Because the canard about Reagan not mentioning AIDS before 1987
is spreading, here's an excerpt from a press conference transcript,
from the NY Times, Sept. 18, 1985:
Q: Would you support a massive Government research program against AIDS like the one that President Nixon launched against cancer?
Reagan: I have been supporting it for more than four years now. It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last four years and including what we have in the budget for '86 it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS, in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing.
And we have $100 billion, or $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be $126 million next year. So this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this, and the need to find an answer.
Reagan and the 'Briggs Initiative.'
On another gay-related issue, here's a
good discussion of Reagan's opposition to a statewide ballot
initiative that would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching
in California's public schools. Writes columnist John
Nichols:
it was quite a remarkable moment when Ronald Reagan, who had served two terms as governor of California and was preparing to mount a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, emerged as an outspoken foe of the Briggs Initiative. Convinced by activists David Mixner and Peter Scott that the initiative represented an unwarranted threat to free speech rights and individual liberties, Reagan declared that the initiative "is not needed to protect our children -- we have the legal protection now." ...
Reagan's forceful opposition to the Briggs Initiative helped to doom it.
Initially, one poll had shown that Californians backed the
anti-gay initiative by a margin of 61 percent to 31
percent.