An estimated 350 people march in front of the White House June 1, 1987 protesting President Ronald Reagan’s inaction on the AIDS crisis.
D.C. police wearing long yellow gloves later arrested 64 of the protesters who sat down on Pennsylvania Avenue blocking traffic chanting, “Testing is not a cure for AIDS” and “Reagan, Reagan, Too Little, Too late.”
The demonstration was concurrent with the Third International Conference on AIDS at the Washington Hilton where 6,000 gathered in the largest meeting on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
Vice President Bush addressed the group and was roundly booed when he called for expanded testing.
Dr. Michael a prominent Los Angeles immunologist attending the conference responded, "That’s a new high in insensitivity. We are here to battle a terrible plague. That is not what we need from our leaders."
Among those arrested at the White House demonstrations was Leonard P. Matlovich, a former Air Force sergeant who was expelled from the service in 1975 after admitting he was gay.
Matlovich won a suit against the Air Force over its ban on gay and lesbian service members and received $160,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
Matlovich wore his old Air Force jacket with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star pinned to it as police handcuffed him.
"If I can spend three years fighting for democracy in Vietnam, I can spend an hour in jail fighting for our lives," he said. "What we need is a Manhattan Project [top scientists assembled during WWII to develop the atomic bomb] on AIDS, an all-out fight."
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Posted by Washington Area Spark on 2017-03-18 15:22:06
Tagged: , Acquired , Immune , Deficiency , Syndrome , AIDS , President , Ronald , Reagan , inaction , George , W. , Bush , protest , demonstration , sit , arrest , picket , Third , International , Conference , Washington , DC , 1987 , gay , lesbian , White , House , Pennsylvania , Avenue