George H. W. Bush

==== Discrimination ====
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|quote    =  "Even the strongest person couldn't scale the [[Berlin Wall]] to gain the elusive promise of independence that lay just beyond. And so, together we rejoiced when that barrier fell. And now I sign legislation which takes a sledgehammer to another wall, one which has for too many generations separated Americans with disabilities from the freedom they could glimpse, but not grasp."
|source   = —Bush's remarks at the signing ceremony for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990{{sfn|Meacham|2015|p=395}}
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The [[disability|disabled]] had not received legal protections under the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, and many faced discrimination and segregation by the time Bush took office. In 1988, [[Lowell P. Weicker Jr.]] and [[Tony Coelho]] introduced the Americans with Disabilities Act, which barred employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities. The bill had passed the Senate but not the House and was reintroduced in 1989. Though some conservatives opposed the bill due to its costs and potential burdens on businesses, Bush strongly supported it, partly because his son, Neil, had struggled with [[dyslexia]]. After the bill passed both houses of Congress, Bush signed the [[Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990]] into law in July 1990.{{sfn|Greene|2015|pp=90–92}} The act required employers and public accommodations to make "reasonable accommodations" for disabled people while providing an exception when such accommodations imposed an "undue hardship".<ref name="griffin1">{{cite news|last1=Griffin|first1=Rodman|title=The Disabilities Act|url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1991122700|access-date=August 25, 2016|publisher=CQPress|date=December 27, 1991}}</ref>

Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] later led the congressional passage of a separate civil rights bill designed to facilitate launching employment discrimination lawsuits.{{sfn|Greene|2015|pp=79–80}} In vetoing the bill, Bush argued that it would lead to racial quotas in hiring.<ref>[[Ann Devroy|Devroy, Ann]]. "Bush Vetoes Civil Rights Bill; Measure Said to Encourage Job Quotas; Women, Minorities Sharply Critical". ''The Washington Post'' October 23, 1990, Print.</ref><ref name=holmes1>{{cite news|title=President Vetoes Bill on Job Rights; Showdown is Set |last=Holmes |first=Steven A. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/23/us/president-vetoes-bill-on-job-rights-showdown-is-set.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 23, 1990 |access-date=March 21, 2013}}</ref> In November 1991, Bush signed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1991]], which was largely similar to the bill he had vetoed in the previous year.{{sfn|Greene|2015|pp=79–80}}

In August 1990, Bush signed the [[Ryan White CARE Act]], the largest federally funded program dedicated to assisting persons living with [[HIV/AIDS]].<ref>{{cite news| title='He Did Not Lead on AIDS': With Bush, Activists See a Mixed Legacy| last=Stack| first=Liam| date=December 3, 2018| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/us/george-bush-hiv-aids.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220102/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/us/george-bush-hiv-aids.html |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |url-access=limited |url-status=live| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=April 29, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Throughout his presidency, the [[AIDS epidemic]] grew dramatically in the U.S. and around the world, and Bush often found himself at odds with AIDS activist groups who criticized him for not placing a high priority on HIV/AIDS research and funding. Frustrated by the administration's lack of urgency on the issue, [[ACT UP]] dumped the ashes of deceased HIV/AIDS patients on the White House lawn during a viewing of the [[AIDS Quilt]] in 1992.<ref>{{cite web| last=Domonoske| first=Camila| title='Kinder Gentler Indifference': Activists Challenge George H.W. Bush's Record On AIDS| date=December 4, 2018| publisher=NPR| url=https://www.npr.org/2018/12/04/673276127/kinder-gentler-indifference-activists-challenge-george-h-w-bush-s-record-on-aids| access-date=April 29, 2020}}</ref> By that time, HIV had become the [[List of causes of death by rate|leading cause of death]] in the U.S. for men aged 25–44.<ref>{{cite web| title=Update: Mortality Attributable to HIV Infection Among Persons Aged 25–44 Years – United States, 1991 and 1992| url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00022174.htm| work=The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report| date=November 19, 1993| id=42(45)| pages=869–872| publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention| location=Atlanta, Georgia| access-date=April 29, 2020}}</ref>