Ronald Reagan and AIDS

These policies included notifications to those at risk of infection and barring federal discrimination against civilian employees with AIDS, though these actions have been criticized as not wide enough in their scope and too late in the crisis to prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

As gay men, transgender women, and LGBT people in general were disproportionately afflicted with AIDS, some critics have suggested that Reagan's lack of action was motivated by homophobia, though other commentators have put forth alternate explanations such as political inconvenience or ignorance.

Criticism of Reagan's AIDS policies led to the creation of art condemning the government's inaction such as The Normal Heart, as well as invigorating a new wave of the gay rights movement.

AIDS was first identified in mid-1981, as doctors in Los Angeles and New York City noticed a series of clusters of unusual infections, specifically Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia, in sexually active gay men, diseases which are normally only found in immunocompromised patients.

[10][13] The conservative Christian movement Moral Majority, led by Jerry Falwell, also backed Reagan, running television ads, fundraising and registration drives on his behalf.

[19][20][23] On June 21, 1983, Reagan held a meeting with the National Gay Task Force representatives Virginia Apuzzo and Jeff Levi, alongside members of his own administration, including staff from the Department of Health and Human Services.

[33] Though Curran was initially hesitant to enlist congressional help for fear of alienating the gay community, many of whom were distrustful of the government, he later contacted Waxman in 1982 to work with him on AIDS research funding.

[38][39] This scenario continued to play in funding battles out over the following years until 1986, as described by Randy Shilts: Congress would have to discern for itself how much money government doctors needed to fight AIDS.

[12] In 1985, as his disease worsened, Hudson travelled to Paris, where he sought to seek treatment from Dominique Dormant, a French Army doctor who had secretly treated him for AIDS in the fall of 1984 with HPA-23.

[56][57] In a follow-up question, the same reporter noted that Gallo was specifically discussing Reagan's proposed amount of funding and increases, and had called it "not nearly enough at this stage to go forward and really attack the problem".

[56] Some scholars, including historians and those involved in the CDC's work such as HIV/AIDS researcher Don Francis, have challenged the idea that AIDS was a "top priority" for the Reagan administration.

[59][60] Administration officials, including Bauer and Bennett, believed that Koop, a conservative Presbyterian, would write a report that would emphasize morality and sex only within the confines of heterosexual marriage as the solution to AIDS.

[63] Richard Dunne, invited as a representative of Gay Men's Health Crisis, said of his meeting with Koop, "One of the things that impressed me is that he really listened, and most people at that level find it hard to do so.

Phyllis Schlafly, the chairperson of the conservative Eagle Forum think tank, was said to have been incensed by the report, saying it "looks and reads like it was edited by the Gay Task Force".

[63][65] After the release of the report however, Koop gained a reputation among liberals as "the only straight shooter in the Reagan administration," and some, including Waxman and Kennedy, even apologized for their opposition to his nomination.

[86] According to historian Jennifer Brier, most members of the commission were chosen for their conservative backgrounds, though the appointment of Eugene Mayberry, the head of the Mayo Clinic, as the chairperson of the committee provided some advocates with a source of optimism.

[85] On October 8, 1987, after months of infighting and little progress, Mayberry resigned from the post alongside Health Commissioner of Indiana Woodrow Myers, with both saying they were unable to accomplish their goals in a group that also contained people acting on political, rather than medical, motivations.

[95] Biographer H. W. Brands concluded that Reagan was personally "more tolerant" of gay people "than many in his generation", citing his opposition of the California Briggs Initiative, but nevertheless "catered, if not pandered" to the homophobic elements of the American Republican Party of which he was a member.

[12] In October 1986, Bob Woodward reported in the Washington Post on an exchange between Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz which appeared to make light of the AIDS crisis.

[102] These public disagreements frustrated the elder Reagan, who wrote in his diary on July 18, 1987, that he disagreed with his son's stances, complaining that "[Ron] can be stubborn on a couple of issues & won't listen to anyone's argument.

"[108] Through the lack of both policy and financial support, the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was severely handicapped during the early years of the AIDS epidemic.

[9][110][121] Some critics have accused Reagan of being motivated by homophobia to not respond to the pandemic, though this assessment is controversial, with other commentators citing other factors such as political inconvenience or ignorance as the cause.

[122] Historian Johnathan Engel wrote that "although [Reagan] eschewed the vitriolic gay-baiting rhetotic of the far right," his AIDS response "exposed his latent homophobia, or disengagement, or both.

"[123] According to historian Jennifer Brier, Reagan's response to AIDS is generally considered a negative mark on his presidency, and is an area which was largely avoided or minimized by his biographers.

[74] Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, has been quoted as saying about Reagan's response to the AIDS crisis, "it was clear there was a sort of muted silence about things.

"[75] Henry Waxman, the chair of the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Health during the 1980s, said that the government's AIDS response would have been different "if the same disease had appeared among Americans of Norwegian descent, or among tennis players".

[130] Avram Finkelstein, one of the creators of the Silence=Death and AIDSGATE posters (pictured left), cited Reagan's silence on AIDS while his friends and partner died as a "private devastation" which motivated him to start the Silence=Death project.

[134] At one point during the march, Marine One flew over the National Mall and the AIDS quilt on its way to the White House, which sparked anger among marchers who perceived the act as Reagan ignoring their cause.

[133] On April 21, 1985, playwright Larry Kramer debuted his autobiographical play The Normal Heart, a major subject of which is the lack of attention given to AIDS by the American public and the Reagan administration.

[120][121] Comedian and then-host of The Daily Show Jon Stewart quipped of the situation and Reagan's legacy on AIDS, "CBS made someone totally indifferent look callous".