#Lester Kinsolving

[wutbju]

A WutBJU reminded me this month of this article from Lester Kinsolving that was published across the country.

Kinsolving at the time was an Episcopalian priest, and you can read his obit in the Washington Post here.

But he popped into BJU in 1970. Here's what he said. I'll interrupt with documentation along the way:

Bob Jones University here recently applied to the South Carolina state government for permission to equip its campus guards with submachine guns. Take that with BJU's claim of having "an intensely Christian atmosphere" and suddenly the Rev. Kinsolving message on the university's letterhead becomes credible. It reads: "The World's Most Unusual University."

This is documented.

This writer had special cause to be grateful to South Carolina for refusing BJU's request for guns. A bare two hours after my arrival on this resplendent $30 million campus, I found myself suddenly confronted by the campus police, who had arrived in two squad cars. (And history abounds with accounts of what certain "intense Christians" have done to the opposition by way of fire and sword and guns.) I was immediately placed in one of the squad cars, driven to the front guard gate and told to be gone. My offense, I was told, was attempting to interview students (3600 college, 400 high school). My "interviewing" consisted of: (1) Asking directions to the administration building -- and why the students were playing soccer instead of football, in what was obviously a football stadium. ("Years ago," explained the student, "a visiting football team left beer cans and cigarette butts in the dressing room! So now we play among ourselves - intramural club teams.") (2) Asking if I might look at a student handbook to see the campus rules. ("Certainly," replied another of the invariably smiling, polite and well-dressed students. "I'll arrange it immediately. Won't you have a seat?" Three minutes later the two squad cars arrived.)

We all knew they wouldn't give him the student handbook.

Now who remembers Robert Harrison and his video store on the West End of Greenville?

Earlier that day I had telephoned the university's public relations director Robert Harrison. either he "nor anyone else on the campus" could answer any questions "because both Dr. Joneses are out of town." (The founder of Bob Jones University -- "BJU" -- was fundamentalist preacher Bob Jones. Current president is Bob Jones Jr. and vice president is Bob Jones III).

Yet a visit to the administration building and an interview with Burt Squires, Assistant to Dean of Men William Liverman, evoked at least one comment: A Harper's Magazine article about BJU ("Buckle On The Bible Belt" [from 1966]) was "distorted." Novelist Larry King had written that BJU forbids all of its students to see any Hollywood movies, smoke, drink, dance, wear any "immodest dress, such as tight pants," attend Billy Graham rallies (even though Billy is an alumnus who accepted a doctorate from BJU), talk to any strangers - especially newsmen, make any use of jazz (whether singing of, or listening to), play cards, or leave the campus after 10:30 p.m. He also reported that students are forbidden to use the gym, tennis courts, or swimming pool in sexually mixed groups, date off campus without special permission and chaperones, date on campus for more than two hours, and, whether sitting or standing, couples must always keep a six-inch space between their bodies. When asked just which of these reported commandments was a distortion, the BJU assistant to the dean of men replied that he was unable to comment further -- other than to advise me that any interviewing of students would result in my being taken off the campus by the police. Having tried in vain to obtain some information from a BJU administration which repeatedly charges that it is treated unfairly by "the liberal press," I wandered about the campus, noting among hundreds of students a total absence of hand-holding (or anything more intimate), cosmetics, jazz-singing, card playing, tight pants or tobacco. Squires did verify the fact that Vice President Bob Jones III managed to earn his doctorate from Bob Jones University. His father, President Bob Jones Jr., obtained his doctorate from something called Northwestern Schools in Minneapolis.

Absolutely false. He had no earned doctorate.

The university catalogue reveals that all but 29 of the 185 faculty members were educated at BJU. And even with this pedagogical incest, all faculty members are required by the Joneses to take an annual doctrinal loyalty oath called "Our Orthodox Creed." (Any faculty member can be fired with 10 day's notice.)

That long? Really?

[saotome-michi]

When AIDS was Funny - Directed and Produced by Scott Calonico

Warning: Blatant, disgusting homophobia

Over the years 1982-1984, journalist Lester Kinsolving asks White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes about the AIDS crisis and whether President Reagan knows about it and what he is doing about it.

