Op-ed: The Gay Tth About Ronald Reagan

Contents:

• RON JR. ON THE RERD: THE SON OF RONALD REAGAN BREAKS HIS SILENCE REGARDG THE WHISPER MPAIGN THAT HE IS GAY.
• OP-ED: THE GAY TTH ABOUT RONALD REAGAN
• RONALD REAGAN FEARED SON WAS GAY WHEN HE BEME BALLET DANCER
• THE REAL RERD OF THE REAGANS ON GAYS AND AIDS
• WHEN REAGAN SAID GAY
• ADAPTED OM SECRET CITY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON BY JAM KIRCHICK. PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. COPYRIGHT © 2022 BY JAM KIRCHICK. ALL RIGHTS RERVED.
• HOMOSEXUALY AND GAY RIGHTS
• THIS IS WHY GAYS BLAME RONALD REAGAN FOR AIDS

RON JR. ON THE RERD: THE SON OF RONALD REAGAN BREAKS HIS SILENCE REGARDG THE WHISPER MPAIGN THAT HE IS GAY.

Gay buzz has surround the reed-th son of former print Ronald Reagan sce he dropped out of Yale Universy his hman year 1976 to dance wh New York Cy's Jofey Ballet.

It follows him still, even though he and his longtime wife, clil psychologist Dorta Reagan, appear to be happily married, ensnced Seattle wh their three typed as gay "has never bothered me, " says Reagan, 46, a polil mentator for MSNBC and dog show host for Animal Pla. " He plans to vote for John outspoken cric of Bh, Reagan ma headl July when he addrsed the Democratic Natnal Conventn support of feral fundg for stem cell is equally passnate about gay marriage.

OP-ED: THE GAY TTH ABOUT RONALD REAGAN

This narrative was further rerced recently the HBO film The Normal Heart, which Reagan is basilly held personally acuntable for the lack of progrs fightg the disease durg his picture that people like to pat of Reagan the LGBT muny is that he was a ferocly antigay zealot who believed that AIDS was a punishment brought down by God upon the gay muny. I know I'm gog to be torn apart by many of the rears of this article, nsirg that I am a young gay progrsive Democrat who wouldn't ordarily e to the fense of a nservative Republin, but ultimately the ntext matters.

RONALD REAGAN FEARED SON WAS GAY WHEN HE BEME BALLET DANCER

Ed Mee, Reagan's attorney general, has said that pictns of Reagan as antigay are "totally unfair and totally unreprentative of his views or anythg he ever said.

THE REAL RERD OF THE REAGANS ON GAYS AND AIDS

Jt a year before he announced his ndidacy for print, he me out forcefully agast Proposn 6 California, which would've barred gay people om teachg public schools.

Before that statement, The Advote had lled out Reagan for referrg to gay people as "sick unfortunat" and for stallg repeal of antisodomy laws the state the early '70s.

Whatever his mistak were when me to HIV and AIDS, she suggts that the former print kept a live-and-let-live attu when me to gay people, le wh the broar pro-eedom prcipl he poed for father once said that Reagan was "the most thentic man" he'd ever met and that "he didn't have a mean-spired bone his body. Des old spicns that Ronald Reagan was gay were substantiated recently wh the disvery of a stack of nearly 70-year-old love letters the attic of a home Rancho Mirage, California. There were snickers om the right, but the prsure me om the left: Larry Kramer, one of the earlit and most proment AIDS activists, was one of the lour voic, sayg publicly that Ron was gay.

WHEN REAGAN SAID GAY

Ronald Reagan feared his son was gay when he dropped out of Yale to bee a ballet dancerThe 40th print's son went on to marry wife Doria 1980, and the two are still together livg Seattle wh their ts Published: 21:14 BST, 3 June 2014 | Updated: 22:52 BST, 3 June 2014 It has been revealed that Ronald Reagan secretly feared his son was gay when the younger Ron dropped out of Yale 1976 to bee a ballet dancer. 'My dad ventured the opn that all people the arts might not be gay, but there wasn’t much he uld really say about this, and, of urse, we now know Ron’s not gay.

ADAPTED OM SECRET CITY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON BY JAM KIRCHICK. PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. COPYRIGHT © 2022 BY JAM KIRCHICK. ALL RIGHTS RERVED.

The Reagan admistratn was blamed for their slow rponse to the AIDs epimic, which pated the print as homophobic sce many believed his son was a closeted gay man. Twelve days before Reagan was elected print November, 1980, Christians for Reagan, a supposedly pennt lobby anized to pture the fundamentalist vote for the Republin nomee, announced that would pay for a barrage of advertisements throughout the South, which attacked Print Carter for “terg” to homosexuals.

By far the most fluential gay man the Reagan ner circle was Robert Gray, an extremely succsful Washgton public relatns man who had been a closeted pal player ever sce he had served as Dwight Eisenhower’s appotments secretary. ” In New York, the gay power broker Roy Cohn boasted of his fluence wh the Reagan Whe Hoe, and his law partner, Tom Bolan, beme head of the screeng mtee for feral judghips New York State.

HOMOSEXUALY AND GAY RIGHTS

Homophobia led many cisn makers to disunt the AIDS epimic, partly bee they didn’t re much about those who were sick, and partly bee they believed that as long as they were straight, they themselv would never have to worry about . The only real hero were a few scientists si the CDC, who lobbied early and often for more money to fight the epimic, and a very small group of ngrsmen om California and New York, cludg Philip Burton, Henry Waxman, and Ted Weiss, whose openly gay staff members nvced them to take the epimic serly.

THIS IS WHY GAYS BLAME RONALD REAGAN FOR AIDS

In April 1982, Wtmoreland wrote a statement for Waxman to read which clared, “There is no doubt my md that if the same disease had appeared among Amerins of Norwegian scent, or among tennis players, rather than gay mal, the rpons of both the ernment and the medil tablishment would have been different. Insi the Reagan admistratn—at the Whe Hoe, at the Office of Management and Budget, and wh the Department of Health and Human man Servic—there were no openly gay staffers, and therefore, very ltle will to attack the problem forcefully.

Members of the Moral Majory believed that would be worse to scribe gay sex to young people than was to prive them of the rmatn they might require to stay healthy. This attu was another ditn of the persistence of the myth that homosexualy was ntag—even though Reagan himself had publicly rejected that ia durg the battle over the Briggs amendment that would have banned gay teachers om California’s public schools. “Many people, pecially our youth, are not receivg rmatn that is val to their future health and well-beg bee of our reticence alg wh the subjects of sex, sexual practic and homosexualy, ” the surgeon general wrote.