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Ronald Reagan and AIDS

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Ronald Reagan and AIDS

Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States from 1981 to 1989, oversaw the United States response to the emergence of the HIV/AIDS crisis. His actions, or lack thereof, have long been a subject of controversy and have been criticized by LGBTQ and AIDS advocacy organizations. AIDS was first medically recognized in 1981, in New York and California, and the term AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) was adopted in 1982 to describe the disease. Lester Kinsolving, a reporter in the White House press pool, attempted to ask early questions on AIDS during White House press briefings, but his questions were not taken seriously. The 1985 illness and death of Rock Hudson from AIDS marked a turning point in how Reagan and much of the American public viewed AIDS, with major policy shifts and funding increases coming in the wake of his death. Reagan did not publicly acknowledge AIDS until 1985 and did not give an address on it until 1987. Reports on AIDS from Surgeon General C. Everett Koop in 1986 and a commission led by James D. Watkins in 1988 were provided to the Reagan administration and offered information about AIDS and policy suggestions on how to limit its spread. Towards the end of his presidency in 1988, Reagan took some steps to implement policies, mainly those suggested in the Watkins Commission report, to stop the spread of AIDS and help those who were infected. 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 LGBTQ 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. A common belief at the time held that AIDS was a "gay plague", and many social conservatives of the time, including some in the White House, believed the response to the crisis should center homosexuality as a moral failing. Reagan's response to AIDS is generally viewed negatively by LGBTQ and AIDS activists, as well as epidemiologists, while other commentators and scholars have defended aspects of his AIDS response. 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.

Tables

Key · Timeline
Green highlight and asterisk
Green highlight and asterisk
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Green highlight and asterisk
Notable AIDS related event
Events in the Reagan administration
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Yellow highlight and dagger
No highlight
Yellow highlight and dagger
Notable AIDS related event
† AIDS policies put into place by the Reagan administration
Red highlight and double dagger
Red highlight and double dagger
No highlight
Red highlight and double dagger
Notable AIDS related event
‡ Major congressional actions on AIDS
No highlight
Notable AIDS related event
Green highlight and asterisk
Events in the Reagan administration
Yellow highlight and dagger
† AIDS policies put into place by the Reagan administration
Red highlight and double dagger
‡ Major congressional actions on AIDS
AIDS crisis timeline of the Reagan presidency · Timeline
January 20, 1981
January 20, 1981
Date
January 20, 1981
Event
Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as President of the United States.
Mid-1981
Mid-1981
Date
Mid-1981
Event
Doctors in New York and Los Angeles first identify the disease that will come to be known as AIDS. At the time, the only known patients are gay men.
December 31, 1981
December 31, 1981
Date
December 31, 1981
Event
A total of 160 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
October 15, 1982
October 15, 1982
Date
October 15, 1982
Event
White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes fields a question about HIV/AIDS, the first time anybody from the Reagan administration had publicly acknowledged the disease, though Speakes's answer is dismissive.
December 31, 1982
December 31, 1982
Date
December 31, 1982
Event
A total of 625 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
April 12, 1983
April 12, 1983
Date
April 12, 1983
Event
Margaret Heckler, Reagan's Secretary of Health and Human Services, tells Congress that no additional AIDS funding is necessary to deal with the crisis.
May 18, 1983
May 18, 1983
Date
May 18, 1983
Event
‡ Congress passes the first specific funding for AIDS research and treatment, bundling it in a Public Health Emergency Trust Fund alongside funding for Legionnaires' disease and toxic shock syndrome.
June 13, 1983
June 13, 1983
Date
June 13, 1983
Event
Larry Speakes says in a press conference that the President was "briefed on the AIDS situation a number of months ago".
June 21, 1983
June 21, 1983
Date
June 21, 1983
Event
Reagan and staff from the Department of Health and Human Services meet with activists from the National Gay Task Force to discuss concerns about the AIDS epidemic; the meeting goes poorly, however, and Reagan does not meet with the activists again.
August 1983
August 1983
Date
August 1983
Event
Reagan meets with a number of religious conservative activists, who suggest framing AIDS as a consequence of the "moral failings" of homosexuality.
December 31, 1983
December 31, 1983
Date
December 31, 1983
Event
A total of 2,085 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
April 23, 1984
April 23, 1984
Date
April 23, 1984
Event
Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler announces at a press conference that an American scientist, Robert Gallo, has discovered the probable cause of AIDS, a retrovirus that will come to be known as HIV.
