“I must say the furor over Hillary’s dumbass remarks has been one of the most inspiring things I’ve witnessed recently. It said “Excuse me, but we were there and we won’t forget. How dare you crap on the memory of those who died grisly deaths and those who loved them? We are not going to let you rewrite our horrifying history!” At the time, as AIDS mounted in a seeming vacuum, I became wildly politicized, adding HIV screeds into my gossip/nightlife column… and taking to the streets with ACT UP to scream bloody murder at the Reagans’ callous indifference to a plague that was according gruesome fates to tens of thousands of vital people, the numbers growing in a clearly out-of-control manner. And they stayed silent–except for the White House rep who made a wisecrack and laughed, thinking the deaths of hard working, talented gay men was nothing more than a hilarious joke!!! The community mobilized, Broadway fought back, the gay press went there, and the Reagans waited and waited. They even denied the pleading request from their friend Rock Hudson to help with overseas treatments that were the only hope at that time. If the Reagans were AIDS activists, then Hitler was a humanitarian. But as I said, the backlash has been astounding and thank God Hillary had to backtrack, as we all learned something (including a little glimpse into what Hillary’s agendas are).” – Michael Musto gay  journalist and a former columnist for The Village Voice posted on Facebook