[ryanmercer]

>From what I understand the Reagan administration was reluctant to put resources into something that was considered a "gay mans disease"

indeed, let us not forget that "AIDS" was originally called "GRID", "Gay-related immune deficiency" and was also called things like "gay cancer" and "gay plague". It was unfortunate events like Ryan White's infection [1] that started to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White#Ryan_White_and_publ...