Nasen Washington

Professor Sprayberry

HIST 2112

29 November 2022

Statements of AIDS Patients

The Statements of AIDS Patients is a document which recorded what some AIDS sufferers had to

say about the disease. Something they all agreed on was the stigma that surrounded the disease, and

that was one of the problems that kept showing up. They also noted on the fact that there was never

any new information on the disease. It was said to be a disease that only gay men got, which caused

even more of a stigma around it.

The media seemed to take the entire disease as a joke. Reporters constantly poked fun about it,

and there was misinformation spread in the media about AIDS, claiming that it was exclusive to gay

people and that it could be spread through saliva. Ronald Reagan didn’t ever seem very hasty to stop

the spread of fake news or misconceptions, however I don’t feel it was out of ill content. Due to

everyone thinking AIDs was some sort of “gay plague,” it was naturally a touchy subject back then when

America was even more conservative. I feel like he and his administration didn’t want to spread more

fake news maybe, and since there was never really a rush for him to speak about it, he simply did not. I

don’t agree with that decision, however that’s what seems to make the most sense to me.
 Works Cited

Bennington-Castro, Joseph. “How AIDS Remained an Unspoken—but Deadly—Epidemic for

Years.” HISTORY, 1 June 2020, www.history.com/news/aids-epidemic-ronald-reagan.

Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

King, Jack. “The Drama That Raged against Reagan’s America.” Www.bbc.com, 19 Oct. 2020,

www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201019-the-drama-that-raged-against-reagans-america.

Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

Lopez, German. “The Reagan Administration’s Unbelievable Response to the HIV/AIDS

Epidemic.” Vox, Vox, 1 Dec. 2015, www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-

hiv-aids. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

Mason, James Duke. “Op-Ed: The Gay Truth about Ronald Reagan.” Www.advocate.com, 5 June

2014, www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/06/05/op-ed-gay-truth-about-ronald-reagan.

Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

“Statements of AIDS Patients (1983) | the American Yawp Reader.” The American YAWP

Reader, www.americanyawp.com/reader/29-the-triumph-of-the-right/statements-of-aids-

patients-1983/. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.