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In the early 1980s, doctors in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco began seeing young Kaposi's Sarcoma, a cancer usually associated with elderly men of Mediterranean ethnicity. Eventually the men wasted away and died.
As the realization that gay men were dying of an otherwise rare cancer began to spread throughout the homosexual and later the medical communities, the syndrome began to be called by the colloquialism "Gay Cancer". As medical scientists discovered that the syndrome included other manifestations, such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, (PCP), a rare form of pneumonia caused by protozoa, its name was changed to "GRID", or Gay Related Immune Deficiency. The effect that the stigma of homosexuality had on the general public's perception and handling of the disease cannot be overlooked.
Within the medical community, it quickly became apparent that the disease was not specific to gay men (as blood transfusion patients, heroin users, heterosexual women and newborn babies became added to the list of afflicted), and the CDC renamed the syndrome AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in 1982.
A misconception holds that the disease was introduced by a gay male flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, referred to as "Patient Zero". However, subsequent research has revealed that there were cases of AIDS much earlier than initially known.
It has also been theorized that a series of inoculations against hepatitis that were performed in the gay community of San Francisco were tainted with HIV. There is a high correlation between recipients of that vaccination and initial cases of AIDS, though this of course has never been proven to be accurate.
One of the best-known works on the history of HIV is And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts. Shilts contends that Ronald Reagan's administration dragged its feet in dealing with the crisis due to homophobia, thus allowing the disease to spread and hundreds of thousands of people to needlessly die. This resulted in the formation of ACT-UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power by Larry Kramer.
Shilts also details the fact that the Red Cross refused to ban homosexuals from donating blood at the request of the Centers for Disease Control early in the discovery of the epidemic in order to not stigmatize homosexuals, and to keep the blood bank industry from suffering shortages. Thus, tens of thousands of hemophiliacs and transfusion recipients were infected needlessly, and died.
Activists and critics of current AIDS policies allege that another preventable impediment to the attack on the disease was the academic elitism of "celebrity" scientists. Robert Gallo, an American scientist who was one of many to try to attempt to figure out if there was some kind of new virus in the people who were affected with the disease, became embroiled in a legal battle with French scientists trying to do the same thing. Gallo, too, appeared hung up on the possible connection between the virus causing AIDS and HTLV, a retrovirus that he had worked with previously. Critics claim that because some scientists (and biological research companies) wanted glory and fame, this held up progress on research and more people needlessly died. Eventually, after meeting, the French scientists and Gallo agreed to "share" the discovery of HIV.
Publicity campaigns were started in attempts to counter the often vitriolic and homophobic perception of AIDS as a "gay plague" and replace it with actual medical knowledge that would save lives. In particular this included the Ryan White case, the red ribbon campaigns, the celebrity dinners, the film of And the Band Played On, sex education programs in schools, television advertisements, etc. Announcements by various heterosexual celebrities that they had contracted AIDS (including basketball star Magic Johnson) were significant in making the general public aware of the dangers of the disease to everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation.
In 1986 activists associated with Lyndon LaRouche formed the "Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee" (PANIC) to place what became "Proposition 64" on the California state ballot. While proponents argued that the measures would merely return AIDS to the list of communicable diseases under the public health laws, opponents characterized it as an effort to force HIV-positive individuals out of their jobs and into quarantine. After its defeat it was reintroduced two years later, by the "Prevent AIDS Now In California" (also PANIC) committee, and was defeated again.
As of 2005 AIDS cases in the United States are highest among homosexual African men and the African American community at large. According to a recently released report that prompted President George W. Bush to ask Congress for increased spending on HIV education focusing on the African American community during his 2005 State of the Union address:
- African-Americans make up 54 percent of annual new infections, though they are just 13 percent of the population. African Americans account for two-thirds of new AIDS cases among teens, but are only 15 percent of the national teen population.
A recent study by Rand Corp. and Oregon State University reported that half of African-Americans in the United States believe AIDS was man-made, more than one-quarter said they believed AIDS was produced in a government laboratory and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA. The study was published in the February 1, 2005 edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
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