 Falwell claimed that the grassroots efforts of the Moral Majority — registering millions of voters, informing the public, and using the media — had been a significant factor in the election of President Ronald Reagan. By 1982 they had a budget of $ 1 million and millions of volunteers. Around the same time, gay men were being stricken with AIDS, desperate for money for research and services. Spokesmen for the Moral Majority connected it to God's will, asserting the general public needed protection from "the gay plague", and warned, "If homosexuals are not stopped they will infect the entire nation and America will be destroyed."
