“During the AIDS crisis, can you imagine if gay men and intravenous drug users, or the vast majority of people with AIDS, had they been pariahs the way the non-vaccinated are? But it would’ve been inconceivable.”
The nearly 8-minute film features previously unreleased audio of former Reagan press secretary Larry Speakes scoffing at, and making light of, persistent questions in a span of three years (1982-1984) on the disease's outbreak from reporter Lester Kinsolving. The audiotape, which includes reporters openly laughing at the notion of a "gay plague," puts the administration's lack of response in perspective."As you can hear in the tape, the whole AIDS issue was treated by Speakes and the press pool, for that matter, as a joke. I'd like to think that the Reagan administration didn't realize what they were grappling with at first," Calonico told MSNBC.Reagan did not utter the word AIDS until 1985, following the death of his friend, Hollywood actor Rock Hudson, from the disease. He did not speak about the disease at length until near the end of his second term in 1987 during an AIDS conference in Washington, D.C. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died," by the time Reagan made that speech. Reagan also reportedly prevented his surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, from being more aggressive about raising public consciousness of the disease.
Years ago when Fox News was gaining power, some of us predicted what would happen should that propaganda crap shack folks call a network turned its full force against the LGBTQ community. The election last Tuesday in Virginia demonstrated what we were afraid of. And Media Matters has the details:
Right-wing media weaponized a sexual assault at a Loudon County, Virginia, high school in order to spread anti-trans disinformation and make trans rights into a wedge issue in Virginia’s gubernatorial election -- despite trans-inclusion having nothing to do with the assault. In particular, Fox News aired 88 segments in just over a three-week period about a student sexually assaulting a classmate in a girls bathroom.After right-wing outlet The Daily Wire published a story about the assault, which included an interview with the survivor’s father, right-wing media twisted the story into an opportunity to perpetuate the myth that trans-inclusive bathrooms allow predators to attack women. In the October 11 story, the assault survivor’s father asserted that the attacker “is apparently bisexual and occasionally wears dresses.” In addition, he falsely claimed that kids are using the trans-inclusive bathroom policies “as an advantage to get into the bathrooms.” However, as Media Matters previously reported, the policy was passed by the school board on August 11 -- months after May 28, when the assault was reported to have taken place.. . .From October 11, the day of the Daily Wire’s published interview with the survivor’s father, through November 4, Fox News aired 88 segments that discussed the assault.Key findings include:Fox’s so-called “straight news” programs aired 33 segments about the assault, accounting for over one-third of the total segments. The remaining 55 segments were from its opinion programs.Fox & Friends and its weekend counterparts as well as Fox & Friends First, the network’s weekday early morning show, together aired the most segments (26) about the assault. The Ingraham Angle and Fox News Live aired the second-most segments (7 each), followed by America Reports With John Roberts & Sandra Smith (6 segments). Tucker Carlson Tonight aired 4 segments on the topic.On October 26, one day after a Loudoun County juvenile court judge “found sufficient evidence” that the “teen sexually assaulted a classmate in the girls’ bathroom,” coverage of the story peaked, with Fox airing 10 segments on the subject. The second-most segments per day occurred on October 13, two days after the Daily Wire report was published, and October 27, two days after the judge’s verdict. Fox aired nine segments on the topic each day.Fox hosts and guests repeatedly tried to use the story to bolster the debunked bathroom predator myth. In one segment, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) claimed, “Maybe [Attorney General] Merrick Garland's Department of Justice should be looking into Loudoun County School Board superintendent who can't protect young girls from being raped by boys pretending to be girls." In another, Fox News host Jesse Waters called the incident a “transgender bathroom rape cover-up.”Fox hosts also incorrectly claimed that the district’s trans-inclusive bathroom policy allowed the teen to sexually assault another student. On October 21, Fox host Will Cain asserted that the father of the survivor “wanted accountability from the school board after their transgender policies led to his teenage daughter being allegedly raped in the school bathroom by a man in a skirt.”
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| 'The Eternals' are a hit. |
Not a long post and certainly not one meant to be ugly. And I certainly hope that no one responding will be rude. Let's not go in for personal insults.
At its recent gala, the Log Cabin Republicans awarded former First Lady Melania Trump "with the Spirit of Lincoln Award for her commitment to enhancing personal freedom, encouraging individual responsibility, and ensuring equality under the law for all Americans."
I have a simple question. What the heck did she ever do for the LGBTQ community? Name me one thing. Just one.