December 11, 1984
December 11, 1984
Date
December 11, 1984
Event
Larry Speakes, in responding to a question from Lester Kinsolving, states that he has not heard Reagan express any thoughts or opinions on the AIDS epidemic.
December 31, 1984
December 31, 1984
Date
December 31, 1984
Event
A total of 5,607 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
February 1985
February 1985
Date
February 1985
Event
† The Reagan administration proposes a $10 million cut to AIDS research funding for the following fiscal year.
July 25, 1985
July 25, 1985
Date
July 25, 1985
Event
Rock Hudson, a prominent movie star and acquaintance of the Reagans, releases a public statement announcing that he is dying of AIDS.
September 17, 1985
September 17, 1985
Date
September 17, 1985
Event
President Reagan publicly acknowledges AIDS for the first time in his response to a reporter's question.
October 2, 1985
October 2, 1985
Date
October 2, 1985
Event
‡ Congress approves a budget of $190 million for AIDS research, $70 million more than the amount requested by the Reagan administration and nearly double the previous year's spending.
December 31, 1985
December 31, 1985
Date
December 31, 1985
Event
A total of 12,598 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
February 6, 1986
February 6, 1986
Date
February 6, 1986
Event
† Reagan declares a cure for AIDS to be a "top health priority" and orders C. Everett Koop to put together a major report on the subject.
October 22, 1986
October 22, 1986
Date
October 22, 1986
Event
The Koop report is released, outlining the causes of AIDS and advocating for comprehensive sex education to stymie its spread.
December 31, 1986
December 31, 1986
Date
December 31, 1986
Event
A total of 24,753 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
February 1987
February 1987
Date
February 1987
Event
† In an internal White House memo, Reagan requires that any federally funded materials on AIDS emphasize "responsible sexual behavior" within the confines of marriage.
March 19, 1987
March 19, 1987
Date
March 19, 1987
Event
AZT is approved by the FDA, becoming the first approved treatment for AIDS.
May 31, 1987
May 31, 1987
Date
May 31, 1987
Event
Reagan gives a speech, his first on the subject of AIDS, at an event for the American Foundation for AIDS Research and is booed by the attending crowd.
June 24, 1987
June 24, 1987
Date
June 24, 1987
Event
† President Reagan forms the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic to investigate the AIDS pandemic.
December 31, 1987
December 31, 1987
Date
December 31, 1987
Event
A total of 41,214 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
May 26, 1988
May 26, 1988
Date
May 26, 1988
Event
‡ Under a mandate from Congress, deliveries of Understanding AIDS, a brochure derived from the Koop report, begin to every household in the United States.
June 24, 1988
June 24, 1988
Date
June 24, 1988
Event
The President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic releases its final report, which is critical of the government's response to the AIDS crisis to that point and suggests a number of policy changes, including AIDS education starting in Kindergarten and a national law that would ban discrimination against people with AIDS.
August 2, 1988
August 2, 1988
Date
August 2, 1988
Event
† The Reagan administration announces a 10-point "action plan" to implement suggestions in the HIV Commission's report, though it stops short of some of the report's major suggestions, including a national ban on discrimination against those with AIDS.
December 31, 1988
December 31, 1988
Date
December 31, 1988
Event
A total of 62,418 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
January 20, 1989
January 20, 1989
Date
January 20, 1989
Event
Ronald Reagan leaves office.
Date
Event
Ref.
January 20, 1981
Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as President of the United States.
Mid-1981
Doctors in New York and Los Angeles first identify the disease that will come to be known as AIDS. At the time, the only known patients are gay men.
December 31, 1981
A total of 160 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
October 15, 1982
White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes fields a question about HIV/AIDS, the first time anybody from the Reagan administration had publicly acknowledged the disease, though Speakes's answer is dismissive.
December 31, 1982
A total of 625 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
April 12, 1983
Margaret Heckler, Reagan's Secretary of Health and Human Services, tells Congress that no additional AIDS funding is necessary to deal with the crisis.
May 18, 1983
‡ Congress passes the first specific funding for AIDS research and treatment, bundling it in a Public Health Emergency Trust Fund alongside funding for Legionnaires' disease and toxic shock syndrome.
June 13, 1983
Larry Speakes says in a press conference that the President was "briefed on the AIDS situation a number of months ago".
