Did you know anyone who passed away from AIDS in the 80's ?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

If so how do you feel about Reagan?

I'm just wondering.

[Fovea]

1. Yes

I helped run a men's coven for a while during the time our Priest was dealing with his S/O (and a friend of mine) dying of AIDS.

How do I feel about Reagan?
He brought back racism, but with a
human face. Interesting how quickly
Bush took that face, and replaced it with
something far more sinister, and simian.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. My condolences to you

I'm sorry. This is the kind of thing I think of when I remember Raygun. I hope it isn't to painful for you.

[nostamj]

2. I was working for 'the' gay newspaper in NYC

when the GRIDS (later AIDS) story broke.

I couldn't tell you how many co-workers, etc. passed in those years.

Reagan was hated for his complete inaction.

still is in my book. his 'legacy' is death.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

12. Yes - Reagan, a legacy of death.

That sounds right

[aintitfunny]

3. Aids just started in the 80's

I lived in Miami, FL and my best friend - a gay man, was very worried. I gave birth in '82 and had a massive blood transfusion and I was worried. And yes, I knew some who died in the 80's more later. The friend I refer to is HIV positive. While Reagan didn't help, he also did not cause it to happen, so I guess I need a little more infor to understand your point.

[nostamj]

8. of course Reagan didn't 'cause it to happen'

but...

if the virus was affecting white babies, well, do you think it would have had ZERO priority with his administration?

[aintitfunny]

18. No I don't, I think they

would have been on it like white on rice.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. He didn't cause it to happen but he waited as long as possible to even

acknowledge the existence of the disease much less quickly act with funding to stop this disease that was seen by his fundamentalist base as a disease for gays and drug addicts - a segment of society that they wouldn't mind being whiped out.

[aintitfunny]

20. Was a fact that he blatantly

ignored it. We were all upset. But, BUSH I was not helpful (lip service), Clinton was better but it was not enought and of course this administration probably beleives it is a just and righteous punishment for sinners of all ilk. I do agree that had Reagan acted, the progress would, perhaps, be more advanced.

[aintitfunny]

21. dupe

[bullimiami]

5. Yes, several.

That I recall right offhand. Im sure there were more that I didnt know of.

We had a lot of gay friends, also in Miami coincidentally.

Reagan, hated him like poison. Knew he was lying. He should have died in jail.

[Cheswick2.0]

27. Did you know Michael McCord?

?

[Walt Starr]

6. No

But my brother-in-law died before I ever met my wife. He was in a car accident and required a blood transfusion. You can guess the rest, and the only reason the blood supply was tainted was because AIDS was ignored.

Because of the evil fuck who died too peacefully for my taste, I will never meet the brother my wife loved and still cries about.

[ronnykmarshall]

7. My brother

and Reagan's lack of attention to fighting AIDS were turning point for my parents politically.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

24. My condolences for your loss.

Sincerely

[Atlas Mugged]

10. I knew hundreds

Seriously. I lived in New Orleans for 20 years and had friends in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Orlando and Washington DC. I had an entire social circle wiped out in each city. And, since you asked - I absolutely LOATHED Reagan and that bobble-headed stick woman he was married to.

[madmax]

11. Eight people from my office.

I worked for Delta Air Lines in NYC. We were devastated by the losses. :cry: And yes, I blame Reagan.

[mark414]

13. No

but a good friend's mother was a ballet dancer in NYC in the 80's and she lost many, many close friends.

[gratuitous]

14. Golly, too many to name them all

And Ronnie couldn't be bothered to mention AIDS publicly, even after his good friend Rock Hudson died.

I'll recount just one: This woman was a nurse in an allergy clinic. One day, drawing blood from an HIV infected man, he twitched just as she was removing the syringe. The needle scratched her arm, and she was infected. Within two years, she was gone, leaving behind a husband and a son. Our office handled her family bankruptcy, because they couldn't afford the medications and treatment.

[ikojo]

15. My uncle's partner died in May 1992....he was diagnosed in the 1980s

I blame Reagan and his silence on this issue for the fact that so many were not diagnosed earlier. The silence of the Reagan/Bush administrations meant there was little or no research. It was only after one of Reagan's own (Rock Hudson) came out publicly with his struggle that people began to take AIDS seriously.

[RebelOne]

16. A former boss in Miami died from AIDs in 1989.

I didn't care for him too much, but I did feel bad that he died because he was only in his 30s.

[Liberal Veteran]

17. Not only do I know many who died, I was infected in 1985.

And honestly, I feel nothing except maybe sadness.

I just can't summon up anger and hatred over him.

I guess you could say I feel a vast indifference to his passing.

