30 Voices From the Past 30 Years

 “Now I deal regularly with the phenomenon of young men who come up after a concert, with tears in their eyes, and say, ‘I just want to thank you.’ And without them saying it, I know they’ve had a friend who has died of AIDS.”
Folksinger and songwriter Joan Baez. August 18, 1987

“Mr. Reagan, did you explain…that sometimes ignorant people act in such a way [toward people with AIDS] that it is frightening.… How long is it going to take before people get smart…educated people? We’re not talking about illiterate people. We’re talking about senators and congressmen and the fucking president.”
Actress Whoopi Goldberg, speaking at the 1987 March on Washington. November 10, 1987

“At first, I waited politely for the president to respond to the epidemic.… After about a year, I realized the government wasn’t going to do anything, so I started doing safer-sex education with community-based AIDS organizations. By 1985, it was becoming clear that we needed to take this a step further, that civil disobedience would be as important as caregiving if we wanted real change.”
Waiyde Palmer, an activist who helped organize an AIDS protest during a 1989 San Francisco Opera performance of Falstaff. February 13, 1990

“What we don’t need is another study. What we need is leadership, and…once again, the president is hiding.”
U.S. representative Henry Waxman, a longtime critic of President Ronald Reagan’s inaction on AIDS. September 13, 1988