“The worst part of it was going to hospitals and going to people’s homes and doing what you could do, then going home and turning on the news and seeing a president who would not fucking say the word AIDS in public. We have a public health crisis and at the very top levels of our government the president of the United States refused to acknowledge it. He deferred to the religious right – this is God’s punishment.”
--David Garner, May 6, 2019
When the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, the Reagan administration’s first reaction was chilling: It appeared to treat the epidemic as a joke. In a new documentary short by Scott Calonico called When AIDS Was Funny, posted by Vanity Fair, audio of press conferences reveals Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, Larry Speakes, and members of the media joking about the HIV/AIDS epidemic — which they called “gay plague” — and laughing about one of the reporters potentially having it.
Here’s the first exchange between Speakes and journalist Lester Kinsolving from 1982, when nearly 1,000 people had died from AIDS:
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?
Lester Kinsolving: You don’t have it? Well, I’m relieved to hear that, Larry! [Press pool laughter.]
Larry Speakes: Do you?
Lester Kinsolving: No, I don’t.
Larry Speakes: You didn’t answer my question. How do you know? [Press pool laughter.]
Lester Kinsolving: Does the president — in other words, the White House — look on this as a great joke?
Larry Speakes: No, I don’t know anything about it, Lester.
Later exchanges include more joking and apathy about AIDS, including from members of the press, even after more was known about the seriousness of the epidemic. Here is audio from 1984, when more than 4,200 had died:
Larry Speakes: Lester is beginning to circle now. He’s moving up front. Go ahead.
Lester Kinsolving: Since the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta report is going to… [Press pool laughter.]
Larry Speakes: This is going to be an AIDS question.
Lester Kinsolving: …that an estimated…
Larry Speakes: You were close.
Lester Kinsolving: Can I ask the question, Larry? That an estimated 300,000 people have been exposed to AIDS, which can be transmitted through saliva. [This is false; HIV can only be transmitted through blood, semen, pre-cum, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk.] Will the president, as commander in chief, take steps to protect armed forces, food, and medical services from AIDS patients or those who run the risk of spreading AIDS in the same manner that they bed typhoid fever people from being involved in the health or food services? [Through this question, laughter can be heard coming from the press pool.]
Larry Speakes: I don’t know.
Lester Kinsolving: Is the president concerned about this subject, Larry?
Larry Speakes: I haven’t heard him express concern.
Lester Kinsolving: That seems to have evoked such jocular reaction here. [Press pool laughter.]
Unidentified person: It isn’t only the jocks, Lester.
Unidentified person: Has he sworn off water faucets now?
Lester Kinsolving: No, but I mean, is he going to do anything, Larry?
Lester Kinsolving: You mean he has expressed no opinion about this epidemic?
Larry Speakes: No, but I must confess I haven’t asked him about it.
Lester Kinsolving: Will you ask him, Larry?
Larry Speakes: Have you been checked? [Press pool laughter.]
Unidentified person: Is the president going to ban mouth-to-mouth kissing?
Lester Kinsolving: What? Pardon? I didn’t hear your answer.
Larry Speakes: [Laughs.] Ah, it’s hard work. I don’t get paid enough. Um. Is there anything else we need to do here?
The exchanges are hugely revealing. For one, they show just how little was known about the disease when the epidemic first broke — people thought it was exclusive to gay people, and thought that it could be transmitted through saliva, even though HIV can only be transmitted through blood, semen, pre-cum, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk.
The exchanges also demonstrated that Reagan and his administration didn’t take the epidemic very seriously, for which the Reagan administration is still heavily criticized. His successors eventually acted, albeit often very slowly, on the crisis — leading to much more research, programs like the Ryan White CARE Act that connect people to care, and the development of antiretroviral medication that increases the life expectancy of a person living with HIV by decades.
Crack literally changed the entire face of the city. I know of no other drug, except maybe LSD in its heyday, that caused such a social change. I know of no other drug that caused the social change that crack caused. You can't name another drug that came close.
--Robert Stutman
The administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan early on began to prioritize what came to be called the “War on Drugs,” which combatted drug trafficking and aimed to end the crack cocaine epidemic destroying many lives. The efforts included the passing of federal anti-drug laws, increased federal anti-drug funding, the initiation and expansion of prison and police programs, and the establishment of private organizations, such as Partnership for a Drug-Free America, to campaign on its behalf. The idea of the War on Drugs was grounded in deterrence theory, whereby the implementation of legislation and harsher penalties would deter or discourage the use of drugs. The 100-to-l ratio between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine was used as a guideline for minimal mandatory punishment. For instance, a minimum penalty of 5 years was administered for 5 grams of crack cocaine or 500 grams of powdered cocaine.
The War on Drugs resulted in an immense growth in court caseloads and the prison population. The War on Drugs focused on small-time drug dealers, who were generally poor young black males from the inner city. Ultimately, the prison population doubled due to the arrest of drug dealers and their customers. One in every four African American males aged 20 to 29 was either incarcerated or on probation or parole by 1989, which contributed to the United States’ having the highest incarceration rate in the world. By 1995, that statistic had increased to nearly one in three.
Along with reinstating and creating new legislation, the First Lady, Nancy Reagan, chose to launch an anti-drug campaign called “Just Say No” in an effort to educate children on the dangers of drug use. Just Say No was a staple of the Reagan presidency and still has lasting effects and efforts that can be seen today. The movement began in 1982, according to the Reagan Foundation.
“A little girl raised her hand,” she remembered, “and said, ‘Mrs. Reagan, what do you do if somebody offers you drugs?’ And I said, ’well, you just say no.’”
This is how the campaign began. Soon Mrs. Reagan would become relentless in her pursuit for reducing teen and child drug use. In the early- and mid-1980’s, she appeared 110 times and gave 14 anti-drug addresses, including a televised address. Her efforts saw her travel through 65 cities, 33 states and even nine foreign countries.
While the intentions of the Just Say No campaign were admirable, they may not have had the intended effects and may have led to unforeseeable, adverse consequences. One such problem is it may have impacted the rise of prescription drugs.
While the campaign did try to paint illegal drugs and drug users as evil, it failed to mention the dangers of prescription drugs and the control they can have over people, something that would become more problematic in the late-90’s and 2000’s.