Being angry won't bring my friends back and I'll still have to have to take a handful of pills tomorrow.

I can think of about a hundred more constructive ways to focus my energies.

In the meantime, he soul is being judged by a higher authority for what he did or did not do.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

22. Much love to you!

I respect your view, it's quite touching. Thank you for sharing something so intimate and for being so positive.

:)

[gratuitous]

23. True enough

And you make an excellent point about more constructive uses for our energy. But it's also useful to have a fact or two at hand to counterbalance the public adulation that will be filling the airwaves during the next week or so.

Echoing what the Big Dog said about Nixon, we should gauge Reagan's public life based on the totality of his record, of which a small part was his complete indifference to a public health crisis affecting thousands of citizens directly, and millions more indirectly.

[Liberal Veteran]

26. I am more angry at Bush for wasting tax dollars in Iraq and Star Wars...

....and supposedly promising BILLIONS of dollars to fight AIDS in Africa while nearly every state is facing a crisis and waiting lists for those in our country who need treatment for this disease here!

Something about this picture is wrong to me.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

29. As well as being so cuddly with drug companies' lobbyists who work

to keep prices for AIDS drugs high, worldwide.

[Athame]

58. My brother was diagnosed in 1986

and he is still Living Every Day, as I am glad to see you are, Lib Vet.

But between 1986 and 1989, we went to 27 funerals before my brother stopped going to them. Three of his four housemates died in one year. We sewed acres of quilts...

Reagan? Between HIV-AIDS and closing the mental hospitals, seriously exaserbating homelessness in America, I have a hard time mustering any humane feelings toward him.

[Misunderestimator]

19. Yes, several.

And I hold Reagan personally responsible for hastening their deaths.

[dsc]

25. Yes, a couple

and a few more in the 1990's. Reagan's legacy here is shameful, but for all the blame he richly deserves, there is an equal ladle of blame for the people at the time who also ignored AIDS. Reagan wasn't a leader here which he should have been, but that didn't cause the public fear and indifference, it merely perpetuated it.

[Snellius]

28. Or homeless men thrown out of California mental hospitals

Or protesters killed on rooftops on Telegraph Ave. because they didn't believe "If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all."

Or where-in-the-hell-am-I-going-to-get-the-money students who had to drop out of college because the governor's friends wanted to spend more time around the swimming pool.

Or anti-war "storm-troopers" who were gassed with chemical weapons on their way to class because the governor was protecting their right to die for their country.

Or "welfare mothers" who had to feel like a dishonest piece of shit because they couldn't afford to feed their kids.

Or all those girls who bled to death from back-alley Mexican abortions,

Or all those godless, commie, lunatic fringe, druggy, dopey, race-polluting unAmerican hippies that the god-fearing good-guy cowboy in the White House taught us all to hate.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

36. And the NYC mental hospitals

Man alive I hate his legacy!!!!!

[Warpy]

30. I was just starting my nursing career

just as AIDS was getting started. I was one of a small group of nurses who refused to dress like we were on lunar expeditions when we cared for dying AIDS patients, preferring the gloves for close contact, and gowns only if our uniforms were in danger of soiling, and no masks, ever. I'll always remember the gratitude of these folks, just at seeing a human face come into their rooms.

Yes, I remember many of them, all good people. I also remember the incredible footdragging on getting protocols put into place for blood and body fluid universal precautions for health care workers, and the fact that France was the first to identify the virus, not the CDC (although they were close behind). I will never, ever forgive that man Reagan for his lack of interest in the horrible suffering that the disease brought to its victims, nor the callous attitude that man expressed about suffering human beings who had a sexual orientation he did not share.

Although some will see his Alzheimer's as Karmic payback for cutting funding into the stem cell research that had a chance of curing it, I think he got the easy way out. After all, he didn't know he was mindless toward the end, and he never knew how much suffering he caused.

I sincerely hope that once he's finally planted in his mausoleum that the reality of who he was and what he did to us will begin to come out. If we have a history after Bush is done with us, I do not think it will be kind to Reagan.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

34. Well Bush's extension of the confidentiality of presidential records will

ensure we don't know the truth for as long as they can.

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. What an interesting parallel you bring up.

Reagan dragged his feet in responding to the AIDs crisis, causing hundreds of thousands of people unnecessary anguish; and in return, when he developed Alzheimer's, the Bush Administration withheld stem cell research which could have made Reagan's last years bearable.

And the same fate awaits Charleton Heston.

[Palacsinta]

31. Yes.............Eddie

Beautiful, young son of friends of ours. And Tommy........I grew up with him. Both gone but not forgotten.

