USA History - The Gay Plague

Contents:

• THREE S LATER, MEN WHO SURVIVED THE 'GAY PLAGUE' SPEAK OUT
• 1980S. HIV/AIDS: WHY WAS AIDS LLED ‘THE GAY PLAGUE’?
• THE GAY PLAGUE: HOMOSEXUALY AND DISEASE
• THE GAY PLAGUE
• ‘GAY PLAGUE’: THE VILE, HORRIFIC AND HUMANE WAY THE MEDIA REPORTED THE AIDS CRISIS
• THE BIRTH OF THE ‘GAY PLAGUE’ MYTH
• CHAPTER ONE: HOW FASHN WAS FOREVER CHANGED BY “THE GAY PLAGUE”
• MAGAZE'S HIV CLAIM REKDL “GAY PLAGUE” ROW
• THE GAY PLAGUE: THE HOMOPHOBIA OF THE AIDS CRISIS
• GAY PLAGUE

THREE S LATER, MEN WHO SURVIVED THE 'GAY PLAGUE' SPEAK OUT

READ MORE: Panmics That Changed History: A TimeleThe AIDS Epimic Aris Though HIV arrived the Uned Stat around 1970, didn’t e to the public’s attentn until the early 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn (CDC) published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh Pnmocystis pnmonia, which is ed by the normally harmls fung Pnmocystis jirovecii. Bee the disease appeared to affect mostly homosexual men, officials ially lled gay-related immune ficiency, or the CDC disvered all major rout of the disease’s transmissn—as well as that female partners of AIDS-posive men uld be fected— 1983, the public nsired AIDS a gay disease.

The FDA would revise s l 2015 to allow gay men to give blood if they’ve been celibate for a year, though blood banks routely tt blood for the end of 1985, there were more than 20, 000 reported s of AIDS, wh at least one se every regn of the is Developed In 1987, the first antiretroviral meditn for HIV, azidothymide (AZT), beme available. HIV/AIDS the 1990s and 2000s In 1991, the red ribbon beme an ternatnal symbol of AIDS that year, basketball player Magic Johnson announced he had HIV, helpg to further brg awarens to the issue and dispel the stereotype of beg a gay disease. When he met and fell love wh his boyiend, Calv, at a chemil engeerg nference Hoton, Vergel cid to live “gay plague, ” as was referred to at the time, was rockg the natn.

1980S. HIV/AIDS: WHY WAS AIDS LLED ‘THE GAY PLAGUE’?

Gay playwright and activist Larry Kramer, who would go on to found the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), had been slated to be a substute speaker for wrer and activist San Sontag. ”It was a ll to arms, and Eric Sawyer, a young gay man om upstate New York, answered himself had bee symptomatic the early onset of the vis, '81 when the first reports on HIV were g out, and his boyiend died om plitns due to AIDS 1984.

The mayor of New York, Ed Koch, was also a target for not dog anythg to help gay the aims, ACT UP was unpromisg and willg to shock people who preferred to ignore the epimic. Men who have sex wh men were, and still are, disproportnately impacted by HIV bee transms much more easily through anal sex than through vagal first official ernment report on AIDS me on June 5, 1981, the Morbidy and Mortaly Weekly Report, a ernment bullet on perplexg disease s: “In the perd October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for bpsy-nfirmed Pnmocystis rii pnmonia at 3 different hospals Los Angel, California.

THE GAY PLAGUE: HOMOSEXUALY AND DISEASE

”In a 1983 appearance on NBC's "Today" show, activist and Gay Mens Health Crisis -founr Larry Kramer asked host Jane Pley, "Jane, n you image what mt be like if you had lost 20 of your iends the last 18 months? "It's a very angry muny, " Kramer as the natn's attentn was directed toward gay AIDS victims, the vis was replitg the bloodstreams of hemophiliacs and jectn dg ers.

'GAY PLAGUE'After the Stonewall Rts 1969, LGBTQ activists across the untry ma signifint civil rights advanc and secured some municipal and state-level protectns agast discrimatn public employment.

THE GAY PLAGUE

Jerry Falwell, whose “Moral Majory” veighed agast givg rights to gay and anti-gay activist Ana Bryant heads a csa to nullify a lol gay rights ordance, Feb. She lled the group "Save Our Children" and said reprented the rights of the majory of fileOn March 22, 1980, a year before that first MMWR report, evangelil Christian lears livered a petn to Print Jimmy Carter mandg a halt to the advance of gay rights.

“God’s judgment is gog to fall on Ameri as on other societi that allowed homosexualy to bee a protected way of life, ” Bob Jon III predicted, acrdg to the anti-gay reactn gaed steam across Ameri wh the electn of Moral Majory ally Ronald Reagan, activists found their mands for attentn for a growg medil crisis were ignored.

‘GAY PLAGUE’: THE VILE, HORRIFIC AND HUMANE WAY THE MEDIA REPORTED THE AIDS CRISIS

One such group was the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, found New York Cy 1982, which is today the olst HIV/AIDS service anizatn the Men's Health Crisis Smh / NY Daily News via Getty Imag fileBut 1987, activists were still trated by ernment actn as bodi ntued to pile up, and they found the AIDS Coaln To Unleash Power, or ACT UP, New York, their actns and their activist art are legendary for speedg the ernment’s rponse to the AIDS crisis, allowg quicker ttg and treatment of lifavg experimental dgs, and drawg public attentn to the adly impact of homophobic public health polici. In New York, December 1989 ACT UP and took over St Patrick’s 1991, Activist Peter Staley draped a giant ndom over the home of noted homophobic senator Jse Helms om North Carola. 13, 1996, San Diego agast GOP polici on AIDS awarens and gay Her / Boston Globe via Getty Imag fileIn 1996, for the first time, AIDS aths dropped by 23 percent.

