• Miauu@lemmynsfw.com
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    11 months ago

    Huh was Reagan really that homophobic? Never heard of that.

    I know he was pretty conservative but I don’t remember he tried to push that point of view too much.

    • mhague@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      He was president during the aids epidemic. His admin would all but laugh at the idea of people being gay, the “gay plague”, did not care one iota even after thousands had died.

      The white house’s stance was basically “if you care then you must be gay, and if you’re gay that’s funny”

      I wasn’t alive for this moment but I’ll never forget it just the same:


      Lester Kinsolving: Does the president have any reaction to the announcement by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta that AIDS is now an epidemic in over 600 cases?

      Larry Speakes: AIDS? I haven’t got anything on it.

      Lester Kinsolving: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” [Press pool laughter.] No, it is. It’s a pretty serious thing. One in every three people that get this have died. And I wonder if the president was aware of this.

      Larry Speakes: I don’t have it. [Press pool laughter.] Do you?

    • Stamets@startrek.websiteOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      Oh you sweet summer child. He actively laughed at the AIDS epidemic sweeping across the community. Not a joke. He made fun of us. The second a straight person was diagnosed with HIV he launched into action as now it was a problem.

      If you google “Regan homophobic” you will find more information than I could possibly mention.

      • Miauu@lemmynsfw.com
        cake
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        11 months ago

        Thanks. I was too young back then to pick up on that and history didn’t really carry this forward as much as it should have. Thanks for enlightening me.

        I didn’t mean it at all offensive, I really didn’t know.

        • SgtAStrawberry@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          11 months ago

          Don’t feel bad for it, I didn’t know ether and now we both have learned something.

          Personally it was because I wasn’t even alive back then and I’m not American, so my schooling really didn’t give a dame about what the USA was up to, we learned that they had stats and that was about it. We didn’t even learn what the difference between their stats and our counties was, the answer is a lot apparently.

  • jayemar@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    I don’t mean to be that guy but pride month was around before 2004