-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- ------ ima lfl. 2004 'J— t out 3,
n Aug. 2, 1988, Reagan prohibited fed
eral agencies from discriminating against
employees infected with H IV hut
refused to seek a law banning such discrimina
tion nationwide, as recommended by his A ID S
commission. U .S. Rep. Henry W axman,
D-Calif., commented: “T h e Reagan administra
tion has done its best to avoid making even a
single helpful A ID S decision in the eight years
o f the Reagan presidency. They handpick a
commission and then don’t even have the
courage to accept its recommendations.”
Perhaps this was true because Reagan and
C o. saw A ID S as a laughing matter. T h e
transcript o f an O ct. 15, 1982, briefing with
press secretary Larry Speakes reveals the R ea
gan adm inistration’s dismissal o f the “gay
plague”:
“Q uestion: Larry, does the president have
any reaction to the ann ou ncem ent— the
C enters for Disease C on trol in A tlan ta, that
A ID S is now an epidem ic and have over
6 0 0 cases?
“Answer: W h at’s A ID S?
“Q : Over a third of them have died. It’s
known as ‘gay plague.’ [Laughter. I No, it is. I
mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in
every three people that get this have died. And
1 wondered if the president is aware o f it?
“A: 1 don’t have it. Do you? [Laughter. 1
“Q : No, I don’t.
“A: You didn’t answer my question.
“Q : Well, I just wondered, does the
president—
“A: How do you know? [Laughter.]
“Q : In other words, the W hite House looks
on this as a great joke?
O
A Letter to My Best Friend
O n June 11, while Bush-obeying federal
employees stayed hom e from work and flocked to
their “respective places o f worship ” to pay homage
to President Ronald Reagan, the N ational G ay
and Lesbian Task Force closed its offices “m
memory o f all those we have lost to AID S. ”
Executive director M att Foreman m arked the
occasion by writing this letter to his best friend,
Steven Powsner, who served as president o f the
N ew York City Lesbian and Gay Community
Services C enter from ¡9 9 2 to 1994. H e died o f
AIDS complications Nov. 20, 1995, at age 40.
D ear S teven :
I so much wish you were here today to tell
me what to do. You would know if it’s right to
comment on the death o f former President Rea
gan, or if I should just let pass the endless paeans
to his greatness. But you’re not here. T he poli
cies of the Reagan administration saw to th at
Yes, Steven, I do feel for the family and
friends o f the former president. T h e death of a
loved one is always a profoundly sad occasion,
and Mr. Reagan was loved by many. I have
tremendous empathy and respect for Mrs.
Reagan, who lovingly cared for him through
excruciating years o f Alzheimer’s.
Sorry, Steven, but even on this day I’m not
able to set aside the shaking anger I feel over
Reagan’s nonresponse to the A ID S epidemic or
for the continuing anti-gay legacy o f his admin
istration. Is it personal? O f course. A ID S was
first reported in 1981, but President Reagan
could not bring himself to address the plague
until March 31, 1987, at which time there were
C ontinued on P age 3 3
60,000 reported
cases of full-blown
A ID S and 30,000
deaths. I remem
ber that day,
Steven— you were
staying round-the-
clock in Memori
al Sloan Kettering
Hospital caring
for
your dying
Matt Foreman
partner o f over 15
years, Bruce Cooper. It was another 41 days of
utter agony for both of you before Bruce died.
During those years o f W hite House silence and
inaction, how many other dear friends did we
see sicken and die hideous deaths?
Is it personal? Yes, Steven. I know for a fact
that you would be alive today if the Reagan
administration had mounted even a tepid
response to the epidemic. If protease
inhibitors been available in July o f 1995
instead o f December, you’d still be here.
I wouldn’t feel so angry if the Reagan admin
istration’s failing was due to ignorance or bureau
cratic ineptitude. No, Steven, we knew then it
was deliberate. The government’s response was
dictated by the grip of evangelical Christian con
servatives who saw gay people as sinners and
A ID S as God’s well-deserved punishment.
Remember? The W hite House director o f com
munications, Patrick Buchanan, once argued in
print that A ID S is nature’s revenge on gay men.
Reagan’s secretary of education, William Ben
nett, and his domestic policy adviser, Gary
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Bauer, made sure that science (and basic tenets
of Christianity, for that matter) never got in the
way of politics or what they saw as “God’s” work.
Even so, I think I could let go of this anger if
this was just another overwhelmingly sad chapter
in our nation’s past. It is not. Steven, can you
believe that the unholy pact President Reagan
and the Republican Party entered with the forces
o f religious intolerance have not weakened, but
grown exponentially stronger? Can you believe
that the U .S. government is still bowing to right-
wing extremists and fighting condom distribu
tion and explicit HIV education, even while
A ID S is killing millions across the world? O r
that “devout” Christians have forced the scrap
ping of A ID S prevention programs targeted at
HIV-negative gay and bisexual men in favor of
bullshit "abstinence only until marriage” initia
tives? Or the shameless duplicity of these same
forces seeking to forever outlaw even the hope of
marriage for gay people? O r that Reagan stal
warts like Buchanan, Bennett and Bauer are still
grinding their homophobic axes?
No, Steven, I do not presume to judge
Ronald Reagan’s soul or heart. He may very well
have been a nice guy. In fact, I don't think that
Reagan hated gay people— I’m sure some o f his
and Nancy’s best friends were gay. But I do
know that the Reagan administration’s policies
on A ID S and anything gay-related resulted—
and continue to result— in despair and death.
O h , Steven, how much I wish so much you
were here.
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