[granvarones]

a few days ago, i logged into this very account and saw that a mutual posted a meme that read, “900 people get coronavirus and the whole world wants to wear a surgical mask. 30 million people have AIDS but still nobody wants to wear a condom.” at first, i thought, is this a hot take that is so hot that even my poz ass doesn’t get? but after a minute or so, i’m like, “nah. this is stigmatizing trash.” sadly, i wasn’t surprised.

social media and even a substantial amount of the press coverage about the coronavirus has been anti-asian and xenophobic as fuck! hell, it was also even been a called a “hoax” by tr*mp. of course, none of this is surprising because AIDS history has taught me that people in power and those who write about that power, have at one point willfully minimized, disregarded and laugh about AIDS and the growing deaths of gay men.

in an october 15, 1982 white house press briefing, as the aids epidemic was growing already claiming 853 lives, journalist rev. lester kinsolving asks deputy press secretary larry speakes if then president reagan has any knowledge of aids - then referred to as “the gay plague.” this was the first public question about aids posed to the reagan administration. the question is met with laughter and disregard by both the deputy press secretary and reporters.

by 1984 the aids epidemic later became one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. all during the first term of reagan’s presidency. he was re-elected in an historic landslide victory. this was two years after a member of his administration laughed about AIDS. reagan himself would not utter the word “AIDS” in a speech until 1987. by then more than 20,000 americans had died of AIDS.

history repeats itself over and over.

so my question is are you laughing and making jokes about coronavirus? are you intentionally or unintentionally reinforcing stigma? are you just straight up being anti-asian? are you letting those in your family and intimate circles do these things? this kind of interrogating and examination is critical because what history tells us it that stigma and hate spread faster and kills more than most viruses

[protoslacker]

When questioned by reporter Lester Kinsolving about Reagan’s lack of response, then deputy press secretary Larry Speakes deflected by implying that Kinsolving’s ongoing interest in the disease must mean that he was homosexual. It would be another five years before the administration took any official action in response to the epidemic, under internal pressure from experts such as the young Dr. Fauci and, more importantly, external pressure from activist organizations like ACT UP.

Liam James Kingsley in Africa is a Country. Paying the ultimate price

[theshampyon]

Audio excerpt from the podcast Not Past It: The Vax That Got Axed. Transcript from the White House Press Briefing, October 15, 1982 (Reporter Lester Kinsolving questioning Press Secretary Larry Speakes):

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement -- the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?

Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague."

(Laughter.)

No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you?

(Laughter.)

Q: You don't have it. Well, I'm relieved to hear that, Larry.

(Laughter.)

I'm delighted.

MR. SPEAKES: Do you?

Q: No, I don't.

MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.

Q: Well, I just wondered does the President --

MR. SPEAKES: How do you know?

(Laughter.)

Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester. What --

Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any --

Q: Nobody knows?

MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.

Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping --

MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no --

(laughter)

-- no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.

Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.

Q: Didn't say that?

MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay over there?

(Laughter.)

Q: Because I love you, Larry, that's why.

(Laughter.)

MR. SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester.

(Laughter.)

Q: Oh, I retract that.

MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.

Q: It's too late.

[aidsproject]

Part three, Federal Governments response and the response from the right.

In 1982, Journalist Lester Kinsolving asked Reagan’s white house press secretary Larry Speakes about AIDS[1]. When Kinsolving described it as a “gay plague” the press room erupted with laughter[1]. “I don’t have it, do you?” replied Speakes jokingly. Kinsolving in response, asked if the white house “looks at this like a great joke”, to which Speakes replied that he “doesn’t know a thing about it”[1]. In 1983, during another white house press briefing, Speakes made a joke about Kinsolving’s ears perking up when another journalist said the word “fairies”, stating that he has an “abiding interest in that” to which the room erupted with laughter once again1­­. On a more serious note, Speakes finally elaborates that 12 million dollars had been set aside by the administration for AIDS research[1].            

 One of the major criticisms of Ronald Reagan's presidency was his failure to respond to the AIDS crisis in an appropriate amount of time. This is by no means the fault of just Reagan alone, but his entire administration. By the time Doctor Edward Brandt, the surgeon general, had declared aids to be a top health priority of the Reagan administration, 1450 Americans had already contracted the disease which had been identified two years before[2]. The White House had threatened to veto a bill that the senate approved in which money for AIDS funding was including in 1983[3]. The bill, which ultimately passed, put aside only 12 million for AIDS research out of a one trillion-dollar budget[3]. For the CDC, NIH, and FDA, these twelve million dollars was inadequate. The estimates by the Public Health Service calculated that an appropriate budget would be approximately three times that [4]. Still, the religious right opposed the mere 12 million put aside for AIDS research, a right-wing magazine claimed the 12 million represented “a massive lobbying campaign by militant homosexuals”[3]. Doctor Marcus Conant,  a dermatologist and one of the first Doctors to diagnose AIDS stated that “The failure to respond to this epidemic now borders on a national scandal” in 1983.[5]

Ronald Reagan finally uttered the word “AIDS” in public in 1985, four years after the first reports of it in the United States were made[6]. At this time, over 5000 Americans had died of the disease1. The Reagan Administration made cuts to the CDC during the epidemic[7]. Donald P Francis, an epidemiologist who was appointed “coordinator of AIDS laboratory activities” for the CDC in 1983, wrote the inadequate funding “seriously restricted our work”[8] and that the CDC did not even have a retrovirus lab at the time[8]. That very same year, French scientists were able to isolate the virus[8] In 1985 when Francis was asked by the director of the CDC to put together an AIDS prevention plan, he accepted the offer[9]. Because there was no vaccine, Francis put together a plan based on educating people about behavior changes and promoting safe sex and intravenous drug use. This plan was rejected by the CDC, and Francis was advised by the head of the CDC to “look pretty and do as little as you can” [10]. The director of the CDC at the time, doctor James Mason, a religious conservative, stated that “there are certain areas which, when the goals of science collide with moral and ethical judgement, science has to take a time out” [11].                           

