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

Contents:

• THREE S LATER, MEN WHO SURVIVED THE 'GAY PLAGUE' SPEAK OUT
• THE GAY PLAGUE
• CHAPTER ONE: HOW FASHN WAS FOREVER CHANGED BY “THE GAY PLAGUE”
• DENNIS PRAGER’S CLAIM THAT WAS ‘NCEIVABLE’ THAT GAY MEN WERE SEEN AS ‘PARIAHS’ THE 1980S IS EXTRAORDARILY ACCURATE

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

”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. 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. 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.

(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. 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).

THE GAY PLAGUE

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. 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). 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.

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

”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.

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.

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

A few physicians and public health workers astal ci had noticed strange opportunistic fectns otherwise healthy gay men the years prr, but the report served to put the phenomenon on rerd.

The disease spread quickly the time that followed, vastatg lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) and mory muni, while policymakers’ activy and societal stigma pound the issue.

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.