HIV/AIDS, Gay Communi, and the Stggle for Gay Rights |

Contents:

• HIV/AIDS AND EDUTN: LSONS OM THE 1980S AND THE GAY MALE COMMUNY THE UNED STAT
• 1980S. HIV/AIDS: WHY WAS AIDS LLED ‘THE GAY PLAGUE’?
• HIV/AIDS, GAY COMMUNI, AND THE STGGLE FOR GAY RIGHTS
• GAY RIGHTS
• IS AIDS A “GAY” DISEASE?
• HIV IS A STORY FIRST WRTEN ON THE BODI OF GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

HIV/AIDS AND EDUTN: LSONS OM THE 1980S AND THE GAY MALE COMMUNY THE UNED STAT

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. In most of Ai, public opn was backed by the learship of Ain policians who refed to acknowledge the existence of sex between men, let alone a health crisis that affected a natn's homosexual populatn.

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

While HIV and AIDS had been noted sexually active heterosexual groups central Ain untri om the earlit days of the epimic, popular opn that HIV was largely ntaed to gay muni endured well to the 2000s.

Sce early victims were predomantly gay men, the stigma attached to homosexualy the medil, erng, law enforcement and eccliastil stutns beme a barrier to unrstandg, preventn, and out of doctoral study the mid-1980s, I was part of the first generatn of mental health provirs to rpond to the epimic the San Francis Bay Area Northern California. Her Highns Sheikha Mozah exhorted the atten om around the world to not stop at talk but, stead, m themselv to actn agast both the sndalo lack of accs to dimentary tn for over one hundred ln school-age children worldwi, as well as the tolerable equi of genr, class, and enomic stature which impair the attament of basic years ago, the gay muny was effective tg var social and profsnal muni bee, beg highly ted, privileged, and entled, was unaaid to speak the tth and go head-to-head wh powerful sectors that were perceived as obstctg accs to rmatn, rearch, treatment, and fundg. One, the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer (LGBTQ) Prints Higher Edutn is newly formed and "advanc effective learship the realm of post-sendary tn, supports profsnal velopment of LGBTQ lears that sector, and provis tn and advocy regardg LGBTQ issu wh the global amy and for the public at large.

HIV/AIDS, GAY COMMUNI, AND THE STGGLE FOR GAY RIGHTS

The natn also saw tremendo progrs the fight agast HIV unr former Print Barack Obama, whose Natnal HIV & AIDS Strategy explicly lled attentn to gay and bisexual men and transgenr women for the first time. 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. ”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?

'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.

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 RIGHTS

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. Still others held support groups for people wh AIDS, for their loved on, and for the “worried well”—gay men who were HIV negative but nohels anx, as they watched other gay men around them grow ill and die. At a 1983 gay and lbian health nference Denver, AIDS activists, cludg Callen, Berkowz, and Bobbi Campbell, a gay nurse om San Francis, drafted the Denver Prcipl, a statement of their rights the ntext of the epimic.

Moreover, many of the bars, bookstor, and bathho where early AIDS groups nducted safer sex tn existed unofficially segregated gay neighborhoods, where gay and bisexual men of lor often felt unwele.

IS AIDS A “GAY” DISEASE?

They mand that the Centers for Disease Control change the clil fn of AIDS to clu the opportunistic fectns monly seen women, so that women wh AIDS would be eligible for the same disabily benefs as gay men wh the disease. In June 1989, the Corran Gallery Washgton, DC, nceled a retrospective of works by the gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who had died of AIDS plitns jt months before, bee the exhibn ntaed sexually explic material.

Frohnmayer claimed that the show had bee too polil, bee the show’s talog cricized Senator Jse Helms and Reprentative Dannmeyer, both of whom blamed gay men for AIDS, as well as Archbishop of New York John Cardal O’Connor, who opposed the e of ndoms for HIV preventn. Tongu Untied explored the experience of black gay men the Uned Stat and the ways which their liv were shaped by racism, homophobia, and AIDS; Riggs himself had disvered 1987 that he was HIV posive. Men om black gay AIDS groups such as Gay Men of Ain Dcent (GMAD) and the Natnal Task Force on AIDS Preventn (NTFAP) also participated Other Countri and ntributed to Brother to Brother, a llectn of black gay men’s wrg eded by Hemphill.

HIV IS A STORY FIRST WRTEN ON THE BODI OF GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

AIDS also gave a sense of urgency to the e of gay marriage by highlightg all of the rights that were nied to unmarried gay upl, as the partners of gay men wh AIDS equently found themselv shut out of cisns about medil treatment, funeral planng, and herance by homophobic fay members. However, some have cricized ntemporary gay rights groups for prrizg issu such as same-sex marriage over HIV/AIDS even as the disease remas a crisis, particularly among young gay and bisexual men of lor. Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels. Addnally, 1948, his book Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey proposed that male sexual orientatn li on a ntuum between exclively homosexual to exclively Homophile Years In 1950, Harry Hay found the Mattache Foundatn, one of the natn’s first gay rights group. ”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze.

Post Office, which 1954 clared the magaze “obscene” and refed to liver Mattache Society Mattache Foundatn members rtctured the anizatn to form the Mattache Society, which had lol chapters other parts of the untry and 1955 began publishg the untry’s send gay publitn, The Mattache Review.