After reading Dean Esmay’s contention that Ronald Reagan’s reputation of ignoring AIDS was a “lie” (his favorite word), I came upon this jaw-dropping story about 80s press conferences, where Reagan’s spokesman repeatedly joked about AIDS.
Since I’m banned on his site, I sent him the link, thinking that there must be some behavior by conservatives so outrageous, so beyond the pale that even Dean Esmay would repudiate it.
Nope. Wrong again.
“You may not be old enough to remember this, but prior to the late 1980s, pretty much everybody–Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, etc., still considered homosexuality something of a joke and an embarassment. Just bringing it up in casual conversation was like that.”
-Dean in an e-mail to me
My “stabbing a small child in the neck” hypothesis seems more and more plausible by the day.
“President Reagan is dead and if people need to dance and spit on his grave because his press secretary made some gay jokes before most people understood how bad AIDS was and he wasn’t proactive enough in their view, fine, whatever. It all kind of makes me sick inside.”
I know what you mean, Dean. I know what you mean.