Ronald Reagan and AIDS

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, oversaw the United States response to the emergence of the HIV/AIDS crisis during the 1980s. His actions, or lack thereof, have long been a source of controversy and have been criticized by LGBT and AIDS advocacy organizations.

AIDS was first medically recognized in 1981, in New York and California, and the term AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) was adopted in 1982 to describe the disease. Lester Kinsolving, a reporter in the White House press pool, attempted to ask many early questions on AIDS, but his questions were not taken seriously. The 1985 illness and death of Rock Hudson from AIDS marked a major turning point in how the American public viewed AIDS, with major policy shifts and funding increases coming in the wake of his death. Reagan did not publicly acknowledge AIDS until 1985 and did not give an address on it until 1987.

Reports on AIDS from Surgeon General C. Everett Koop in 1986 and James D. Watkins in 1988 were provided to the Reagan administration and offered information about AIDS and policy suggestions on how to limit its spread. Towards the end of his presidency in 1988, Reagan took some steps to implement policies, mainly those suggested in the Watkins Commission report, to stop the spread of AIDS and help those who were infected. These policies included notifications to those at risk of infection and barring federal discrimination against civilian employees with AIDS, though these actions have been criticized as not wide enough in their scope and too late in the crisis to prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

As gay men, transgender women, and LGBT people in general were disproportionately afflicted with AIDS, some critics have suggested that Reagan's lack of action was motivated by homophobia, though some commentators have put forth alternate explanations such as political inconvenience or ignorance. A common belief at the time held that AIDS was a "gay plague", and many social conservatives of the time, including some in the White House, believed the response to the crisis should center homosexuality as a moral failing. Reagan's response to AIDS is generally viewed negatively by LGBT and AIDS activists, as well as epidemiologists, though some commentators and scholars have defended aspects of his AIDS response. Criticism of Reagan's AIDS policies led to the creation of art condemning the government's inaction such as The Normal Heart, as well as invigorating a new wave of the gay rights movement.