 Publicly, the Reagan administration eventually announced AIDS to be “the federal governments number one health priority”[12]. However, budgeting did not reflect this. Those who defend the Reagan administration’s response to the crisis claim that Reagan put qualified doctors in charge of the CDC and FDA[13], and that the administration had the FDA approve drugs for the virus as quickly as possible[12], a statement that activists disagreed with[14].  At the advice of the American Medical Association, Reagan did create a national commission on AIDS with representatives from the federal government[15]. However, at the very same year, the United States was the only major western nation to not have launched a public health campaign regarding AIDS[16]. It is worth noting that this response did not end with the Reagan Administration, Congress under George HW Bush cut National Institute of Health budget by 150 million[14] , and George HW Bush refused to attend AIDS conferences[14]. During Bill Clintons 1992 campaign, activists also accused him of ignoring the AIDS crisis [14]. Overall, it can be concluded that much more could have been done during the early years of the AIDS pandemic by the Ronald Reagan administration.              

[1] Calonico , Scott. “Reagan Administration's Chilling Response to the AIDS Crisis.” Vanity Fair Videos. Vanity Fair, December 1, 2015. https://www.vanityfair.com/video/watch/the-reagan-administration-s-chilling-response-to-the-aids-crisis.

[2] Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. London: Souvenir Press, 1988. Page 298

[3] Shilts, 328

[4] Shilts 329

[5] Shilts 359

6Fee, Elizabeth, and Manon Parry. "Jonathan Mann, HIV/AIDS, and Human Rights." Journal of Public Health Policy 29, no. 1 (2008): 54-71. Accessed September 21, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40207166. Page 55

[7] Shilts, 290

[8] Francis, Donald P. "Commentary: Deadly AIDS Policy Failure by the Highest Levels of the US Government: A Personal Look Back 30 Years Later for Lessons to Respond Better to Future Epidemics." Journal of Public Health Policy 33, no. 3 (2012): 290-300. Accessed September 17, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23253449, page 294.

[9] Francis, 295

[10] Francis, 297

[11] Francis 298

[12] Francis, 299

[13] Huber, Peter W. “Ronald Reagan's Quiet War on AIDS,” Fall 2016. https://www.city-journal.org/html/ronald-reagans-quiet-war-aids-14783.html.

[14] How to Survive a Plague. Directed by David France, Public Square Films, 2012.

[15] Hotchkiss. William S. "The American Medical Association and the War on AIDS." Public Health Reports (1974-) 103, no. 3 (1988): 282-88. Accessed September 21, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4628469. Page 283.

[16] Shilts 589

[historygreatest]

Lester Kinsolving

American political talk radio host Charles Lester Kinsolving was born on December 18, 1927, and died on December 4, 2018.

He was previously heard on WCBM in Baltimore, Maryland.

Lester Kinsolving was known for being the first White House correspondent to ask questions about the spreading HIV/AIDS epidemic during the Reagan administration; he went on to ask questions about the disease even though…

[gehayi]

A lot of us were younger than 20.

The first American who died in the AIDS epidemic was San Francisco native Ken Horne, who perished April 24, 1980.

The classic boomers (born 1946 to 1954) would have been 26 to 34 in 1980.

The Gen Jones boomers (born 1954 to 1965) would have been 15 to 26 in 1980. (I was 18.)

So yeah. Ages fifteen to thirty-four.  We lost a lot of people. And we mostly lost them to Ronald Reagan (born in 1911, a member of the G.I. Generation), may his name be blotted out forever, and his cronies, none of whom wanted to admit that an epidemic primarily affecting gay men was remotely important. Certainly not a threat to other groups in America. In fact, click on the link below;  it’ll take you to a short showing that the response of the White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes (born 1939, a member of the Silent Generation) and the White House Press Pool to some serious questions by Lester Kinsolving about AIDS was, year after year, derisive laughter.

https://video.vanityfair.com/watch/the-reagan-administration-s-chilling-response-to-the-aids-crisis/

[wutbju]

Pastor Elvin Storey wrote the Tuscon Citizen about the response BJU gave him personally. It sounds so very familiar:

I used to worry when we got attacks like this, but as I have grown older I have found from experience that the Lord always uses the wrath of men to praise Him. This kind of thing makes more friends than enemies; in fact, we have already had donations as a result of Kinsolving's barrage.

