New York Tim staffers reflect on the paper’s checkered past verg AIDS and gay culture — and what we n learn om today.
Contents:
- REMEMBERG THE EARLY DAYS OF 'GAY CANCER'
- A LOOK BACK AT THE YEAR A RARE CANCER WAS FIRST SEEN GAY MEN
- SIX TIM JOURNALISTS ON THE PAPER’S HISTORY OF COVERG AIDS AND GAY ISSU
REMEMBERG THE EARLY DAYS OF 'GAY CANCER'
Commentator Joe Wright spent more than 10 years dog AIDS muny work San Francis. He says that back 1981 and '82, before AIDS was lled AIDS, was lled "gay ncer." At the time, ncer was the most dread disease the Uned Stat. But for some of the men who had the myster new illns, llg "ncer" was a form of hope. Joe Wright is a stunt at Harvard Medil School. * gay cancer kaposi *
Rememberg the Early Days of 'Gay Cancer' Commentator Joe Wright spent more than 10 years dog AIDS muny work San Francis. He says that back 1981 and '82, before AIDS was lled AIDS, was lled "gay ncer. And bee the first people diagnosed wh the new syndrome were gay men, some people started llg the disease Gay Cancer.
But lots of people the media and the gay muny still lled Gay Cancer until the later part of 1982. Soon after he was diagnosed wh KS, he spent time troducg himself to men the Kaposi Sara clic wag room, vg them to the Shanti Project Gay Cancer support group. Medilly, Bobbi Campbell knew that his so-lled gay ncer was very different than the kds of ncer that most of his patients the hospal had.
Doctors New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 s of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of ncer. But the doctors who have ma the diagnos, mostly New York Cy and the San Francis Bay area, are alertg other physicians who treat large numbers of homosexual men to the problem an effort to help intify more s and to rce the lay offerg chemotherapy sudn appearance of the ncer, lled Kaposi's Sara, has prompted a medil vtigatn that experts say uld have as much scientific as public health importance bee of what may teach about termg the of more mon typ of ncer.
A LOOK BACK AT THE YEAR A RARE CANCER WAS FIRST SEEN GAY MEN
The summer of 1981 saw the first media reports about myster diseas gay men. What did they get right — and wrong? * gay cancer kaposi *
But the recent s, doctors at ne medil centers New York and seven hospals California have been diagnosg the ndn among younger men, all of whom said the urse of standard diagnostic terviews that they were homosexual. Friedman-Kien, the reportg doctors said that most s had volved homosexual men who have had multiple and equent sexual enunters wh different partners, as many as 10 sexual enunters each night up to four tim a of the patients have also been treated for viral fectns such as herp, cytomegalovis and hepatis B as well as parasic fectns such as amebiasis and giardiasis. Friedman-Kien Curran said there was no apparent danger to nonhomosexuals om ntagn.
SIX TIM JOURNALISTS ON THE PAPER’S HISTORY OF COVERG AIDS AND GAY ISSU
I was one of those physicians providg re to gay men New York Cy when AIDS first me to attentn. * gay cancer kaposi *
''The bt evince agast ntagn, '' he said, ''is that no s have been reported to date outsi the homosexual muny or women. A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 20 of the Natnal edn wh the headle: RARE CANCER SEEN IN 41 HOMOSEXUALS.
On July 3, 1981, a now-famo New York Tim article rried the headle, “Rare Cancer Seen 41 Homosexuals.
” The article scribed the sudn appearance, gay men om New York and Los Angel, of a rare sk ncer lled Kaposi’s sara (KS). The epimic of ncer among gay men seemed to suggt that ncer might have a traceable e—one that, if intified, uld help lead to a cure for ncer general. The risg ti of Kaposi’s sara, known lloquially as “gay ncer, ” breathed life back to the ncer vis paradigm.