Quote:
Originally posted by StoneWT
HIV was helped to spread due to the bathhouses and queer 'leaders' wanting the epidemic treated like a civil rights issue instead of as a public health issue. |
When HIV was known as GRID, local epidemiologists didn't know why gay men and those using blood products were suddenly showing up with mysterious diseases usually affecting the immunosuppressed and elderly mediterranean men. They suspected an infectious agent but had no clues about how it was transmitted.
Meanwhile, rumors of Gay Plague and Gay Cancer had hit the streets. After years of oppression, the gay community felt this was just another tactic used by homophobes to knock back civil rights advances.
By the time the first warnings of likely transmission routes became public, people had already been infected two to seven years prior to presenting with symptoms. An HIV test did not yet exist. And when it did, there were no treatments. The results of HIV tests became an excuse to deny housing, medical care, and benefits.
Now, if you REALLY care to see how well the gay community responded after the news was realistically disseminated, go to the CDC's website and review how new HIV infection rates dropped under the category of 'men who have sex with men' from 1979 thru today.