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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 18, 2004)
4 J U S t « H t * JUM 18.2004 EJ 35 ÎÜI out Rewriting Reagan’s history To the E ditor : s a survivor of the 1980s AIDS tragedy, I am mad as hell with Ronald Reagan apologists who are exploiting the president’s death to rewrite the history of gay men who died from AIDS. For example, last December they succeeded in forcing CBS to censor the movie The Reagans, which was critical of his AIDS policies. In 1993, Reagan apologists forced NBC to move the AIDS history movie And the Band Played On to HBO. Reagan apologists are now whining that nobody should demean a deceased president. I agree, but the'Republicans’ canonization of Reagan will not change the historical facts. Nobody will ever know if Reagan actually said that AIDS is G ods retribution against homosexuals. But everybody knows that Rea gan’s inner staff included the notorious Pat Buchanan and Gary Bauer, who are still pro moting similar anti-gay religious beliefs today. The real issue is that Reagan did not break his silence about AIDS until three years after B ill F ry HIV was discovered. And two years after his Portland Hollywcxxl friend Rock Hudson died. Reagan apologists nitpick that Reagan m en tioned AIDS in some earlier papers. However, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop apparently wrote these obscure statements, and newspapers To the E ditor : never printed them. \ \ / hen society tries to ban a group of people Furthermore, Reagan’s first speech on AIDS V V from a right that should he protected for shamefully did not even mention homosexual all consenting adults (in this case marriage), this victims of AIDS. Instead, he prudishly recom is a form of discrimination. mended testing heterosexual marriage license W hy is it discrimination? To expect all applicants for HIV. members of the same society to pay taxes that Reagan’s “virtuous hut addicted to the sin of contribute to the commonwealth, hut limit the gambling” Education Secretary William Ben fundamental rights of certain individuals (in nett blocked all AIDS prevention education this case the gay population), is discrimination. until seven years after AIDS was first detected. Let’s start with the facts. Since 2000, accord Silence equaled death. ing to the National C enter for Health Statistics, President Bush’s political nominee Linda the rate of marriage is 8.4 people in 1,000. The Chavez recently excused Reagan’s silence by saying rate of divorce is 4 in 1,000. About half of the the lack of “safe-sex education” during his admin people getting married every year are getting istration did not matter because current HIV sta divorced. tistics from the Centers for Disease Control and I think before the people can cast the stones, Prevention suggest “safe sex" is “ignored by many they must look at what is really at stake. Are gay men.” This is an insult to the many gay men family values at stake? I think not. who implemented safe sex on their own initiative O ne must ask how many single-parent fami and significantly reduced the HIV infection rate. lies are in our society, given the facts presented Fox News host Bill O ’Reilly hypocritically jus by the government. Are these families had? tified censorship of The Reagans because a few “gay Should they not he recognized? activists” had “censored” Dr. Laura Schlesinger. He As a person growing up in a “traditional fam violated his own moral code of not justifying had ily," I found that many things define family values behavior with other people’s had behavior. Besides, that have nothing to do with the definition of Dr. Laura is still spouting her anti-gay bigotry on marriage. 1 felt that the most important thing was the radio despite the objections of many people. to have loving parents— he they man and Columnist Deroy Murdock defended Rea woman, man and man or woman and woman— gan’s AIDS budget by pointing to the large who made sure that I had food to eat and that I increases in money that was allocated to AIDS got a g(xxl education (to grow up and not dis by Congress. But in fact, Reagan repeatedly criminate against others and accept others for rejected the AIDS budget requests from a C o n their differences) and, above all, kept me safe gress that prudently feared AIDS. from all those who would do me harm. This could M ichael Reagan jealously defended his he accomplished by any two individuals commit father by also accusing gay “AIDS activists” of ted to each other enough to raise a “family.” selfishly demanding and getting more money Teaching discrimination is harmful. To say than any other disease. He misleadingly con that one type of family is better than another is cealed the fact that virtually all of this money wrong. W ho are we to judge? was already being spent on basic viral research It seems to me that marriage has become a programs. Studying HIV has proven to be a disposable institution among the heterosexual good way to improve our knowledge of all virus population. This is proven with the facts pre es, including those that cause cancer. sented by the government. I am tired of talking about AIDS. I just wish What harm will gay marriage do? None. The the Reagan apologists would shut up. harm is already done by the part of society that tries to discriminate against the rest of society in T hom as K ra em er the name of God. Corvallis Recognizing a part of society that already exists will only contribute to the common good and bring our society into an age of uncondi tional understanding and maturity. Let’s teach To the E ditor : our children love and compassion, not hate and know for a fact that many of my friends would indifference. There are already too many wars in be alive today if the Reagan administration our world. 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I will recall Oliver N orth and the Iran Contra scandal where he damaged our world image by selling arms to terrorists. A nd finally, 1 won’t forget that “Reaganomics” turned upside down the lives and financial nest eggs of millions of Americans when our economy came tumbling down. These are my memories of Ronald Reagan, and I am standing firm on the facts as they are. Let’s talk about the sanctity of marriage A matter of fact I
