The Gay Plague: The Homophobia of the AIDS Crisis

Contents:

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

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

An immigrant om Venezuela, Vergel told NBC News he left his home untry bee he was gay and seekg a more supportive environment. 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. ”"Fury, rage and actn"In 1987, a fiery speech was livered at the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr Communy Servic Center Manhattan.

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.

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”.

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.

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

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 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.

As the LGBTQ muny beme more visible also beme more exclive; those who were formerly clud beme margalized by many lbians and gay men.

THE GAY PLAGUE

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. Rpons to the epimic saw healthre workers refe to treat AIDS patients and first rponrs refe to rcate men spected of beg gay.

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.

THE GAY PLAGUE: HOMOSEXUALY AND DISEASE

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. 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 GAY PLAGUE: THE HOMOPHOBIA OF THE AIDS CRISIS

It was even lled the “gay plague” for many years September of 1982, the CDC ed the term AIDS to scribe the disease for the first time.

THE BIRTH OF THE ‘GAY PLAGUE’ MYTH

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. A major study pleted 2019 showed that over 750 gay men on an anti-viral treatment did not transm the vis to their partners. 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).

MAGAZE'S HIV CLAIM REKDL “GAY PLAGUE” ROW

Shanra Los Angel, was approached by a member of the lol gay muny about a possible sexual lk between the still rare s southern California.

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.

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

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). If the data were extrapolated natnally, as many as 200, 000--300, 000 gay men had already been fected the Uned Stat at the time of the 1981 se reports.

Print Nixon 1969 – was an embodiment of a nservative populo holdg s tongue agast the supposedly immoral and wayward velopments of the anti-war, Black Power, send wave femism, gay rights, sexual revolutn, and socialist/labour movements.

GAY PLAGUE

In the Uned Stat, AIDS was first named ‘Gay Related Immune Deficiency’ (GRID) after a high prevalence gay and bisexual men fected wh the disease was noted. The Republin and Conservative parti marched step, allowg stigma to further alienate already margalised muni of gay men and traveno dg-ers. Homosexuals and dg-ers were emed as ‘guilty’, whose unacceptable behavurs were to blame for their ntractn of the disease, while the latter were seen as ‘nocent’, spe all AIDS sufferers ntractg the same vis through no flt of their own.

FeaturThis article is over 12 years, 1 months oldIn the first part of our new seri Noel Halifax looks at how Aids was ed to ph homophobia.

LISTEN TO REAGAN’S PRS SECRETARY LGH ABOUT GAY PEOPLE DYG OF AIDS

It started as an unknown illns, first noticed New York around 1979 and 1980 a muny that generally took re of s health: gay men. And bee was first observed gay men, beme the basis of a wave of an anti-gay backlash so harsh that is difficult to believe today.

Homosexualy had only been crimalised 14 years before—and was ls than a sce the NHS had stopped classifyg beg gay as an “illns”. As there was no known e or cure, the media spread the ia that Aids uld be passed on the air—or by kissg, or touchg, or jt beg near a gay person. Aids was said to be the “revenge of god”, the product of “permissivens”—the rult of acceptg homosexualy and rejectg “tradnal fay valu”.

GAY-RELATED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY

Public opn polls showed that over 60 percent believed that gays and lbians should be barred om teachg—or havg any ntact wh children.

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.

Health Agency found 151 participants, or 99%, were practicg homosexuals who "intify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex wh men. The CDC and World Health Organizatn have refed to exprsly warn the active homosexual muny about the monkeypox risk that wh sodomy.