Comments on: Was Ronald Reagan anti-gay?

By: Lynn David

Lynn David — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:56:34 +0000

I find the quote interesting because I had always assumed the Reagans to have a rather benign view of homosexuality. Mrs Reagan hired a pair of gay decorators to help her when they moved into the White House. I think they stayed overnight in the Lincoln bedroom. Also, I cannott remember the man's name, but there was a friend of Mrs Reagan's who escorted her around when her husband was unable to do so. He was well known to be gay. I believe there was a separation between Reagan's personal views and the views he took as President. Or perhaps it was just apathy on his part, especially when it came to AIDS. The quote popped up around 2004 for some reason, I think because some conservatives saw Bush2 as going soft on gay rights. One source I have seen [The construction of homosexuality by David F Greenberg] quotes the Village Voice of 25 Sept 1985 but further attibutes the remark to have occurred during the 1984 Republican convention in Dallas in a meeting with the publishers of the Presidential Biblical Scorecard. Greenberg goes on to say that Reagan took a "stand against civil-rights legislation to protect against job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation." I'd say that was fairly anti-gay and surely not in the thinking of GOPround. Evidently Reagan may have ehad the same misconceptions about churches being compelled to hire gays and lesbians in parochial settings. But to turn the conversation to Coulter instead of Reagan. GOProud sure laid an egg with this one. ...

By: stephen

stephen — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:22:03 +0000

He was an actor, for goodness’ sake! He spent his working life surrounded by gay men. So did Nancy. Who was at one time notorious in Hollywood for certain activities. I mention this to show that they were not the provincial Savanorolas so many leading Republicans are now. In public at least. Nancy had a wide circle of gay friends who were devoted to her. I knew some of them personally. One of Reagan’s top fund raisers was a gay man who was out to them both. I knew him well when he was living in London. (He had also been a fund raiser for Nixon who is believed by many to have been a deeply closeted gay man) Nancy was always very friendly whereas the ex-president didn’t talk about it. Which is how things were done in DC and Hollywood then. And now, too, come to think of it. And it was this behavior that seemed to set the tone for Reagan’s response to AIDS: ie, pretend it isn’t happening.

DC Hart is accurate in his touching description of those terrible years in the 80s. It was the government’s lack of action that gave rise to ActUp and other activist organizations when men were disowned by their families, thrown out into the street, shunned and despised. That it should be hard now to understand his position speaks volumes to the sea-change that has overtaken our politics since the rise of organizations like Focus on the Family and its like.

By: ken

ken — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:22:03 +0000

A couple of quick notes.

1st RE: Aids funding. Murdock’s source lists the funds as HHS discretionary. There is no indication Reagan had any direct involvement into that funding. The other sources of government funding were from Medicaid/Medicare, VA and Disablity Insurance (i.e. government medical coverage of eligible individuals with AIDS). Nor does he give any comparisons to spending on other diseases.

2nd. According to Murdock, Reagan 1st mentions AIDs publicly in Sept. 1985. what he leaves out is that this was nearly a year after the Ryan White case focused attention to the fact that AIDS was affecting more than just gays.

Now this doesn’t prove or disprove anything about Reagan’s attitudes towards gays, but it does show when you dig a little deeper you see the argument is not a compelling as it may seem at 1st.

By: Jayhuck

Jayhuck — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:22:03 +0000

AIDS has been seriously distorted, noting that AIDS funding increased substantially every year from 1982 to 1989.

Warren – that may be true, but it didn’t come without political pressure

By: Debbie Thurman

Debbie Thurman — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:22:03 +0000

Interestingly, Michael Reagan, the adopted son, has spoken publicly about being molested by a male Scout leader when he was a boy and the emotional pain it caused. I can’t recall if his dad ever even knew it.

I can see Reagan, maybe quietly or privately, making such a statement. It would square with his faith. His views on gays were not an agenda he pushed, or allowed to be pushed through him.