[Terran]

32. Yes, several

And it's one of the reasons I have no love whatsoever for Reagan. His karma caught up with him at last.

Edit: Well, I didn't mean to exactly duplicate the titles of at least two other people in this thread...but I guess that just indicates how widespread this experience is and was. And while I can't blame Reagan 100% of course, it was simply shameful the way he turned his back on the AIDS epidemic.

[cmf]

33. Yes.

One of my mother's best friends. Got it from a blood transfusion (not that it really matters where she got it from). There was such a stigma of the disease back then that very few people knew the truth about what she was struggling with. She didn't want to be ostracized. I didn't find out until I was an adult.

I have shed no tears for Reagan, and I am avoiding all tributes and such.

[CaptainClark23]

35. yeah. too many. n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

37. In one of "ground zeros" for AIDS....

I'm from San Francisco and (as a straight woman) have spent almost my whole live active in the gay/lesbian community here.

Yes, I was here for the beginning of AIDS.

And I saw first hand what Ronnie's policies on that disease did to my friends and my town.

How do I feel about Ronald Reagan?

I am indifferent to his suffering and death. Couldn't care less, one way or another, though I feel sorry for what his family has gone through.

What I am hoping is that his long death from Alzheimer's and it's possible impact on stem cell research will be penance for what he didn't do for AIDS.

In death, he may finally "do the right thing".

[hippiegranny]

48. this is a perfect point

>What I am hoping is that his long death from Alzheimer's and it's possible impact on stem cell research will be penance for what he didn't do for AIDS.>

and i am hoping for the same.

[The Backlash Cometh]

38. Yes.

J. was every sorority girl's first choice for a date in college. He even had a special relationship with one of the girls in the drama department. After graduation he went up to New York to begin his life as a model. Just a few years later, his picture showed up in just about every gift store in a high-priced, fancy picture frame. Wholesome, attractive looking boy.

Then, the girl from the drama department, who was then married, went to New York to visit J. She came back crying. She didn't know he was HIV positive yet, nobody did, probably least of all J. But she did tell us about a lifestyle that had changed the wholesome person he was. The fact that he was gay wasn't a problem. The romance had long fizzled, and they had become bosom buddies. It was the change in his personality which took her completely by surprise. He had become arrogant and narcissistic and was part of a fast moving pretty-boy scene in New York City.

The next time I saw J., was also the last time I saw him alive. He was back home again, and a friend spotted him at the mall while we were shopping. I just got a chance to see him from a distance. He looked thin and was walking with a cane. Later I was told he had hepatitis. And soon after that, we were going to his funeral and that's where we learned that he had been HIV positive. For several years after his death, his picture would haunt me every time I went into a gift store.

I had lots of time to think about the factors which led to his death. I can't say I was angry at Reagan at the time. Not yet. It was not until Randy's Shilt's "And the Band Played On" was published that I really began to understand how Reagan's insensitivity had resulted in a huge public health policy failure. But, I don't think it would have matter in J.'s case, because he was one of the early casualties of the virus. Frankly, J. was taken from us long before Reagan had a chance to do his damage. If it wasn't AIDs, it would have been something else. You always hear about the high style 80s which is attributed to Reagan, but you rarely hear that it was far more decadent than the 60s.

[wabeewoman]

39. "The Band Played On"

by Randy Shilts is a great book that gives the author's personal perspective and lots of history as it was happening with what Reagan and the CDC were doing (or NOT doing)at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. I believe the author later died of AIDS. Should be required reading especially for all right wingers.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

53. Shilts died of AIDS. n/t

[LynneSin]

73. Everytime I watch that movie on HBO I get angrier at Reagan

:mad:

[Sapphocrat]

41. Yes.

A roll call would take too much time and space. Suffice to say, the first openly-gay friend I ever had in high school is long among the dead.

How do I feel about Reagan? How can I possibly feel about Reagan? He killed my friends. That's how I feel about Reagan.

"There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." -- John F. Kennedy

[dogman]

42. It shouldn't be limited to the 80's

Some had their lives prolonged with therapy. The spread might have been limited if it received the proper response in the beginning.

[Solly Mack]

43. Yes

and I don't plan to forget how little far too many in this country cared at the time....not reagan's silence ...not the red cross's fear of having to spend money to test the blood supply..not the "oh well, it's just the queers dying" attitude of many.

[qanda]

44. My cousin was diagnosed in 1987

One of the saddest days in my life was when he told me he had AIDS. I think more because of the ignorance about the disease that existed at that time. Remember when people thought you could 'catch' AIDS from breathing the same air as someone who was infected?

My cousin died in 1994 and I still miss him to this day. I later found out that his uncle, who also died of AIDS, had molested him and that's how he was infected.

