Homosexualy and Gay Rights | 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. 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.

OP-ED: THE GAY TTH ABOUT RONALD REAGAN

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.

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.

RONALD REAGAN FEARED SON WAS GAY WHEN HE BEME BALLET DANCER

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. 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.

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.

THE REAL RERD OF THE REAGANS ON GAYS AND AIDS

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.

WHEN REAGAN SAID GAY

” 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. 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.

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.

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.

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. Dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by crics, the legislatn would mandate that “classroom stctn by school personnel or third parti on sexual orientatn or genr inty may not occur krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards.

”By permtg parents to sue school districts that fail to enforce s vague provisns, the act would effectively bar classroom discsn and dividual exprsn on a wi range of subjects not necsarily limed to homosexualy and genr inty. Gay stunts and the children of same-sex upl, for stance, would likely be hibed om talkg about their liv, and teachers uld face the wrath of angry parents simply for discsg historil events volvg gay people, such as the adly 2016 attack on a gay nightclub bill’s proponents sist that the measure has nothg to do wh harmg the digny of gay dividuals but rather is aimed at ensurg age-appropriate sexual tn. In 1988 the Brish Parliament passed a measure preventg lol thori om “promotg homosexualy” or “the teachg any mataed school of the acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship.

Ten years later, the Rsian Duma unanimoly passed legislatn “for the purpose of protectg children om rmatn advotg for a nial of tradnal fay valu” prohibg the dissematn of “propaganda” of nontradnal sexual Asenc-Rhe/Tampa Bay Tim, via Associated PrsWhile brandg gay people as child molters has been a staple of right-wg rhetoric around the world, there has long existed a stra of Amerin libertarian nservatism that ems the legal enshrement of such prejudic as an vasn of privacy and a dangero enhancement of state power. ”Much like the current Florida bill, the Briggs Iniative was ambiguoly word, such that would have permted the firg of not jt gay teachers but also anyone who spoke out on their behalf. The measure was part of a natnal backlash agast the advancement of gay rights that began the prev year wh a mpaign by the Florida Cs Commissn spokwoman and gospel sger Ana Bryant to repeal an ordance Miami’s Da County that prohibed discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn.

HOMOSEXUALY AND GAY RIGHTS

A Field poll published September 1978 found 61 percent of California voters supported banng gay teachers, a figure nsistent wh natnal proponents of Proposn 6 lookg at what seemed like an unobstcted path to victory, those opposn wonred what one of the state’s most popular Republins, s former ernor Ronald Reagan, thought about the measure. Reagan, wh his Hollywood background, was more faiar wh gay people than the average Amerin and that the former actor was an advote for limed ernment and dividual rights.

Reagan’s own language: “Anarchy, ” he told the former ernor, who had ed that word to scribe mp unrt at Berkeley, would be unleashed classrooms statewi as stunts lodged spur charg of homosexualy agast their teachers. ” He ma a more substantive se his syndited lumn published a week before the electn, refutg the claim that gays had a greater propensy to be child molters and the nard that they joed the teachg profsn to rec imprsnable Electn Day, voters rejected Proposn 6, 58 percent to 42 percent, a nearly exact reversal of what the polls dited jt two months earlier.

Reagan monstrated regard to gay teachers was sorely lackg durg his princy, when he spent years ignorg the AIDS crisis, refg even to mentn the name of the disease killg thoands of gay men until his send Ms.

THIS IS WHY GAYS BLAME RONALD REAGAN FOR AIDS

Bryant’s nox Save Our Children mpaign of the late 1970s, today’s effort at stigmatizg gay people fds popular backg, wh some 51 percent of Amerins supportg laws to ban classroom discsns of sexual orientatn. But moral panics, by fn, eventually lose their steam, and Republins of nscience should not let the passns of the moment overwhelm their stated mments to dividual rights, personal privacy and limed Kirchick is the thor of the forthg book “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton.

It was 3:15 on the morng of June 26, 1980, and Congrsman Bob Livgston was extraordarily dnk, hidg the ngrsnal gym beneath the Rayburn Hoe Office Buildg, petrified that a team of highly traed right-wg homosexual assasss workg on behalf of Ronald Reagan was about to kill him. While public attus have bee far more open, the suatn that someone is gay — whether te or not — remas a potent weapon (as elements of the mpaign agast North Carola Republin Rep. This acunt of the alleged “homosexual rg” that ntrolled Ronald Reagan, and the efforts to expose on the eve of the 1980 Republin Natnal Conventn that nomated him for the princy, is piled om terviews wh several of the survivg participants and documents unvered the papers of former Washgton Post Executive Edor Ben Bradlee.

“That stuff, ” or what Kemp adviser Ju Wanniski termed “the homosexual thg, ” had dogged the upstate New York ngrsman and former profsnal football player sce the fall of 1967, when the syndited newspaper lumnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anrson published a piece lkg Kemp to a “homosexual rg” operatg wh Reagan’s gubernatorial office. ” The “slanr” and “old lumny” that the virile ex-football pro and father of four might be gay, journalists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak wrote at the time, was a “vic nard, ” the sort of “poisono” “garbage” one found “submerged the polil sewers” and other “gutter munitns” that “not only do gross jtice to their victims but also mean and pollute mocratic ernment.