On This Gay Day | President Ronald Reagan finally acknowledges AIDS crisis

Ronald Reagan says “AIDS” for the first timeThe disease that would later become known as AIDS was first identified in 1981. However, it took five more years before US President Ronald Reagan publicly used the term in a speech or official remarks. On this day in 1987, Reagan used the word “AIDS” publicly for the first time. By the time Reagan publicly addressed AIDS, more than 37,000 Americans had been diagnosed with the disease and more than 21,000 had died. Alongside his slow response to the AIDS crisis, Reagan was also publicly opposed to many aspects of the gay rights movement.