juna IB . 2004
PHOTO BY REX WOCKNER
Continued from Page 31
“A: No, I don’t know anything
about it, Lester.
“Q: Does the president, does
anyone in the W hite House know
about this epidemic, Larry?
“A: I don’t think so ....”
hen finally forced to break
its silence about the reality
of AIDS, Reagan’s G O P
amped up the homophobic hysteria.
During the 1988 Republican N ation
al Convention in New Orleans, a
crowd listening to a speech by the
outgoing president turned on a group
of 15 protesters from the AIDS
Coalition to Unleash Power. Five
A C T UP members were arrested in
the ensuing melee. All 15 of the pro
testers were punched and kicked by
the angry mob.
“If we had stayed there one
minute longer, we would have been
killed,” A C T U P’s Neil Broome said.
“These people were rabid.... They
wanted to beat the living shit out of
us. In all my time with A C T UP, I’ve
ACT UP
never seen anything like this.”
The fight broke out as Reagan addressed
thousands of convention delegates and other
supporters during official opening ceremonies.
All three major TV networks and C N N carried
the outbreak live.
“All we were doing was standing there with
our AIDSGATE signs,” A C T U P’s Heidi
Dorow said. “Suddenly this group of young
men in suits started shouting things like, ‘Let’s
protesters demonstrate at the 1988 Republican National Convention in N ew Orleans
get the faggots’ and ‘Queers go home.’ We
responded by chanting, ‘History will recall,
Reagan and Bush did nothing at all.’ ”
A C T U P’s Frank Smithson added: “A t that
point, the crowd became really ugly. They
started grabbing our signs and ripping them up
and then punching us.”
T he activists attempted to retreat but were
surrounded by hundreds of Republicans. “They
had the most intense looks of hatred,” Broome
said. “They were calling us commies, faggots
and queers. A t one point, several of them
began chanting, ‘You deserve to die.’ I was lit
erally afraid for my life."
1
1 o be fair, Reagan eventually spoke up about
AIDS— but he waited until he was safely
out of the White House to do so. In 1990
he made a public service announcement for the
Pediatric AIDS Foundation saying: “We can all
grow and learn in our lives, and I’ve learned all
kinds of people can get AIDS, even children....
I’m not asking you to send money. I’m asking for
something more important: your understanding.
Maybe it’s time we all learned something new.”
Continued on Page 35
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