I tried setting that variable before running the test, but it didn't make a difference. I can run the test in the perl debugger

and in stepping through the tests, when it returns from simple_request routine, it has this as the return value:

  DB<19> x $res
0  HTTP::Response=HASH(0xcebce8)
   '_content' => 'LWP will support https URLs if the LWP::Protocol::ht
+tps module
is installed.
'
   '_headers' => HTTP::Headers=HASH(0xcf4e40)
      '::std_case' => HASH(0xcebc58)
         'client-date' => 'Client-Date'
         'client-warning' => 'Client-Warning'
      'client-date' => 'Thu, 30 Jan 2014 20:57:35 GMT'
      'client-warning' => 'Internal response'
      'content-type' => 'text/plain'
   '_msg' => 'Protocol scheme \'https\' is not supported (LWP::Protoco
+l::https not installed)'
   '_rc' => 501
   '_request' => HTTP::Request=HASH(0xa1e5f8)
      '_content' => ''
      '_headers' => HTTP::Headers=HASH(0x8e6d18)
         'user-agent' => 'libwww-perl/6.05'
      '_method' => 'GET'
      '_uri' => URI::https=SCALAR(0x8f8230)
         -> 'https://www.apache.org'
[download]

Which seems really strange to me. the _msg string says that https is not supported because LWP::Protocol::https is not installed. But that is the module I am trying to build/test/install!