Lester Kinsolving
Charles Lester Kinsolving, known as Les Kinsolving, was an American political talk radio host, previously heard on WCBM in Baltimore, Maryland. He is known for being the first White House correspondent to ask questions about the HIV/AIDS epidemic during the Reagan administration; he continued to ask questions about the disease even though press secretary Larry Speakes and some other correspondents made light of it; Speakes joked that Kinsolving had an "abiding interest in the disease" because he was "a fairy". Kinsolving first asked questions about AIDS in 1982; President Reagan would not acknowledge the epidemic until 1985, by which time more than five thousand people had died from the disease.
Kinsolving was an outspoken opponent of gay rights organizations – "the sodomy lobby," as he referred to them – mainly because of his religious beliefs.
Kinsolving was also an actor, playing the same role in two films: Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. In those films, he portrayed Confederate General William Barksdale. A biography of Kinsolving, Gadfly, The Life and Times of Les Kinsolving – White House Watchdog,, was written by his youngest daughter, Kathleen, and was released in 2010. Kinsolving died on December 4, 2018.Filmography