June 21, 1983
Reagan and staff from the Department of Health and Human Services meet with activists from the National Gay Task Force to discuss concerns about the AIDS epidemic; the meeting goes poorly, however, and Reagan does not meet with the activists again.
August 1983
Reagan meets with a number of religious conservative activists, who suggest framing AIDS as a consequence of the "moral failings" of homosexuality.
December 31, 1983
A total of 2,085 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
April 23, 1984
Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler announces at a press conference that an American scientist, Robert Gallo, has discovered the probable cause of AIDS, a retrovirus that will come to be known as HIV.
December 11, 1984
Larry Speakes, in responding to a question from Lester Kinsolving, states that he has not heard Reagan express any thoughts or opinions on the AIDS epidemic.
December 31, 1984
A total of 5,607 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
February 1985
† The Reagan administration proposes a $10 million cut to AIDS research funding for the following fiscal year.
July 25, 1985
Rock Hudson, a prominent movie star and acquaintance of the Reagans, releases a public statement announcing that he is dying of AIDS.
September 17, 1985
President Reagan publicly acknowledges AIDS for the first time in his response to a reporter's question.
October 2, 1985
‡ Congress approves a budget of $190 million for AIDS research, $70 million more than the amount requested by the Reagan administration and nearly double the previous year's spending.
December 31, 1985
A total of 12,598 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
February 6, 1986
† Reagan declares a cure for AIDS to be a "top health priority" and orders C. Everett Koop to put together a major report on the subject.
October 22, 1986
The Koop report is released, outlining the causes of AIDS and advocating for comprehensive sex education to stymie its spread.
December 31, 1986
A total of 24,753 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
February 1987
† In an internal White House memo, Reagan requires that any federally funded materials on AIDS emphasize "responsible sexual behavior" within the confines of marriage.
March 19, 1987
AZT is approved by the FDA, becoming the first approved treatment for AIDS.
May 31, 1987
Reagan gives a speech, his first on the subject of AIDS, at an event for the American Foundation for AIDS Research and is booed by the attending crowd.
June 24, 1987
† President Reagan forms the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic to investigate the AIDS pandemic.
December 31, 1987
A total of 41,214 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
May 26, 1988
‡ Under a mandate from Congress, deliveries of Understanding AIDS, a brochure derived from the Koop report, begin to every household in the United States.
June 24, 1988
The President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic releases its final report, which is critical of the government's response to the AIDS crisis to that point and suggests a number of policy changes, including AIDS education starting in Kindergarten and a national law that would ban discrimination against people with AIDS.
August 2, 1988
† The Reagan administration announces a 10-point "action plan" to implement suggestions in the HIV Commission's report, though it stops short of some of the report's major suggestions, including a national ban on discrimination against those with AIDS.
December 31, 1988
A total of 62,418 Americans are estimated to have died from AIDS complications.
January 20, 1989
Ronald Reagan leaves office.

References

  1. This is not true. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be transmitted via a number of fluids, but saliva is not one of t
  2. The misconception which is being referenced here, either derisively or out of genuine misunderstanding, is that HIV can
  3. Referred to by the reporter as "the nation's best-known AIDS scientist".
  4. Reagan had previously given brief remarks on AIDS when ordering the creation of the Koop report in 1986, and he had ment
  5. Nominated by Dick Cheney.
  6. Nominated by himself.
  7. Davis was a doctor and neurosurgeon.
  8. Referring to gay men.
  9. San Francisco is known for being a very LGBTQ-friendly city, and at the time was in the throes of one of the country's d
  10. Tumulty 2021a, p. 411.
  11. Pasteur Institute 2023.
  12. Shampo & Kyle 2002.
  13. Sabin 2013.
  14. Corbett 2010.
  15. HRC 2017.
  16. CDC Fact Sheet: Gay Men and HIV 2022.
  17. CDC Brief: Transgender People and HIV 2022.
  18. Ambinder 2015.
  19. Evans 2018.
  20. Harrity 2016.
  21. Tumulty 2021b.
  22. Djupe & Olson 2003, p. 99.
  23. Miller & Wattenberg 1984.
  24. Graham 1997.
  25. Williams 2020, p. x.
  26. Schudel 2018.
  27. Lopez 2016a.
  28. Harmon 2015.
  29. Lawson 2015.
  30. CDC 2022.
  31. Kaplan 2022.
  32. Gibson 2015.
  33. Brier 2009, p. 83.
  34. Petro 2015, p. 67.
  35. Brier 2009, p. 82-83.
  36. Tumulty 2021a, p. 418.
  37. Washington Post 1987.
  38. Brier 2009, p. 84.
  39. FRONTLINE 2006.
  40. Kirchick 2022, p. 577.
  41. Shilts 1987, p. 495.
  42. Green 2011.
  43. Francis 2012.
  44. Shilts 1987, p. 143.
  45. Shilts 1987, p. 186.
  46. PBS 2006.
  47. hiv.gov HIV/AIDS Timeline.