The MMWR scriptn of five s of Pnmocystis rii pnmonia (PCP) among homosexual men Los Angel was the first published report about an illns that would bee known as acquired immunoficiency syndrome (AIDS) (1). Auerbach and Darrow then extend the epimlogic vtigatn natnwi to 90 patients (approximately three quarters of reported s among gay men alive at the time). Dale Lawrence of the Task Force, who termed that their PCP was acpanied by severe unexplaed immunosupprsn, and the patients had no history of homosexual ntact or needle sharg (14).

Taken together, the s provid strong evince that AIDS was ed by an fect agent that uld be transmted by blood and om mother to child, as well as through homosexual and heterosexual ntact.

THE BIRTH OF THE ‘GAY PLAGUE’ MYTH

Durg the ial year after the first reports of AIDS, when the term "gay plague" was monly ed, the disease received relatively ltle attentn om the mastream media, the public, or policians. Harold Jaffe and lleagu om the San Francis Health Department and CDC's Hepatis Divisn reported a 6-year follow-up of a hort of gay men origally reced 1978 for studi of hepatis B vis fectn San Francis (Figure 2) (30). As for the ‘gay’ nnectn, there is no doubt that AIDS was first tected gay men and, for a brief perd, sperate rearchers examed the so-lled ‘gay liftyle’ for clu as to atn.

But GRID was only adopted om early 1982 until July 27th 1982, when the Centers for Disease Control realised, amongst other thgs, that there’s no such thg as a universal “gay liftyle”.

CHAPTER ONE: HOW FASHN WAS FOREVER CHANGED BY “THE GAY PLAGUE”

The gay rights and liberatn movements as well as the lbian alns that subsequently emerged via femist activism nstcted new standards of appropriate behavr for the LGBTQ muny. The new standards, rooted middle-class rpectabily polics, mand “rpectable” prentatn of members, which meant that mostly whe gay liberatn and lbian femist activists started to intify agast and exclu people of lor, those om lower (and ocsnally higher) class cludg workg-class butch and femm, and those like drag queens and transsexuals who transgrsed genr norms. At a moment when gay men and lbians were claimg their right to eely exprs their sexualy, 1981 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) quietly announced the emergence of a new and adly disease.

Shortly thereafter, bee of protts that GRID stigmatized the gay populatn and the fact that the vis was also found traveno dg ers, Haians, and patients who had received blood transfns, the name was changed to AIDS — acquired immune ficiency syndrome. Whether or not fluenced his work as a mician is subject to bate, though settg Walt Whman’s poem, “To What You Said” Songft (1977), and featurg a gay character his opera A Quiet Place (1983), were nsired both darg and revealg when they premiered. In 1989, Bernste cled a printial medal of honor as a prott at the Natnal Endowment of the Arts rcdg a grant for a gay-oriented AIDS art exhib; and 1990 he wrote the foreword to the book, The Vyl Closet: Gays the Mic World.

MAGAZE'S HIV CLAIM REKDL “GAY PLAGUE” ROW

To mark the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day on Saturday (December 1), PkNews has looked at how the gay muny were treated by the tabloid media durg the AIDS crisis the UK, cludg the sudn ath of US actor Rock Hudson 1985, which sparked speculatn about his sexualy. The Fire Brigas Unn 1985 advised s members not to give mouth-to-mouth rcatn to anyone they spected might be fected—and stated members would no longer rry out any safety spectns of gay clubs. Wh "Pri Month" events planned all of June, Andy Seale, a strategy advisor the WHO mataed, "It's important that people who want to go out and celebrate gay pri, LGBTQ+ pri, to ntue to go and plan to do so.

THE GAY PLAGUE: THE HOMOPHOBIA OF THE AIDS CRISIS

Inpennt journalist Jordan Schachtel suggted the CDC ought to enforce a lockdown on the gay muny: "Why won't the woke CDC, FDA, NIH tell you that the monkeypox outbreak is very specifilly targeted to one muny? Journalist Jim Downs believ the ernment is aaid to "sgle out a group that endured terrible stigma at the height of Ameri's AIDS crisis, " even as "public health thori vtigate possible lks to sexual or other close physil ntact at a pri event the Canary Islands, a sna Madrid and other gay venu Europe.

Downs suggted public health agenci should "prs gay social media apps and other onle platforms to tell their ers that men who have sex wh men have been disproportnately fected by the vis. The Scientific Amerin published an article tled "Blamg Gay Men for Monkeypox Will Harm Everyone, " which disuraged a narrative that blamed gay men for monkeypox, regardls of any U. Young and otherwise healthy gay men Los Angel and New York began gettg sick and dyg of unual illns normally associated wh people wh weakened immune didn't take long for fear of the "gay plague" to spread quickly among the gay muny.

GAY PLAGUE

Raisg AIDS AwarensBettmann Archive/Getty ImagAIDS victims and their supporters participate the March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay Rights on October 11, 1987. (Later, when he was expelled om the group for beg too antagonistic, Kramer found Act Up 1987, a more ant anizatn that fought for acceleratg rearch for a cure and an end to discrimatn agast gay men and lbians.

I worked at an advertisg agency where the owner was gay, and so many people were g —but then you would never see them aga or you would hear that they passed away. I remember gog to see them Harlem Hospal and they didn’t know enough about the disease, so they actually ma me wear a full hazmat Doonan, wrerThere was this ia gog around that a “gay ncer” was affectg all the hardre queens who are sexaholics and dog dgs. Valerie Steele, fashn historian Even the fashn dtry, people started to talk about, maybe we ought to not hire gay men anymore fashn unls they n take the tt and prove that they don’t have , that they n get surance polici.