1980s. HIV/AIDS: Why was AIDS lled ‘the gay plague’? - Gay the 80s

Contents:

• IS AIDS A “GAY” DISEASE?
• WHY ARE GAY MEN MORE AT RISK FOR HIV?
• HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• 1980S. HIV/AIDS: WHY WAS AIDS LLED ‘THE GAY PLAGUE’?
• DISCRIMATN AND HOMOPHOBIA FUEL THE HIV EPIMIC GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• AIDS IS A GAY DISEASE

IS AIDS A “GAY” DISEASE?

They claimed that should not be associated wh homosexualy any way, shape or form bee this allegedly led to the “stigmatizg and spegoatg” of homosexuals.

This assertn was an sential ponent of the refully-engeered mpaign tend to nvce that homosexualy is jt as healthy as heterosexualy. But as evince piled up, the allegatn that homosexualy and HIV/AIDS were unrelated was no longer fensible, and those who nied the nnectn were creasgly perceived as disnnected om realy.

WHY ARE GAY MEN MORE AT RISK FOR HIV?

However, Amerin urts have thlsly med the Constutn to illicly expand the right to privacy to clu abortn, fantici, thanasia, pornography ― and now, ersatz homosexual “marriage. Homosexual groups have ed to cripple ernment efforts to curb the very disease that is killg them by the thoands every year.

Organized “gays” have blocked blood screeng for HIV, fought the closg of homosexual bathho, advoted for the legalizatn of both male and female prostutn, shut down ntact tracg and sexual partner notifitn, opposed crimalizg the liberate fectn of another person wh HIV-AIDS, and promoted the e of ndoms, which have a six to eight percent failure rate. The radil homosexual lobby still acc the ernment of so-lled “AIDS genoci, ” and asserts that the Feds “have blood on their hands. To show how out of touch the mastream media is wh realy, Newsweek Magaze, which has featured AIDS on s ver no fewer than twenty tim, laid the blame for the AIDS epimic at the feet of “homophobia and relig lears steeped moralistic doctre who have supprsed hont nversatn about how to stop .

HIV AND ALL GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

In perhaps the most extreme statement of self-excal, Harry Hay, founr of the first homophile anizatn the Uned Stat (the Mattache Society), acced nservativ of velopg and spreadg the AIDS vis. All of this shows the power of the homosexual lobby as greedily gobbl up every penny n get s hands on for s very small percentage of the populatn, thereby privg lns of others of badly-need assistance. Foreman, a polil analyst wh the Brookgs Foundatn, says that homosexual mands for unlimed AIDS money nstute “a remarkably succsful lobby.

But still AIDS fundg climbs relentlsly, bee lawmakers know that if they vote agast any crease, the homophil will stantly brand them as “hate-filled bigots” and “homophob. ” This figure shows that 70% of all new diagnosed fectns among men were homosexuals and only 7% were among heterosexuals.

[4] Acrdg to the Natnal Gay Task Force, screeng donated blood for HIV is “spegoatg” and “stigmatizg” [Journal of the Amerin Medil Associatn, Febary 4, 1983; New Dimensns Magaze, March 1990].

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

Sce the HIV epimic started the 1980s gay men have been at a greater risk and reprented more of the new HIV s that we’ve known this untry and actually ternatnally as well. It’s bee we live a high HIV prevalent society among gay men and then also bee some of the behavrs that we engage may put more at risk for HIV. Social and stctural issu—such as HIV stigma, homophobia, discrimatn, poverty, and limed accs to high-qualy health re—fluence health out and ntue to drive equi.

DISCRIMATN AND HOMOPHOBIA FUEL THE HIV EPIMIC GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

This web ntent the term gay and bisexual men to reprent gay, bisexual, and other men who reported male-to-male sexual ntact. 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”. For example, The Atralian was one of the first newspapers to e the term (‘”Gay plague” epimic sweepg US’, 17th July 1982). But then ntued relentlsly, wh headl such as the Mail on Sunday‘s “Bra threatened by gay vis plague” (6th January 1985) ntug to the late 80s.

There is a tailed study of the early days of HIV/AIDS, cludg the te epimlogy and a study of how the Prs reported , my eBook Gay the 80s.

AIDS IS A GAY DISEASE

Callg HIV a “gay” or “LGBTQ” disease is medilly unte and only serv to perpetuate harmful stereotyp about people livg wh HIV and members of the LGBT muny.

Acrdg to the latt timat, 68 percent of new HIV transmissns among gay and bisexual men occur the ntext of a primary relatnship (e. Over the last 30 years, efforts to prevent new HIV fectns among gay and bisexual men have been guid by paradigms that hold dividuals rponsible for their health behavrs.

In fact, gay, bisexual, and other MSM acquire HIV at rat 44 tim greater than other men and 40 tim greater than women (CDC, 2011a). More recently, wh the game-changg breakthroughs the bmedil arena, attentn has shifted to the bmedil preventn strategi, which clu preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for gay, bisexual, and other MSM (Grant et al., 2010) and vagal microbicis for women (Abdool et al., 2010). In rponse to the alarmg health dispari among gay and bisexual men, there has been a ll to broan the preventn lens to exame the fluence of multiple social and ntextual factors fluencg health behavrs (Halkis & Cahill, 2011).