Progress is Beautiful

[classicman]

Gay Activists Visiting White House Take Photos of Themselves Flipping Off Reagan Portrait

Real classy. Just the kind of behavior appropriate for the White House. Especially as guests of the President.

Last Friday, an attaché of important gay people from Philadelphia made a trip to Washington D.C. as invited guests of President Barack Obama for the White House’s first-ever gay pride reception….some of them took advantage of photo opportunities to give the late President Ronald Reagan the middle finger

“It’s not a gesture that I would use in the White House when representing our city and our community,” opines Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal (center), who opted for a sarcastic thumbs-up pose in front of the portrait of George W. Bush over the more vulgar one demonstrated by his Reagan-loathing peers, Matthew “Matty” Hart (left), the national director of public engagement at Solutions for Progress, and self-taught photographer turned toast-of-the-town Zoe Strauss (right).

Thats the way to win friends an influence people - not.

Link

[DanaC]

Yeah, Ibs. See what your kind get up to? Hope you're ashamed :p

[Lamplighter]

The re-write of Reagan's history is well underway.

I'm sure he was a very personable man, with a great flair for humorous quips.
For those of us who lived through his career, there is much that cannot be forgotten.

* his support for the infamous Black List of individuals in the film industry as Communists
* his turning mentally ill patients out on the street without support in order to save tax $
* his silence and inaction on the AIDS/HIV crisis

If you are of the age of the gay/lesbian individuals in this pic, you might understand better their actions...

Reagan's AIDSGATE

1987
41,027 persons are dead
71,176 persons diagnosed with AIDS in the US.

What did this mean in practical terms?
Most importantly, AIDS research was chronically under-funded.
When doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health
asked for more funding for their work on AIDS, they were routinely denied it.

Between June 1981 and May 1982 the CDC spent less than $1 million on AIDS and $9 million on Legionnaire's Disease.
At that point more than 1,000 of the 2,000 reported AIDS cases resulted in death;
there were fewer than 50 deaths from Legionnaire's Disease.
This drastic lack of funding would continue through the Reagan years.

When health and support groups in the gay community were beginning
to initiate education and prevention programs, they were denied federal funding.
In October 1987 Senator Helms amended a federal appropriations bill
to prohibit
AIDS education efforts that "encourage or promote homosexual activity"
— that is, efforts that tell gay men how to have safe sex.

There have been many gay (Log Cabin) Republicans,
and there are reasonable arguments that Reagan, personally,
was not anti-gay. To wit:
Independent Gay Forum
Reagan and Gays: A Reassessment by Dale Carpenter on June 10, 2004

But as the President, his silence and road-blocking in the AIDS/HIV epidemic condemned
huge numbers of men and women around the world to a miserable illness and death.
I suggest that the disrespect shown by these three people was
directed at President Ronald Reagan, not the Office of the President.

[classicman]

Whether you believe that or not is irrelevant,
their behavior at the WHITE HOUSE was despicable.

[Lamplighter]

Sorry Classic, I thought your post was about the two people giving Reagan "the finger".
I agree, that fellow giving George W. the "thumbs up" in the WH was despicable.

[tw]

Originally Posted by classicman

Whether you believe that or not is irrelevant,

Of course it is irrelevant. And would not be posted if not for nonsense about liberal vs conservative / left vs right and other extremist concerns. Why do you not post pictures of others doing same to Jimmy Carter? Political bias.

People do this every day on highways. That is also despicable. And not worthy of comment in any Current Events board.

[DanaC]

What I don't get, is why that post is in this thread.

It's an interesting news piece, not saying it shouldn't be posted. I just don't see it is relevant to this particular thread.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by tw

Why do you not post pictures of others doing same to Jimmy Carter? Political bias.

not worthy of comment in any Current Events board.

Apparently you answered your own question. Why did you ask it and then answer it? You forget your meds again?

[classicman]

Originally Posted by DanaC

What I don't get, is why that post is in this thread.
It's an interesting news piece, not saying it shouldn't be posted. I just don't see it is relevant to this particular thread.

Seemed to fit here as well as anywhere based upon the opening post.
This was progress and related to the gay community
"White House’s first-ever gay pride reception"

[tw]

Originally Posted by classicman

You forget your meds again?

Last time his posts were constant insults is when he lost his job. Apparently classicman is having another bad week.

[classicman]

Not to prove you wrong again, but ...
My week/ month is going fabulously!
I have created a website from scratch, got it up and running and added over a dozen vendors to my business. Membership is already over 50 and growing daily.
Personally speaking things are going very well also.

[Happy Monkey]

"Despicable"? Sounds like a poutrage is brewing.

Uncouth, perhaps.