Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has apologised for suggesting that the Reagan administration had proactively tackled the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Speaking to the media at the funeral of former first lady Nancy Reagan, Mrs Clinton said Ms Reagan and her husband were responsible for the; “start of a national conversation” about HIV and AIDS, despite historical evidence that the Reagan Administration ignored both for years.
Mrs Clinton said Mrs Reagan had a “very effective, low-key advocacy” on the issue.
Nancy Reagan passed away last week aged 94. Her husband, Ronald Reagan, who was President from 1981 – 1989 passed away in 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimers disease.
Following widespread outrage at her statement Mrs Clinton said she had gotten the facts wrong.
“To be clear, the Reagans did not start a national conversation about HIV and AIDS. That distinction belongs to generations of brave lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, along with straight allies, who started not just a conversation but a movement that continues to this day.” Mrs Clinton said in a statement posted on her website.
Having brushed up on her LGBTIQ+ history, Mrs Clinton acknowledged the pioneering work of groups like Act Up! and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis who were at the forefront of spreading the message the “silence = death”.
Despite the spread of HIV being recognised in the early 1980’s President Reagan didn’t deliver a speech on the issue until 1987, by that time thousands of people had died from the condition.
In 1982 when a reporter at The White House first asked a question about the spread of AIDS the Press Secretary Larry Speakes made jokes about the condition.
The 1985 death of the Reagan’s close friend and fellow Hollywood star Rock Hudson has been noted as a turnaround point in the Reagan’s approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but it has also been revealed that the couple refused to intervene when Hudson asked for their help to get him into a better hospital in his final months.
Whether the Reagan’s were supportive of the LGBTIQ community generally is an unknown quantity. In an interview in 2013 the couples daughter said her mother was supportive of marriage equality, and the first same sex couple to stay at the White House may have been under Mrs Reagan’s watch. There are reports that Interior Decorator Ted Graber spent the night with Archie Case when celebrating Mrs Reagan’s 60th birthday.
OIP Staff