  48. Shilts 1987, p. 214.
  49. Tumulty 2021a, p. 415.
  50. Shilts 1987, p. 456.
  51. Shilts 1987, p. 544.
  52. The New York Times 1985.
  53. Geidner 2015.
  54. Shilts 1987, p. 573.
  55. Shilts 1987, p. 577.
  56. Tumulty 2021a, p. 417.
  57. Kirchick 2022, p. 574.
  58. Shilts 1987, p. 585.
  59. Shilts 1987, p. 588.
  60. Brier 2015, p. 229-230.
  61. Ronald Reagan Diary for July 24, 1985.
  62. The New York Times 1989.
  63. Kirchick 2022, p. 573.
  64. Brier 2015, p. 230.
  65. Boffey 1985.
  66. Presidential Press Conference on September 17, 1985.
  67. Brier 2015, p. 226-227.
  68. Weinraub 1986.
  69. Tumulty 2021a, p. 419.
  70. Brier 2009, p. 88.
  71. Brier 2015, p. 231.
  72. Boodman 1987.
  73. Tumulty 2021a, p. 420.
  74. Profiles in Science 2019.
  75. Petro 2015, p. 72.
  76. Brier 2009, p. 90.
  77. Boot 2024, p. 963.
  78. Brier 2015, p. 232.
  79. Koop 1991, p. 224.
  80. Brier 2009, p. 72.
  81. The New York Times 1988.
  82. Tumulty 2021a, p. 422.
  83. Brier 2015, p. 222-223.
  84. Tumulty 2021a, p. 412.
  85. Boot 2024, p. 964.
  86. Tumulty 2021a, p. 424.
  87. Reagan 1987.
  88. Cannon 1991, p. 819.
  89. Ronald Reagan Diary for May 31, 1987.
  90. National Archives – Reagan Executive Orders of 1987.
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  93. Kirchick 2022, p. 617.
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  95. Boot 2024, p. 965.
  96. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic 1988.
  97. Tumulty 2021a, p. 429.
  98. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic 1988, p. XIX: "Age appropriate, compr
  99. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic 1988, p. 126.
  100. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic 1988, p. 78-80.
  101. Orlando Sentinel 1988.
  102. Glaser & Palmer 1992, p. 133.
  103. Tumulty 2021a, p. 620.
  104. Cannon 1991, p. 735.
  105. Brands 2015, p. 655.
  106. Katz 1997.
  107. Tumulty 2021a, p. 414.
  108. Kirchick 2022, p. 575: "During a meeting with his top national security officials to discuss a psychological warfare ope
  109. Cannon 1991, pp. 735–736.
  110. Boot 2024, p. 960.
  111. Tumulty 2021a, p. 421.
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  128. Villarreal 2016.
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  131. Discussion/examples of homophobia accusations: Boot 2024, pp. 966–967 Brier 2009, p. 80 Brier 2015, p. 225 Kirchick 2022
  132. Boot 2024, p. 967.
  133. Brier 2015, pp. 222–223.
  134. Kirchick 2022, p. 619: "By contrast, in Great Britain, Reagan's conservative ally Margaret Thatcher implemented a robust
  135. Murdock 2012.
  136. Huber 2016.
  137. Brier 2015, p. 228.
  138. Huneke 2022, p. 179.
  139. Martos, Wilson & Meyer 2017.
  140. Fitzsimons 2018.
  141. Met Museum 2013.
  142. Finkelstein 2017.
  143. Ghaziani 2008, p. 168.
  144. Kirchick 2022, p. 620.
  145. Kirchick 2022, p. 619.
  146. Pose: "The Fever" 2018.
  147. Zoller Seitz 2018.
  148. Klemm 2007.
  149. Lopez 2016b.
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