• Hot Saucerman
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      1 year ago

      it’s not 40 years later and we still have no vaccine or cure for HIV/AIDS.

      What? We have multiple examples of massive growth in treating and stopping the spread of AIDS/HIV?

      The Reagan administration literally acted like it was a joke that no one should care about because it only affected gay people. This was during a period of time where people preached that the disease was God punishing sinners. You can rewrite history all you want, but Reagan killed people by minimizing the seriousness of the disease and minimizing the gay community at the same time, essentially saying “It’s okay if we let the queers die.”

        • Hot Saucerman
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          1 year ago

          Fauci was not the one on the news cracking jokes about it and making fun of the gay men it was affecting. The entire administration didn’t take it seriously.

            • Hot Saucerman
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              1 year ago

              It was believed to be a gay disease and that belief came from the CDC and other health organizations.

              Wow, shocker. In a period of history where queerness was regularly met with violence for being queer, straight people in positions of power were making crude assumptions about the queer community. I’m pretty sure the discrimination came first, and that’s where assumptions, even from scientists who are fallible human beings like anyone else, came from. I mean hell, this was barely 30 years after Alan Turing, a fucking war hero was chemically castrated for being gay. Doctors signed off on that, too.

              It doesn’t mean it wasn’t an issue that traveled through the entire administration. You can dump it all on Fauci’s feet if you want, but it was painfully obviously much bigger than that, with the dominant straight community pretending it wasn’t an issue, or an issue to be joked about since they didn’t think it would affect them.