Question

When the AIDS crisis emerged in the early 1980s

Answer 1

Ken Horne was a resident of San Francisco and is reported to be the first to have it

Answer 2

The Reagan Administration was slow to respond.

The Reagan Administration, and the country generally, gave a slow response when the AIDS crisis emerged in the United States in the 1980s. It was seen then as a plague that affected the homosexual community. Some on the religious right felt it was God's justice to punish homosexuals in that way.

A book you might check out on this subject is: And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts of the San Francisco Chronicle, first published in 1987. A 20th anniversary edition of the book was republished in 2007.