[taylormnichols]

Early media coverage of HIV/AIDS

When HIV/AIDS first began to affect the world, coverage in the media was limited. News coverage declined after 1987. Numbers of new cases continued to rise, peaking six years later.

Coverage swelled in relation to news events, including the closing of gay bath houses in San Francisco, and the Reagan Administration’s response to the epidemic (Brodie et al, 2004). The disease was labeled GRID (gay-related immune deficiency), gay cancer, the gay plague, and other offensive terms that stigmatized the disease and victims of it. Examples of these include the headlines “’Gay Cancer’ focus of hearing” (The Washington Blade, April 16 1982) and “My Doomed Son’s Gay Plague Agony” (News of the World, Dec. 30 1984).

 The Reagan Administration failed to take the epidemic seriously until 1985, when the president first discussed the disease. Below is a video/audio clip of reporter Lester Kinsolving asking Press Secretary Larry Speakes about the AIDS epidemic year after year.

[wutbju]

As soon as Kinsolving's article made it around the country, BJU's PR guy, Robert Harrison wrote a response.

And he made sure it was published all around the country. I counted it in:

Tuscon, Arizona

Mansfield, Ohio

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Tampa, Florida

Casper, Wyoming

Battle Creek, Michigan

Roanoke, Virginia

Waterloo, Iowa

Charlottesville, Virginia

Dayton, Ohio

Bensenville, Illinois

York, Pennsylvania

San Clemente, California

Akron, Ohio

Wilmington, Delaware

Rapid City, Iowa

Most of those papers did not include the whole thing, San Clemente printed the whole lovely rant:

One of your readers has contacted us concerning the unwarranted attack on Bob Jones University by Lester Kinsolving in his syndicated column that appeared in your paper. Much of the information in the article was untrue, and the whole thing was slanted to suit the whims and fancies of Mr. Kinsolving.

Because of a number of inquiries about the true situation, the following is an official statement concerning Mr. Kinsolving's article:

Mr. Kinsolving phoned the campus from Charlotte, N.C. and announced he wanted an interview. The president of the university was overseas preaching; the vice-president was out of the state preaching. Mr. Kinsolving was told that the director of public relations was home with the flu. Nevertheless, he insisted that he be put through, and the director of public relations told him that the university had had such unfair. treatment from the liberal press that we were not interested in granting any interviews -- that he would not be given any cooperation from the university in his efforts to get material for a story.

Knowing that he was not welcome, he came to the campus anyway and tried to speak with the assistant dean of men who again reiterated our policy.

He then went to one of the men's dormitories; and in spite of a large sign which clearly says that no visitor may be in the dormitory without a permit from the dean of men, he asked the student host on duty for a student handbook. He was told to have a seat. He was not promised a handbook, as he claims. The student host realized that something was amiss, and he phoned the campus security who returned and saw Mr. Kinsolving off the campus.

Mr. Kinsolving did not come to get the facts about Bob Jones University. He came just as all the other liberal newsmen come - wagging their liberal tails behind them -- totally incapable of understanding or of writing objectively about that which is contrary to his philosophy. He is one of the many illiberal liberals. In addition to this, Kinsolving had an added disadvantage that most newsmen do not have - he is an unbelieving, Episcopalian, worker-priest, one of the many such clergymen who repeat a creed every week they do not believe. This in itself makes him a man unworthy of trust; and it is known in San Francisco, his home, that he is one of the younger men in the priesthood who was close to Bishop James A. Pike.

Just as an isolated example of this man's effort to discredit the university, we call our attention to his statement that "all but 29 of the 185 faculty members were educated at Bob Jones University;" the implication being that we are ingrown, and, therefore, incapable of giving quality education. While many of the faculty did take their undergraduate work here at Bob Jones University, many of them have gone on and taken advanced degrees from other schools. It is perfectly obvious that Mr. Kinsolving wrote his article for the purpose of reflecting on Bob Jones University.

Bob Jones University has no desire to waste its time with arrogant, presumptuous newsmen who think they have a right to expect you to set aside everything you're doing and let them snoop, pry, and interview that they might turn around and produce a lying, slanderous, slanted piece of propaganda designed to debunk that which is decent, good, and righteous. Unholy men have unholy manners which they rudely display. Kinsolving's editorial/column revealed little regard for the truth and he is lacking in respect for the property and wishes of others.

One of the few things readers of his column about the university can believe is that he was escorted from the campus; and we want it to be known if he comes again, he will not only be escorted from the campus but he will also be escorted to the city jail and booked on charges of trespassing.

BOB HARRISON Director of Public Relations Bob Jones University Greenville, S.C.

So much umbrage. So little time.