffective," according to his biographer Lou
Cannon. Those infected initially with this mysterious disease --
all gay men -- found themselves targeted with an unprecedented
level of mean-spirited hostility.
A significant
source of Reagan's support came from the newly identified
religious right and the Moral Majority, a political-action group
founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. AIDS became the tool, and gay
men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and
discrimination. Falwell said "AIDS is the wrath of God upon
homosexuals." Reagan's communications director Pat Buchanan
argued that AIDS is "nature's revenge on gay men."
With each passing
month, death and suffering increased at a frightening rate.
Scientists, researchers and health care professionals at every
level expressed the need for funding. The response of the Reagan
administration was indifference.
By Feb. 1, 1983,
1,025 AIDS cases were reported, and at least 394 had died in the
United States. Reagan said nothing. On April 23, 1984, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced 4,177
reported cases in America and 1,807 deaths. In San Francisco,
the health department reported more than 500 cases. Again,
Reagan said nothing. That same year, 1984, the Democratic
National Convention convened in San Francisco. Hoping to focus
attention on the need for AIDS research, education and
treatment, more than 100,000 sympathizers marched from the
Castro to Moscone Center.
With each
diagnosis, the pain and suffering spread across America.
Everyone seemed to now know someone infected with AIDS. At a
White House state dinner, first lady Nancy Reagan expressed
concern for a guest showing signs of significant weight loss. On
July 25, 1985, the American Hospital in Paris announced that
Rock Hudson had AIDS.
With AIDS finally
out of the closet, activists such as Paul Boneberg, who in 1984
started Mobilization Against AIDS in San Francisco, begged
President Reagan to say something now that he, like thousands of
Americans, knew a person with AIDS. Writing in the Washington
Post in late 1985, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, stated: "It
is surprising that the president could remain silent as 6,000
Americans died, that he could fail to acknowledge the epidemic's
existence. Perhaps his staff felt he had to, since many of his
New Right supporters have raised money by campaigning against
homosexuals."
Reagan would
ultimately address the issue of AIDS while president. His
remarks came May 31, 1987 (near the end of his second term), at
the Third International Conference on AIDS in Washington. When
he spoke, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and
20,849 had died. The disease had spread to 113 countries, with
more than 50,000 cases.
As millions
eulogize Reagan this week, the tragedy lies in what he might
have done. Today, the World Health Organization estimates that
more than 40 million people are living with HIV worldwide. An
estimated 5 million people were newly infected and 3 million
people died of AIDS in 2003 alone.
Reagan could have
chosen to end the homophobic rhetoric that flowed from so many
in his administration. Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan's surgeon
general, has said that because of "intradepartmental politics"
he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years
of the Reagan administration. The reason, he explained, was
"because transmission of AIDS was understood to be primarily in
the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous
drugs." The president's advisers, Koop said, "took the stand,
'They are only getting what they justly deserve.' "
How profoundly
different might have been the outcome if his leadership had
generated compassion rather than hostility. "In the history of
the AIDS epidemic, President Reagan's legacy is one of silence,"
Michael Cover, former associate executive director for public
affairs at Whitman-Walker Clinic, the groundbreaking AIDS
health-care organization in Washington. in 2003. "It is the
silence of tens of thousands who died alone and unacknowledged,
stigmatized by our government under his administration."
Revisionist history
about Reagan must be rejected. Researchers, historians and AIDS
experts who know the truth must not remain silent. Too many have
died for that.
Allen White is a
San Francisco writer.
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