David, Thank you very much for going to the trouble to find this background information for me. I agree that the problem was probably not attacked with the full force of federal resources as it should have been and I remember a number of researchers who were screaming out early on trying to get peoples' attention. From a selfish point of view, I wish that all conservatives were not painted with the broad brush of bigotry. I agree with a lot of conservative points of view but have always thought these "moral" whatever groups and Falwell and his ilk have nothing to do with true libertarian/conservative thought and have been a true plague on the country. They are preaching hate, they are. I believe that the large majority of libertarian/conservatives utterly abhor these peoples' agenda - it goes against everything they believe in and stand for.
I disagree a bit with some of the information: >Health officials, failing to educate about transmission and risk behavior, undermined any chance of an accurate >public understanding of AIDS. In my experience, there was lots and lots of information as to risk behavior and transmission early on. But maybe this information was disseminated more in some regions of the country over others. I do recall some heated debate and stupid foot-dragging over whether to supply drug users with clean needles. >At various points in the epidemic, conservatives called for the quarantining and tattooing of PWAs. Jerry Falwell, the >leader of the Moral Majority, was quoted as stating: "AIDS is the wrath of God upon > homosexuals." The networks and media giving this guy any coverage just continues to appalls me. I think they do it for the freak show factor. >Reagan thought of AIDS as though "it was measles and it would go away." I can believe he could have been that obtuse. > I cannot find the quote, but Koop somewhere said that Reagan personally > hated gays, and that hatred was at the core of his actions/inaction. I do find this a bit difficult to believe. Reagan was very involved as an activist and populist Democrat for something like 40 years before he switched parties. He lived most of his life in Hollywood (always a very liberal town) and was a Bel Air Presbyterian, not a Bible belt fundamentalist. A number of his wife's best friends for many years have been prominent gay men. But, again, obtuse and out of step - I would agree. >If not for groups like Act Up and GMHC, no doubt many more straight women, among others, would have >perished. Very sad and tragic. I hope that we have all learned by the actions of the past so that something like this in the future is addressed in a radically different manner. Thanks again, David. Kakki
