[afro-nets] With deep sadness...

[Hamisi Kigwangalla <hamisi75@yahoo.com>]

With deep sadness...
--------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: LGBTA Community of Penn State
On Behalf of Sue Rankin


Good morning all,

The following messages from Matt Foreman and Eric Rofes came
across my desk this morning and brought back for me memories of
those that I (we) lost to am epidemic that the Reagan admini-
stration did nothing about for nearly seven years. For those of
us who are educators we must teach those who were not a part of
that history, our history. They must know about the men who
died, about the epidemic that nearly decimated our community,
and about the administration that did little to stop it. If we
don't teach them, who will?

With deep sadness,

Sue


--
Regarding the Death of Former President Ronald Reagan: A Letter
to My Best Friend, Steven Powsner

By Matt Foreman, Executive Director National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force

June 6, 2004

Dear Steven,

I so much wish you were here today to tell me what to do. You
would know if it's right to comment on the death of former
President Reagan, or if I should just let pass the endless pae-
ans to his greatness. But you're not here. The policies of the
Reagan administration saw to that.

Yes, Steven, I do feel for the family and friends of the former
President. The death of a loved one is always a profoundly sad
occasion, and Mr. Reagan was loved by many. I have tremendous
empathy and respect for Mrs. Reagan, who lovingly cared for him
through excruciating years of Alzheimer's.

Sorry, Steven, but even on this day I'm not able to set aside
the shaking anger I feel over Reagan's non-response to the AIDS
epidemic or for the continuing anti-gay legacy of his admini-
stration. Is it personal? Of course. AIDS was first reported in
1981, but President Reagan could not bring himself to address
the plague until March 31, 1987, at which time there were 60,000
reported cases of full-blown AIDS and 30,000 deaths. I remember
that day, Steven - you were staying round-the-clock in Memorial
Sloan Kettering Hospital caring for your dying partner of over
15 years, Bruce Cooper. It was another 41 days of utter agony
for both of you before Bruce died. During those years of White
House silence and inaction, how many other dear friends did we
see sicken and die hideous deaths?

Is it personal? Yes, Steven. I know for a fact that you would be
alive today if the Reagan administration had mounted even a
tepid response to the epidemic. If protease inhibitors had been
available in July of 1995 instead of December, you'd still be
here.

I wouldn't feel so angry if the Reagan administration's failing
was due to ignorance or bureaucratic ineptitude. No, Steven, we
knew then it was deliberate. The government's response was dic-
tated by the grip of evangelical Christian conservatives who saw
gay people as sinners and AIDS as God's well-deserved punish-
ment. Remember? The White House Director of Communications, Pat-
rick Buchanan, once argued in print that AIDS is nature's re-
venge on gay men. Reagan's Secretary of Education, William Ben-
nett, and his domestic policy adviser, Gary Bauer, made sure
that science (and basic tenets of Christianity, for that matter)
never got in the way of politics or what they saw as "God's"
work.

Even so, I think I could let go of this anger if this was just
another overwhelmingly sad chapter in our nation's past. It is
not. Steven, can you believe that the unholy pact President
Reagan and the Republican Party entered with the forces of reli-
gious intolerance have not weakened, but grown exponentially
stronger? Can you believe that the U.S. government is still bow-
ing to right wing extremists and fighting condom distribution
and explicit HIV education, even while AIDS is killing millions
across the world? Or that "devout" Christians have forced the
scrapping of AIDS prevention programs targeted at HIV-negative
gay and bisexual men in favor of bullshit "abstinence only until
marriage" initiatives? Or the shameless duplicity of these same
forces seeking to forever outlaw even the hope of marriage for
gay people? Or that Reagan stalwarts like Buchanan, Bennett and
Bauer are still grinding their homophobic axes?

No, Steven, I do not presume to judge Ronald Reagan's soul or
heart. He may very well have been a nice guy. In fact, I don't
think that Reagan hated gay people -- I'm sure some of his and
Nancy's best friends were gay. But I do know that the Reagan ad-
ministration's policies on AIDS and anything gay-related re-
sulted - and continue to result - in despair and death.

Oh, Steven, I wish so much you were here.

Matt

(On November 20, 1995, Steven Powsner, died of complications
from AIDS at age 40. He had been President of the New York City
Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center from 1992-1994.)


What Do We Do with the Rage and the Fury This Time?


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