Rock Hudson with the Reagans, courtesy of the Reagan Library

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UPDATE 4/1/2021: A new biography of Nancy Reagan by “Washington Post” National Political Columnist Karen Tumulty gives the impression that Nancy Reagan was quietly supportive of efforts to get the President and Reagan Administration involved in fighting AIDS or increasing funding or even saying the word “AIDS” until it was all too late.  This is painfully untrue.  Based upon Mattachine’s document discoveries, this unforgettable “BuzzFeed” piece by Chris Geidner (2015) tells the awful story of how Nancy Reagan literally turned her back on her supposed great friend Rock Hudson and his pleas for help.

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2/3/2015: Mattachine Society researchers discovered these Rock Hudson/Nancy Reagan documents at the Reagan Presidential Library, an illuminating 1985 time capsule from inside the Reagan White House. BuzzFeed did an amazing job reporting–worldwide–and providing the factual context.  It is the Reagan White House nonchalance that galls us the most, in the midst of a raging epidemic.