History+Detectives+tp

=AIDS and Politics= 1987, President Reagan mentions AIDS, for the first time, at the Third International Conference on AIDS in Washington. The first cases of AIDS in America were in 1981. AIDS in that time was considered a "gay mans" disease. Up until this point AIDS had been ravaging the country, and the Reagan administration was doing nothing but fueling the fires of hate, fear, and discrimination. During this time there were major influences upon politics and the way politics dealt with problems of such magnitude. Three of the major influences during this time were the rising death toll from AIDS, Moral Majority, and President Reagan himself.

In the U.S. alone the number of deaths was quickly on the rise. Between 1981 and 1982 the death toll in America raised by 500 deaths from AIDS. No one during this time period quite knew what AIDS or the HIV virus was. During 1984 the HIV virus was finally found in the US by Dr. Robert Gallo, unfortunately the US was a year behind the French. One year after the virus (HIV) is found in the US President Regan finally mentions AIDS in public. The death toll between 1984 and 1985 rose by about 1300 deaths in the US alone. By 1989 the death toll in America was over 14,500 and many celebrities, both male and female, of the time were in infected and died. With all of the rising panic and fears of an epidemic how did the Reagan administration affect the public view on any and all that had this disease? "In the history of the AIDS epidemic, President Reagan's legacy is one of silence," said Michael Cover, Former associate executive director for public affairs at Whiteman-Walker Clinic, the ground breaking AIDS health-care organization in Washington in 2003. "It is the silence of then of thousands who died alone and unacknowledged, stigmatized by out government under his administration." Simply said Reagan did nothing to help save a nation from folding in upon itself from one incurable “gay man’s” disease. The hostility during Reagan’s time in office rose by exponential amounts. Pat Buchanan, Reagan’s communications director argued that AIDS is “natures revenge on gay men” (White, Allen.) The fire of fear was fed by nearly all within Reagan’s administration and even from without it; Reverend Jerry Falwell being a prime example of this. Moral Majority was the organization started by Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1979. Moral Majority was a Civic advocacy/political action group that were concerned with secular, individualistic, and liberal movements. One of their main concerns was gay groups that supported gay rights. Falwell, [himself] said “AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals” (White, Allen.) AIDS was the tool against gay men that Moral Majority used to feed the politics of hate, fear, and discrimination that would lead to silence and pain during Reagan’s time in office that would forever be a mark on America’s history, a scar that will never fade off the face of Uncle Sam. Among the influences that Moral Majority brought was the objection of promoting and protecting homosexual rights. Moral Majority was dissolved in August of 1989, after Rev. Falwell felt it had served its purpose to society. Feelings towards homosexual rights and HIV/AIDS could have greatly been changed if the Reagan administration had shown to America feelings of concern and love towards persons afflicted with AIDS instead of allowing hate and fear to flourish like weeds in the flower patch. Three major influences that could have been used for good instead of the discrimination it was used for are the rising death toll from AIDS, Moral Majority, and President Reagan himself. AIDS may not be curable, but it is preventable and continuing hostility towards persons with this horrible deadly virus will not solve anything.