Dennis Prager’s claim that was ‘nceivable’ that gay men were seen as ‘pariahs’ the 1980s is extraordarily accurate - Poynter

Contents:

• DENNIS PRAGER’S CLAIM THAT WAS ‘NCEIVABLE’ THAT GAY MEN WERE SEEN AS ‘PARIAHS’ THE 1980S IS EXTRAORDARILY ACCURATE
• 'A LICENCE TO BASH GAYS': 1980S CRIME WAVE REVISED NEW TV SERI
• ‘GAY BASHG’ A GROWG THREAT TO HOMOSEXUALS
• DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?
• GAY BASHGS, HOMOPHOBIA: FORMER P RELLS HORROR YEARS NSW POLICE FORCE

DENNIS PRAGER’S CLAIM THAT WAS ‘NCEIVABLE’ THAT GAY MEN WERE SEEN AS ‘PARIAHS’ THE 1980S IS EXTRAORDARILY ACCURATE

But would’ve been nceivable” Dennis Prager: “Durg the AIDS crisis, n you image if gay men and traveno dg ers…had they been pariahs the way the non-vaccated are?

But we checked wh multiple historians of the perd and each was mystified by the characterizatn that the AIDS epimic somehow spared gay men and traveno dg ers om beg treated as outsts.

” “Willfully ignorant, ” said Eric Marc, who addrsed the first dozen years of the AIDS crisis his d memoir, “Utterly ridiculo, ” said Lillian Farman, thor of the 2016 book, “The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle. ” Let’s walk through the evince of how gay men, as well as traveno dg ers, were treated as pariahs durg the years after 1981, when the vis that AIDS was first intified.

'A LICENCE TO BASH GAYS': 1980S CRIME WAVE REVISED NEW TV SERI

Charl Kaiser, the thor of “The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life Ameri, ” rells the era as beg “a perd of absolute terror” for gay men.

In 1981, at the start of the AIDS crisis, “gay sex was illegal — sodomy laws were not ferally overturned until 2003, ” said Sarah Schulman, thor of the 2021 book, “Let the Rerd Show: A Polil History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993. Randy Shilts, one of the early chroniclers of the AIDS crisis and the late thor of the book “And the Band Played On: Polics, People and the AIDS Epimic, ” wrote that by the begng of 1983, “ was virtually an article of fah among homosexuals that they would somehow end up ncentratn mps.

‘GAY BASHG’ A GROWG THREAT TO HOMOSEXUALS

In a 1983 opn lumn  the New York Post, nservative mentator Pat Buchanan wrote that “the poor homosexuals … have clared war upon nature, and now nature is exactg an awful retributn. ” He went on to wre that homosexuals should be barred om food handlg jobs and that the Democratic Party’s cisn to hold s 1984 nventn San Francis would expose legat, spo and children to “homosexuals who belong to a muny that is a mon rrier of dangero, munible and sometim fatal diseas.

Wrote a lumn  the New York Tim which he urged that “everyone tected wh AIDS should be tattooed the upper forearm, to protect mon-needle ers, and on the buttocks, to prevent the victimizatn of other homosexuals. In an era before hate crime laws, “street vlence agast gay people, lled ‘gay bashg, ’ was a regular occurrence, and gay people had no thory figure to turn to for protectn or rponse, ” she said. Crics attributed this attu to a broadly felt disfort wh homosexualy (PoliFact) In 1982, reporter Lter Ksolvg asked Print Ronald Reagan’s prs secretary, Larry Speak, about the epimic at a Whe Hoe prs nference.

Relatns between the gay muny and Anthony Fci of the Natnal Instut of Health were often tense, due to a perceived lack of aggrsivens of scientific rearch.

DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?

“The most important evince of how poorly gay men were treated that era was that LGBT people had to form their own anizatns orr to rpond to the llective absence of the feral ernment, the medil profsn, public thori, and even the media to addrs the crisis, ” said Jim Downs, a Gettysburg College historian and thor of the 2016 book “Stand by Me: The Fotten History of Gay Liberatn. ” In New York Cy, for stance, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis started a “buddy” program to assign volunteers to people wh AIDS, “jt to hang out wh them and keep them pany, or n basic errands, ” Schulman said.

Marc relled that when he was a volunteer for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, “I uld only fd one funeral home Manhattan that would take the body of my client who had died om plitns of AIDS. The evince of the oppose abounds: ntemporary survey data on attus about homosexualy; the existence of laws agast nsensual gay sex; the near-passage of an AIDS quarante law California; lls by proment mentators for banng HIV-posive people om certa jobs or even tattoog them; jok about the disease by Whe Hoe officials; and the need for the gay muny to build their own stutns to grapple wh the disease bee existg stutns were sufficient.

GAY BASHGS, HOMOPHOBIA: FORMER P RELLS HORROR YEARS NSW POLICE FORCE

"This was a [time of] sexual liberatn for gay men, and the plac where men went to fd their pleasure, people who hated gays went to fd their targets, " he said. "Society slow to tch up wh lawsHomosexual sex was crimalised New South Wal 1984, and the feral Sex Discrimatn Act - which mak an offence to discrimate agast someone based on their sexual orientatn - was passed the same that didn't mean that people were ol wh lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) people. "I don't thk 's fair per se to say that police culture was volved gay murrs - I don't thk we have evince of that - but certaly, some police were volved gay bashgs, " he said.

Society has changed a lot sce the spate of gay bashgs the many LGBTI Atralians feel still don't feel entirely safe and fortable speakg publicly about their sexualy. ()Laws help - but only up to a South Atralia and Queensland, 's still possible for a crimal to have a murr charge downgrad to manslghter on the basis that their gay victim was htg on them. The argument is that the acced uld be "provoked" to killg someone if they make non-vlent sexual advanc towards so-lled "gay panic fence" had been phased out other stat between 2003 and 2008, but remas on the books those two stat - meang 2016 's still possible to downgra murr charge when a gay man is the victim.

'Sometim feels like you're floggg a ad horse'Earlier this month, SBS aired the first of a four-part seri lookg at gay aths Sydney the 1980s, lled Deep Water. SAN FRANCISCO — Beaten by a roamg pack of thugs out for a summer’s “night of outrage, ” his head bounced off a curb, John Dennis O’Connell died 10 days was attacked solely bee he was a unprovoked asslts, sometim lled “gay bashg, ” have long been a form of homosexual harassment towns and ci where sizable gay populatns draw San Francis, wh a reputatn as a homosexual haven and an timated gay populatn of 15% of 700, 000 people, some say attacks are risg, spe efforts by gay advot and police to put the bashers behd Seidler, the Police Department’s liaison officer wh the gay muny, said the attackers are most often out-of-town toughs who e to the cy exprsly to hunt homosexuals or cy rints rentful of homosexuals sharg their neighborhoods and public of Exposure to AIDSThe latt twist, Seidler said, is attacks by youths who claim that homosexuals are exposg them to AIDS, the adly disease that most monly strik gay men.