To: Steve Smith, Executive Director/CEO and Amy P. Abernethy, MD FACP FAAHPM, Board President
Remove Reagan's Name
Ronald Reagan may have had other accomplishments during his presidency but we do not believe his record on hospice/palliative care is compatible with including him on a list of visionaries. Quite the opposite. We are asking you at AAHPM to remove his name from your list.
Why is this important?
Ronald Reagan may have had other accomplishments during his presidency but we do not believe his record on hospice/palliative care is compatible with including him on a list of visionaries especially in relation to the AIDS pandemic. Quite the opposite. We are asking you at AAHPM to remove his name from your list.
Reagan was included on the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) list of visionaries because “he signed legislation that established the Medicare hospice benefit”.
For those of you who were not around during the early days of the AIDS pandemic here is a little background information:
• By the time Ronald Reagan first said the word "AIDS" in public, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died. The disease had spread to 113 countries, with more than 50,000 cases.
* In 1986 he called for a reduction in AIDS spending.
* In 1982 Reagan said:"...AIDS information cannot be what some call 'value neutral'. After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons."
* When family friend William F. Buckley called for mandatory testing and said that HIV-positive men should have the information forcibly tattooed on their buttocks (and IV drug users on their arms) Reagan said nothing.
* Between June of 1981 and May of 1982, the CDC spent less than $1 million on AIDS and $9 million on Legionnaires Disease...largely in response to an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in 5 men and 2 women on a cruise ship…but they were not gay men.
* Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan's surgeon general, has said that because of "intradepartmental politics" he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan administration. The reason, he explained, was "because transmission of AIDS was understood to be primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs."
Regarding the LGBT movement in general, Reagan said:
"My criticism is that [the gay movement] isn't just asking for civil rights; it’s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I.
Shilts, Randy (2005). Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military.
Reagan was included on the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) list of visionaries because “he signed legislation that established the Medicare hospice benefit”.
For those of you who were not around during the early days of the AIDS pandemic here is a little background information:
• By the time Ronald Reagan first said the word "AIDS" in public, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died. The disease had spread to 113 countries, with more than 50,000 cases.
* In 1986 he called for a reduction in AIDS spending.
* In 1982 Reagan said:"...AIDS information cannot be what some call 'value neutral'. After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons."
* When family friend William F. Buckley called for mandatory testing and said that HIV-positive men should have the information forcibly tattooed on their buttocks (and IV drug users on their arms) Reagan said nothing.
* Between June of 1981 and May of 1982, the CDC spent less than $1 million on AIDS and $9 million on Legionnaires Disease...largely in response to an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in 5 men and 2 women on a cruise ship…but they were not gay men.
* Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan's surgeon general, has said that because of "intradepartmental politics" he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan administration. The reason, he explained, was "because transmission of AIDS was understood to be primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs."
Regarding the LGBT movement in general, Reagan said:
"My criticism is that [the gay movement] isn't just asking for civil rights; it’s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I.
Shilts, Randy (2005). Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military.