Hate is an awfully strong word and I try very hard not to use it.
I’m human and there are some people, living and dead, that I do hate or that I have hated.
Ronald Reagan, one of the most popular and beloved presidents, is one of those people.
More on that in a moment, but we’ve hit a milestone in the United States.
While it likely started in the late-1970s, a new disease was introduced to the public this week in 1981 — an epidemic that ended up killing hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends and lovers.
And, for many years, it was ignored by the U.S. president (Reagan) and the government!
These days, those deaths are still happening for people that are diagnosed too late or that don’t have access to life-saving and costly drugs (without insurance). However, with proper medication and healthier living, HIV (and AIDS) is now a livable condition that’s more of a medical inconvenience.
But, let’s flashback to the spring and early summer of 1981.
Doctors in New York and California started noticing that some of their young, gay patients were coming in with weakened immune systems and were developing pneumonia and cancer.
On July 5, 1981, “The New York Times” published one of the first articles on this new disease that didn’t even have a name. In 1982, it was incorrectly labeled “GRID” (gay-related immune deficiency) — how homophobic and ignorant!
While the Times was one of the first to mention this “rare cancer”, the U.S. media, including the Times, did a poor job getting the message out about this new fatal disease.
“GRID” was changed to “AIDS” (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) once doctors realized that it didn’t only affect gay men.
The early 1980s was a scary time because there was so much that doctors didn’t know and this led to fear and misconceptions about how you could get it.
It’s taken me almost 30 years, but I can now say that I no longer hate Ronald Reagan!
I’ve always questioned his legacy. At the time, I would have loved to ask him about his actions, or lack of actions, in the 1980s that led to my hateful feelings toward him.
While AIDS (unnamed at the time) was identified in the summer of 1981, President Reagan didn’t mention the deadly disease publicly until a press conference, years later, in 1985.
That same year, teenager Ryan White, a hemophiliac who contracted the disease through a blood transfusion, was barred from his Indiana school.
And, actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS, making him the highest profile person to succumb to the disease and his face became synonymous with AIDS in the years to come.
Still, nothing from the White House! President Reagan didn’t give his first speech on AIDS until early 1987, almost six years into the epidemic!
His ignorance, his fear of AIDS, and the government’s slow reaction to fighting the disease in the 1980s led to the deaths of more than 90,600 people, mostly gay men, in the United States that decade.
HOPE — THE FIRST ROUND OF MEDS
In 1987, AZT, the first AIDS drug was introduced and ACT UP, an activist group, formed to protest the $10,000/year price tag.
In the years to come, more medications would become available — the drug “cocktails” in the mid-1990s were more effective, but patients would take up to 60 pills daily!
In 2006-2007, it was estimated that the cost of extending the life of an HIV patient for 24 years was $618,900!
HIV & AIDS — 40 YEARS LATER
Today, some 38 million people are living with HIV worldwide.
Of that number, as of 2018, 1.2 million are Americans. Sadly, more than one-in-ten don’t even know it! GET TESTED!
Over the 40 years since AIDS became public, 35 million people have died worldwide.
700,000 were Americans with gay men and transgender women making up about 79% of that staggering number.
Four decades later, by the grace of God, I’m still HIV-negative, but I have friends that are positive and I’ve know people that have died of AIDS.
Thankfully, we now have drugs, when taken properly, make it IMPOSSIBLE to spread the virus!
National Institute of Health: “U=U means that people living with HIV who achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load—the amount of HIV in the blood—by taking and adhering to antiretroviral therapy (ART) as prescribed cannot sexually transmit the virus to others.”
FINAL THOUGHTS ON MY IMPRESSIONABLE YEARS
I was 16-years-old when the first AIDS cases went public and I became sexually active in the 1980s as fear and hate spread across the world toward gay people because of the disease.
It’s hard not to dislike (or hate) the man running the country when people in your community were dying a very painful death and the government dragged its feet.
My views of President Reagan didn’t soften any in the 1990s as I headed into my 20s and then my 30s seeing more and more people contract HIV and develop AIDS.
We witnessed the resistance of religious leaders, school officials, and parents to educate kids about safe sex — they thought abstinence would keep children safe (it would, but it’s not a reality when hormones are raging)! That mentality started in the 1980s during the uptight, conservative regime of Reagan.
While there may never be a cure for HIV and AIDS, those that get HIV can now, at least, lead a more “normal” life.
This hope made me look closer at Reagan. As he grew older and Alzheimer’s disease robbed him of his mind, I knew that no matter how much I despised him, it couldn’t bring back all of the people that AIDS killed.
I asked myself, “how he could be so calm and collected and be so ignorant during the early years of AIDS?”
The truth is that he probably had so many people telling him what to do and what to avoid saying because his political base didn’t want to hear about the disease those “queers” were spreading! Middle and upper class white, heterosexual couples didn’t think it affected them!
I now realize it’s time for me to move on and to find peace with the man who had many faults. What man doesn’t? I can’t forgive him, but I no longer hate him. We can’t change history and the government’s inaction in the 1980s with AIDS.
While I can’t ask President Reagan what he was thinking when he ignored the disease for so long, I hope that the former president and all of the men, women, and children that died of AIDS during his presidency (and since) can come to peace with each other in that higher place.
When I finally make it to heaven, I hope I see Reagan hanging out with the more than 700,000 Americans that have died of AIDS — the majority of them gay men.
However, in heaven, all would be forgiven and I could see Ronald Reagan at a disco or a tea dance with all those that suffered during his presidency and all that succumbed to AIDS in the 33 years after he left office.
“AND THE BAND PLAYED ON”
I just re-read Randy Shilts’ enlightening history of the first years of the AIDS epidemic about the failure of the American government which led to so many people dying.
While San Francisco was believed to be the AIDS capital of the U.S., there were far more cases and deaths of AIDS in New York City.
Mayor Ed Koch and Dr. David Sencer, the city’s health commissioner, failed miserably in providing for those in the fight in the early years.
The only real help was coming from the Gay Men’s Health Crisis center, which was founded by the iconic advocate Larry Kramer.
If reading a 600-page book about the AIDS epidemic may be too much for you, the 1993 Emmy-winning movie of the same name, with an all-star cast, is incredible.
“THE GREAT BELIEVERS”
This 2018 book by Rebecca Makkai is amazing!
It tells the story of how the AIDS epidemic decimated Chicago’s gay community in the early-1980s. While fiction, it felt so real — especially if you or your friends lived through that era watching your friends die.
Makkai’s story is so well researched and touching. It had you rooting for characters that you knew were doomed by the “gay cancer” and President Ronald Reagan’s blind eye.
The book isn’t just about a group of friends dying and struggling to stay alive in 1985 Chicago. It also takes you to 2015 Paris and ties the two stories and timelines together!
As a former Chicago transplant (I lived there two years in the 1990s and two more years in the early-2000s), it was fun hearing the names of places I hadn’t thought about in years (Nookie’s and Ann Sather).
Amy Poehler is adapting the book into a television series. I can’t wait to see who is cast as Yale, my favorite character. As I was reading it, I could definitely see Yale in my younger self!
“The Great Believers” is the best fiction book I’ve read in the past year!
“LONGTIME COMPANION”
And, for those of you that may not have seen it, 1990’s “Longtime Companion” is still one of my favorite movies of all time.
It was one of the first widely recognized theatrically-released movies (mainstream) that dealt with AIDS in the 1980s. It earned a Golden Globe Award for acting for Bruce Davidson and he also earned an Oscar nomination.
Thank you for taking the time travel down this road 40 years later!
Be safe and play safe!
Peace!
Anthony
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