Why Didn't Gay Men Riot Like This Under Reagan?

Do some research. There was plenty of rioting and civil unrest during the AIDS crisis.

Look up "Act Up."

It really took until 1987, when frustrated by the lack of govt support, that Larry Kramer creates ACT UP.

They used in your face protest to change healthcare as we know it

It's possible to hide that you are gay from the authorities/government (at least until such time as you may contract a deadly, sexually-transmitted disease).

It is not possible to hide that you are black.

Because the vast majority of people not affected by HIV/AIDS didn't care. This is different and a lot of white people are annoyed as fuck.

BTW, gays also rioted due to Dan White's lenient verdict

We did, OP! You can Google it, you know.

We did, but there aren't enough of us. Plus AIDS was thought of by many as a "gay disease of a sexual nature," so the support wasn't there.

We didn't have a lot of allies. For the most part, it was only gay people protesting. The entire country was not behind us. The Repig president and other politicians wouldn't even say the word "AIDS." For many years, we were on our own.

We didn't have any help. The police used to only treat black and gay people like this. NEVER the general population, certainly not respectable, wealthy people.

Trump has warped them into not just attacking us, but also violently attacking journalists, liberal whites, and anyone else who dares defy them in any way. The whole country for once is seeing them for who they really are.

Did CNN in it's early days give extensive coverage to the AIDS protests?

We marched and protested, as we died by the thousands from AIDS. As our suffering was made invisible by parents, siblings, and editorial policies that would not mention our true cause of death, or our surviving loved ones. At the same time we were fighting discrimination in the form of laws like the Knight Initiative and other legislation designed to oppress LGBT people. We've been fighting for most of my lifetime.

R10 look at how far we've come in 20 years. And we will go farther yet.

I lived in SF during this time. There was protesting and vocal opposition. However, if you were gay in a small midwestern city like Sioux Falls, SD, your protest would be met with instant loss of job, isolation and bigotry. Times are different. You basically hanged yourself in front of everyone as during this time, no one would take you down because you were "infected".

ACT-UP did just that - they rioted in NY, LA, Chicago. Frequently and often. They didn't destroy much - but they didn't have any others joining in.

Straight people were pissed about being inconvenienced.

But there wasn't the scale as this - people didn't give a fuck if gays lived or died so no one else joined in. And that's the truth.

Riots in SF over Dan White's lighter than anticipated sentence.

More...

OP - to answer your point. They DID! Over and over and over and over and over and over!!

The footwear available was totally inappropriate - elfin slippers, tasseled loafers, and slouch flat-heeled boots.

If you look at the 2018/2019/2020 ready to wear offerings, you will see companies like Gucci, Prada, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta offer a wide selection of combat boots.

WARNING: Euro and UK sizes are NOT U.S. sizes. There will be math.

Outfit coordination was a bitch.

AIDS dragged homosexuality out the closet. Before that it was always just rumors, innuendo and whispers.

Gays are rioting now

These riots are funded by groups. They wouldn't do so for the gay rights. Not political enough.

OP we did

r21 must be one of the "ReOpen" assholes who were funded by Betsy DeVos

[quote]It is not possible to hide that you are black.

For a lot of homosexuals, it is also not possible to hide that they are gay.

During the AIDS epidemic, the characteristic wasting also gave people away.

Looking at old photos has brought tears to my eyes.

You're alive because we rioted, OP.

Fuck you, OP, you filthy troll.

A curse on you. Into your core.

they did

I'm assuming OP is a tranny, trying to "prove" how much more vocal and brave his ilk is.

Are you kidding, OP? The gays were being so restless I had to write an essay in a well respected national publication to expose it help put an end to their oppression.

R31 must be a Republican Milo gay, if he feels the need to blame anything he doesn't like on "trannies"

My girl likes to riot all the time

Riot all the time

Riot all the time....

[quote]Did CNN in it's early days give extensive coverage to the AIDS protests?

CNN was only founded in 1980, and in those days, most people didn't have cable TV. If CNN did cover the AIDS protests, not too many people would have seen it. But to answer your question, I highly doubt CNN would have given it extensive coverage. There were no blanket simultaneous nationwide protests, as we are seeing today. I was around back then, and don't recall the news media having a field day with AIDS protests or issues.

I remember networks giving "extensive coverage" to AIDS. One of them (ABC maybe?) did a special called "The Innocent Victims of AIDS," about babies and hemophiliacs (and others) who contracted it through blood transfusions. The insinuation being that the dirty fags had it coming, but these poor people were innocent victims.

A very large swath of the public truly believed that gay people deserved to get AIDS. They had no sympathy whatsoever. Today, anyone who believed that would be regarded as a right-wing fringe lunatic, but 30-40 years ago it was very mainstream. Gay men rioted and protested, but were largely without allies, at least on the scale of the BLM protests.

Gay people were dying. Gay people were alone. Gay people had no help.

ACT UP! did what it could and dis what it could. But in addition to it being a health and political issue, it was a sexuality and moral issue. Under Reagan, the right -wing and evangelicals hasd a great deal of power. "Gay have dirty sex." Plus there was a lot of confusion and misinformation, at least at the beginning, as to how a person caught HIV/AIDS.

No one was helping us march peacefully or topple statues. There weren't many straight, political or minority allies. At the beginning, it was gay white men dying and very few cared. This lasted for years. It was very rough going.

r25/26, those photos must be fake because it's mostly white males and there are NO trans women of color. Everybody knows that trans women of color did absolutely everything for LGBT rights.

They couldn't decide on the right outfit OP