“In 1987, the actress Elizabeth Taylor, who was serving as the national chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), wrote the following letter to President Reagan, asking him to deliver a speech at a fundraising dinner amfAR was holding in Washington D.C. The president agreed, and he delivered the speech on May 31, 1987. It was his second major public speech on AIDS. Throughout his presidency, Reagan had distanced himself from the AIDS epidemic.”