It was 25 years ago today

[Brazenly Liberal]

The first American AIDS case was diagnosed. We didn't know what caused it or how it was spread. All we knew was it was killing people - mostly gays and Haitians. There were no AIDS rides, no marathon runners with sponsors pledging $10/mile for research. Just fear and confusion and abysmal neglect. After all, it wasn't killing "regular" people or anything.

At the time, I worked for a mid-sized company at which most of the employees were gay. As more and more cases of the "gay cancer" were diagnosed, we all became more and more frightened.

One by one, they got sick, lost weight, and died. The owner's assistant. The nice guy in marketing everyone liked. That kid in the mail room.

We worried if a friend looked thinner than he did last week. We went into a near panic if we thought we spotted a new mole.

To cope with the fear and uncertainty, there was gallows humor. My beloved friend, Jack, came to my office one day. "Hey, you know what the hardest part of having AIDS is?" "Puking on your boss's shoe?" "No, it's trying to convince your parents that you're Haitian."

Jack's dark joke spoke volumes. About how ignorance and hatred were revealed and magnified in the face of what had become an epidemic. About the ugliness visited upon the victims.

A year later, Jack was dead. None of us were allowed to attend his funeral because his parents were afraid we'd say something and their neighbors would learn he was gay.

We had our own memorial service for him. We told the truth about him. We told him one last time how much we loved him. I love him and miss him still.

And one by one, they got sick, lost weight, and died.

If AIDS had first come to the United States via a straight, white, Republican male, things would have been vastly different. There would have been a mad rush to find a cure instead of the long, slow, agonizing, death march of the eighties.

The battle against AIDS is yet to be won, though progress has been made. The battle against ignorance and hatred is not going quite so well. On this, the day marking 25 years of AIDS, George W. Bush made a speech supporting a Constitutional Amendment outlawing gay marriage.

[mike_c]

1. K&R, thank you for posting this-- incredibly moving....

Damn.

[JackBeck]

2. Not only did Bush make the speach on the 25th anniversary of

the first case of AIDS, it also freakin' Gay Pride Month!

[wicket]

7. He's such a piece of shit!!!!

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[2bfree]

9. I hadn't even realized that.

What a asshole.

[2bfree]

10. Thank you for sharing.

I graduated in the early 80s and lost several dear friends this terrible disease. When my sisters talk about the young men they lost from their class it is Vietnam mine are from AIDS. They should be honored as well.

[Marnieworld]

3. A moving tribute that brought tears to my eyes

You honor your friends with this. It is so sick that here we are 25 years later and the hate is still prevalent. This hatred today expressed by our "president" is no different than the implied hatred of Reagan when he never mentioned the disease until after thousands of Americans died from it.

Like a candle in darkness we shine on. For those who have come before us and those not even known yet. They are losing and this is the last gasp of that effort to hate. It was just 45 years ago when they were fighting over inter-racial dating and our culture evolved towards love then too.

Peace. :hug: :patriot:

[Coexist]

4. Oh, my...

what a tragic anniversary.

[smokey nj]

5. Great post .....

And it's just a coincidence that the evil-doer chose this anniversary to make his speach pushing the gay hatred ammendment. :(

[Marnieworld]

6. no different than when the FDA released their report on pot

on 4-20! Saying it had no medicinal value on the day stoners celebrate it. Shortly thereafter there was a report on the research to create a synthetic version of THC. Medicine mimicking a substance that has no medicinal value? This insanity can only come from our Gov't.

Even if you were homophobic would you want it to be THE priority given all the other things affecting our country? It's madness. :grr:

[RFKHumphreyObama]

8. Thank you for posting this sad and profoundly moving thread

It’s a sad fact that AIDS has been an issue of national and international importance and an illness that has caused great pain and tragedy to so many millions of people around the globe for most of the time that I have been on this earth –I would have only been six months old when the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in America.

I remember watching a documentary when I was ten or eleven about a child who had AIDS during the 1980s-90s and how that child was discriminated against by those in society who allowed their own ignorance and fear to overwhelm their sense of compassion. I remember when Magic Johnson announced he had the disease and the tragic case of Arthur Ashe. I remember recently reading a story about a child in the US who had to care as a teenager for her sister and mother who both had AIDS and realizing that too many children around the globe face that dilemma every day. I have recently discovered that the producers of South African version of Sesame Street recently introduced a character with AIDS because of the frequency of the disease there among children and the need to educate children on the disease.

A lot of the “Gen Y” generation (myself included) nevertheless do not remember the early days when HIV/AIDS was a relatively new and unknown disease and the paranoia and the hysteria surrounding it. It never ceases to horrify and profoundly sadden me when I read stories like yours about the stigma, paranoia, ignorance, prejudice and stereotyping that surrounded AIDS and people who contracted the disease during those days. And it furthermore never ceases to amaze and sadden me that, even with all that we know now, how many of the above factors still come into play today in relation to HIV/AIDS and in relation to gays and lesbians. It’s almost as if some people view this as the last acceptable prejudice and it causes me anger to no end that we still can’t be mature enough to bring out the better angels of our nature when it comes to issues such as this

Your piece profoundly moved me to the point of tears. I pray that one day soon there will be enlightenment, tolerance, understanding and compassion toward people. And I honour the memory of your friends –may their legacy live on in the hearts and minds of all those who knew them and may they never be forgotten. You honour them greatly through your post

[intheflow]

11. Thank you for posting this, brazenlyliberal.

I'm sorry for all your losses. :hug: I, too, have known so many affected by AIDS and those who have lost family and friends from that ugly disease.

I'll never understand why homosexuality is so reviled. I don't understand why so-called "people of faith" continue to engage in spiritual violence against gays, lesbians, bisexual, transexual, transgenderd, and queer people. Queer rights are civil rights. End. Of. Story.