I am using my extra sections to examine political legacy AIDS, which is undoubtedly one of the most salient leftovers from this crisis. Today, this legacy manifests most dominantly in two ways: first, in the tarnished legacy of the Reagan Administration, and second, as a catalyst for gay politics.
The Reagan Administration’s silence on AIDS is perhaps most telling of the administration’s prejudice and indifference towards victims; Reagan himself gave the American public no substantial words regarding the disease or any intention to address it until six years after the disease was first reported on in America and tens of thousands of Americans had died. However, other members of Reagan’s administration did address the disease: most notably Reagan’s press secretary Larry Speaks, who, in a series of press conferences between 1983 and 1884, deflected questions regarding the administration’s plans to address the mounting crisis with homophobic jokes, all of which are recorded. The audio recording of two of these interactions is linked above; analysis of Speaks’ responses is truly revealing of the homophobia behind Reagan’s refusal to act.
First, the willful, sarcastic, and indifferent way Speaks pretends to be unaware of the AIDS crisis is truly shocking. The first conference where Speaks was asked to address the crisis was in 1983, when over 1,000 Americans had died of AIDS. Reporter Lester Kinsolving asked if the President had any reaction to the mounting crisis, to which Speaks replied “AIDS? I haven’t got anything on it.” This pseudo-ignorance of the disease continued to define Speaks’ responses to AIDS questions at another press conference in 1984, when over 4,000 Americans had died of the disease. When responding to the question “is the president concerned about AIDS,” Kingsolver claims he has not “heard him express concern,” before claiming he had not “asked him about it.” The homophobic associations with AIDS were so strong at this time that to even express concern for the virus and its victims was to expose oneself to homophobic belittlement; Speaks’ refusal to acknowledge his own awareness of the disease highlights the degree to which the Reagan administration valued its masculine, conservative image over the lives of the people over which it presided.
This sentiment is further highlighted in the most horrific aspect of these recordings: the homophobic jokes. Reporter Kinsolving insisted in the 1983 press conference that AIDS was a “pretty serious thing” and that “one in every three people that get this have died,” to which Speaks responded “I don’t have it. Do you?” This response induced a wave of laughter from the press pool. Kinsolving continues to attempt to ask his question but is repeatedly drowned out by Speaks’ not-so-subtle accusation that Kinsolving has AIDS (“You didn’t answer my question. How do you know?”) until Kinsolving finally asks “Does the president — in other words, the White House — look on this as a great joke?” Speaks deflects this question through more pseudo-ignorance, once again claiming to not know anything about the disease.
That the face of the Reagan administration felt comfortable publicly joking about a disease which was killing thousands of its own citizens is chilling. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the deflective jokes and the “jocular” reaction of the press pool emphasize the extent to which the system as a whole was riddled with homophobia—when Kinsolving accused Speaks and the press pool of their “jocular reaction” at the 1984 conference, an unidentified reporter yelled “it isn’t only the jocks, Lester!” The readiness of the other reporters in the room to bolster and contribute to the belittlement of anyone who mentioned AIDS is a potent and gut-wrenching example of the hostile political environment and lack of support AIDS victims were submitted to throughout the eight years of Reagan’s presidency.
It is also worth noting that even Kinsolving, the one entity in these recordings who seems to be genuinely intent on spurring the Reagan administration into action regarding AIDS, spreads misinformation through his questioning. He asked in 1984 if the president was aware “that an estimated 300,000 people have been exposed to AIDS, which can be transmitted through saliva,” which is untrue; AIDS can only be transmitted through “blood, semen, pre-cum, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk” (Lopez). The suggestion by a reporter that AIDS could be transmitted through saliva three years into the crisis is evident of both the paranoia surrounding AIDS which had gripped the country at this time and the overwhelming lack of medical research into the disease, a result of the homophobia depicted above. Furthermore, his questions in the latter conference are framed to avoid mentioning the queer community; he asks if the president would “take steps to protect armed forces, food, and medical services from AIDS patients,” rather than inquiring about what steps the president was taking to protect AIDS victims themselves, to avoid appearing aligned with the homosexual community and facing further taunting in the unsympathetic and homophobic environment of Reagan’s press conferences.