By not acknowledging AIDS and how it was spread, Reagan caused a lot of people to suffer needlessly. I hope he receives more grace in his afterlife than he was willing to give while he was alive.

[mitchum]

45. Yes, many friends...

but it's not the ONLY reason I despise Reagan

[lucky777]

46. Yes, my uncle.

I blame Reagan for his homophobia and for not funding aids research.

[noiretextatique]

47. yes...several friends

and friends of friends. my cousin and several friends are still living with AIDS.

[wellstone_democrat]

49. My cousin Greg

He died in 1986. Do I hate the people who worked to make that good man feel less than human for having a disease? You bet your ass. AM I sad that their head spokesmodel has died after better medical care, better nursing care and in comfort? No, my tears are for Greg and those whose last days were in conscious pain and in need from a heartless society.

[MrSlayer]

50. No, I don't know anyone who died from it at all.

Nor do I know anyone who is HIV positive.

[Lindsey]

51. I know several people who died of AIDS...

My understanding is that Reagan did nothing and that much more funding was allocated when Clinton came to power (but I don't have the data).

[ScreamingMeemie]

52. My uncle Robert F. Paulsen, died in 1987 from AIDS related pneumonia.

I choose to be grateful to those, namely Elizabeth Glaser, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson, for drawing attention to a disease that has claimed many from all walks of life, and all classes...too many.

[troublemaker]

54. I attended art school 1979-1981 so the casualty rate for my class

was probably higher than that of the US Army in WWII. Seriously! Five, six, maybe seven dead from AIDS by 1990 out of a class of fifty something.

I'm not counting causes other than AIDS. Between cancer, car crashes and diving accidents I'd guess 25% of that class didn't live ten years. A real demographic anomaly for a population with a starting average age of about 19.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

55. I knew 2 men who died in the late 80's

A few days ago I told about my friend who was treated badly by a doctor when I took him to the emergency room due to a very high fever. This doctor backed away from him when he said he might be infected. I took him home and another friend and I took care of him. A few years later, he and his friend died.
I'll never forget that nor Reagan's silence and lack of compassion.

[XanaDUer]

56. Yes, three people.

I feel that he did not do enough as leader of the free world to address this scourge.

[preciousdove]

57. 15 year old hemopheliac, only child, only grandchild

How do I feel? Reagan didn't suffer nearly enough.

[lucky777]

59. HBO On Demand is running "And the Band Played On"

if you have Time-Warner HBO. I watched it again last night. No matter what you think of the movie, it brings back the 80s and the general homophobia that was rampant, not to mention Reagan's refusal to fund the necessary research.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

60. Yes

Reagan was evil. I don't blame him for my friends deaths but I know that if he could have prevented them, he would not have.

[hughee99]

61. I had a classmate who died

in the early 90's from a transfusion during the 80's. I guess if it's any consolation, AIDS research now receives significantly more funding than Raygun provided.

[Bjornsdotter]

62. Yes

Hi,

I had a friend who died in 1985 of AIDS....I still miss her.

Kim

[keithyboy]

63. I personally knew 8, including a cousin.

I was aware of the many deaths in other families of co-workers and friends.

[Susang]

64. Yes, many

And the last 24 hours have brought it all back again. :-(

I don't even want to talk about Reagan. How I feel about the man is my business. So far, I have refrained from posting my personal sentiments on this occasion since I think they are pretty obvious, they don't need to be spelled out.

[Fescue4u]

65. No. I was pretty insulated from that world

And still am for that matter.

I don't think met a gay person until around 93 (I was around 25 at that time)

Heck even now I don't know any gay people, although I see them one when I travel occasionally.

For the most part, gays and aids victims are folks that I see on tv and on the news.

But then again I live a (very) conservative midwest city

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

66. Kick

:kick:

[GumboYaYa]

67. One very close friend died in 1988. I watched him suffer.

I was just 18 and it was devastating to me.

My aunt also contracted HIV, but she committed suicide before AIDS had a chance to take her.

I just turn off the Reagan BS. Being angry at him now just seems a day late and a dollar short.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

69. Good Lord, I'm sorry!

I hope I didn't stir up something and hurt you.

[GumboYaYa]

80. No problem Chavez, pain lets you know you are alive.

There are lots of people who lost more friends and family than my experience. I know people who lost virtually every friend in their life. The disease came in a fury in the late eighteies and the drugs to treat the symptoms of AIDS and to enhance immune function were not there. A whole bunch of really great people died in droves during that time.

To me it was a formative time in my life because of my age. Reagan's policies turned me from an inquisitive kid, to a die-hard lifelong liberal.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

81. Well than some good came out of it!

Peace!

