g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com February 06, 2011
Adolf Reagan
On the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth, read what LGBT rights
activist and playwright Larry Kramer had to say about Reagan shortly after
his death in 2004.
By Larry Kramer
COMMENTARY: The following piece was originally published in The Advocate
issue dated July 6th, 2004.
Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in
the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even. In
all the tributes to his passing, as I write this two days after his death,
not one that I have seen has mentioned this. The hateful New York Times (“
all the news that’s fit to print”) of course said nothing about this. We
still are not fit to write about with total honesty in their pages. Not
really. Just as we were not fit for Ronald Reagan to talk about us. What
kind of president is that?
I have been writing a long work of history which I call The American People.
I chose this title because in every speech he ever made, Reagan went on and
on about “the American People.” We of course were never a part of his
American People. And we knew it. Year after year of his hateful and endless
reign we knew we were not a part of the American People he was President of.
He would never talk about us, of course, or do anything for us except
murder us. There were no social services for us. There was no research into
our health. Even as we were dying like flies. How could he not have seen us
dying? The answer is he did see us dying and he chose to do nothing. There
was no representation in his government of us. There was never anything for
us but his ignoble dismissal of us. All of Washington, indeed the world,
knew that Reagan hated us. How could they not? Most of them did, too. And
when Daddy doesn’t love you, who is there who will stand up to Daddy? This
is a trick that Hitler used and which I believe the young Reagan learned
from him. He never had to say much out loud himself about his hatreds; but
everyone knew what they were. Gays were as hated under Reagan as Jews were
under Hitler. It is a trick that both George Bushes have carbon-copied. We
have not been included among their American people either.
I could never understand why Reagan’s hatred of us was so intense and
manifest and never-ending. Some of Nancy Reagan’s best friends were gay,
the self-loathing Jerry Zipkin, at one time her principle “walker,” chief
among them. It is said he taught her how to dress. In my play, Just Say No,
I dramatized my own theory of why she and her husband kept gays off their
agenda as if we were the plague, which of course, as in some hideous self-
fulfilling prophecy, we became. Ron Reagan, Jr. That is why. It was no
secret in an ever-widening circle that Ron Reagan, Jr. was suspected of
being gay. In his freshman year at Yale (I believe this was his only year
there; perhaps there were two), I have been told he had numerous gay
experiences. I am well known at Yale. Indeed, I have established the Larry
Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale to document the evil
acts that American “history” has performed on us.
And just as damning of the son’s reputation, of course, because it could
not be hidden, was that Ron Reagan, Jr. was a ballet dancer. This did not
look good and was obviously exceedingly embarrassing to a father who rode so
many horses. So off with the tutu and on with a wedding ring. Junior was
married off and sent to far-off places in positions of low visibility. I
have gay friends in Hollywood, equally closeted, who knew him and know him
and protect him. To know him is to be sworn to some sort of pact of secrecy.
What a hideous life Ron, Jr. must have led all these years. To be denied a
life and to have been so utterly gutless about fighting back. (Well, we know
all about that.) While his own mother was gallivanting around with some of
the biggest fairies in the world. What hateful parents to have had in the
prime of your life, “the great communicator” of a father out there
communicating how much he hated you and his wife out there going along with
this. I suspect by now Ron Reagan, Jr. actually believes he is straight. By
now he may very well be. He may well have been all along. He just looked so
suspicious, and of course it was this perceived suspicion that, one way or
the other, is what caused his father to murder so many of us. Why does
history not recognize this monstrous and never-ending history of hatred and
the inestimable number of deaths it continues to cause?
People magazine called me for a quote Reagan’s death. “I wish he had died
before he was elected” is what I told them. I wonder what they will run.
It is remarkable that two of the so-called “greatest presidents” have also
allowed the greatest perpetrations and perpetuations of mass murder.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was shamefully inept in dealing with “the Jewish
question,” (see my play The Normal Heart), most ironically since so many
Jews were his most loyal supporters, the Jerry Zipkins of their day. No one
really writes about this. Roosevelt is one of history’s great gods. Just as
no one really writes about Reagan and “the gay question.” These two major
murderers so far have gotten away with helping to cause the two major
holocausts of modern history. Just as Jews are asked to never forget their
Holocaust, I implore all gay people never to forget our holocaust and who
caused it and why. Ronald Reagan did not even say the word “AIDS” out loud
for the first seven years of his reign. Because of this, some 70 million
people, so far, have become infected with HIV/AIDS. I wonder what it feels
like to be the son and the wife of a man responsible for over 70 million
people so far becoming infected with a virus that has killed over half of us
so far. I wonder what it felt like while he was alive to ponder this. For
surely he must have thought about it. How could he not? He has been called
the consummate actor who came to believe all his lines. Does this not make
his legacy even more grotesque? It should.
Hitler knew what he was doing. How could Ronald Reagan not have known what
he was doing?
But of course, no one is writing about this. Reagan too is one of history's
gods.
So far he has gotten away with murder. | g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 2 Name: Randy
Date posted: 2/6/2011 5:30:45 PM
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Comment:
I respect Larry Kramer for his considerable contributions to the gay
community, and while I understand and thoroughly enjoyed his article, I
think he may have been a bit over the top. I'm not sure "Murderer" is
accurate, or fair. The reason the Republican party loves Reagan so much is
because they know he's the best they'll ever come up. EVER! But, as "Chris"
previously pointed out, it was Reagan's fiscal policies that have left a
devastating effect still being felt especially by the working class. Reagan
was not a good president and I wish historians were a little more accurate
when remembering him. | g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 3 Back to top Post a Comment Report Abuse Name: Ron Williams
Date posted: 2/6/2011 7:49:32 PM
Hometown: San Francisco
Comment:
Regan was totally homophobic, I believe that Regan purposefully did nothing,
hoping to decimate the Gay population. Was there duplicity with others or
within his administration, we’ll never know. There I go again with those
conspiracy theories. I’ll surely be slapped for say that. But, I totally
agree with Larry Kramer (Love you Larry) and always have, ever during the
ActUp days in San Francisco. There was an opportunity early on that was
ignored. But once they found a way to make money off of AIDS, then everyone
wanted jump on the band wagon. What ever the case may be, Regan’s do
nothing policy lead to the early deaths of thousands of Gay men. I was a
lucky man, I escaped the virus, I don’t know how, I fucked around with
everyone and lived to tell about. I buried so many friends; our calendars
were always booked with funerals and visits to the hospitals. I miss seeing
my friend Guss walking up Castro St. with the purple spots on his face; he
wasn’t self-conscious of the spots. Going to Davies Medical center every
afternoon and wheeling Tony outside so he could smoke a cigarette, at the
end just before he passed, that was his only pleasure, having fucking
cigarette, it tears me up inside. That was nearly 20 years ago, I still miss
him. Peace and Love |
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