- CStheT

[bobthedrummer]

68. My cousin, Chris

[Neecy]

70. two friends

And I'm STILL angry at Reagan.

To show what a heartless bastard he was, I remember a story from the late Elizabeth Glaser's book (she started the Pediatric AIDS Foundation - her husband was Paul Glaser of Starsky & Hutch fame - about how she met with Ronnie and Nancy in the White House. She figured that she was a heterosexual woman, from their socio-economic class married to someone in the industry and that perhaps she'd be able to get through to him the urgent need for funding and for public education - particularly to remove the pariah status from those who suffered from the disease, and perhaps so he wouldn't remain silent while his Christian conservative fruitcake friends were chattering about "God's retribution".

Ronnie and Nancy were very nice. Nancy asked if her husband still had sex with her (Glaser was infected through a blood transfusion when she gave birth to her first child - both children were subsequently infected). Ronnie promised to read the new government study of HIV, which advocated an activist response.

Nothing happened. Zero. Reagan shelved the study and none of the recommendations were acted upon.

The Reagans were nice enough, though, to phone her when they'd heard her daughter had died of AIDS to express their condolences. Elizabeth died in 1994.

Grieve for Reagan? Not a chance. I grieve for his victims.

[Beam Me Up]

71. Too many to name. The first, a newphew, dead in his 20s

in 1986.

I hated Reagan then, I hate him now. But more to the point, I hate the NARROW MINDED BIGGOTS that he and his policies represented. May he suffer the way my whole family has suffered.

[KittyWampus]

72. Yes, 3 Very Talented Artists

[Raster]

74. Approximately 75-80% of friends and peers perished...

...during the plague years (read: raygun years). How do I feel about raygun? One of the WORST presidents in my life. He was numero uno until gee-dubya crashed the party.

All anyone has to do is REALLY LOOK at the historical record. REALLY check the facts. St. Ronnie of the Raygun was marginal at best. He was an actor hired to front military/petroleum/industrial complex currently in control. He should not be appraised as a leader, for he did not lead. He followed a script and was good (at least at first) at improvisation. Nothing more. The damage the "reagan revolution" did to this country is still greatly evident.

I resent the FUCK at all the efforts to canonize raygun. I resent the fuck out of everyone that's trying to hide or rewrite the raygun history. And I resent the fuck out of ANYONE that suggests I or anyone else should tone it down out of respect.

Rest in peace. Yeah, whatever.

[The empressof all]

75. Both 80's and 90's

I lost 3 very good friend in the 80's. My brother passed in 92 and my dearest friend in the world died in 93. He lived with us for his last year which was heartbreaking as he developed dementia and was a challenge to deal with. At the end His greatest wish was to go to WA and kill Reinquist. (He was an attorney). I was never really sure how serious he was about this but never the less it was very sad.

Needless to say I do not hold Reagan in high regard. It's frustrating to hear him praised, when I know directly just a small portion of the results of his evil policies.

[noonwitch]

76. I don't blame Reagan for the spread of AIDS

His surgeon general did about as much as could be done to raise awareness and try to stop the spread of AIDS. I went through a lot of training when I was hired as a social worker and most of the AIDS materials used came from C. Everett Koop. It's a terrible disease that spread too quickly before anything was known about it scientifically.

I think that Reagan's silence on the issue was a generational thing. Because it was associated with homsexuality in the early days, it was difficult for people, especially men, of his generation to discuss it. Especially when the AIDS prevention campaigns discussed frankly various sex acts and their relative risks, and the use of condoms. My grandparents don't want to talk about those things, and they're the same generation.

[genius]

77. Rock Hudson

[TankLV]

78. My best friend Michael.

It was awful - just wasted away.

Thank you for reminding me of the most important reason to hate raygun!

I am sooooooooooooo glad he's dead.

I am just sorry he didn't suffer like my friends did - his AZ meant he just forgot everything - and even in his "passing", it was others who suffered more. He should have had all the body pain and awful sicknesses that my friend did. He was too lucky.

[Liberal Veteran]

79. Please read this thread....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1748773

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

82. Kick - Thanks Liberal_Veteran!!!

You are absolutely right!

:toast:

[powergirl]

83. Yes, I know two

1. My friend's sister. She was a school teacher and had to quit her job because her immunities were down and she kept catching illnesses from her students. So eventually died from ARC - pneumonia

2. A boy (a man when he died) that went to high school with me. He was a gifted college level swimmer and was in medical school studying neurology when he died from ARC.

Thanks a lot Reagan

[unfrigginreal]

84. Too many

I'm glad he's dead