The Disease Homos Refused to Prevent

"via Userbeam Remailer" wrote in message
...
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/aids.html

AIDS: The Disease That Could Have Been Prevented

by Tracy D. Cocco

A silent killer has taken our country and the world hostage in the
last nineteen years. Every day more people are sentenced to a death
penalty. Since 1981 until September 30, 1993, over five hundred
thousand people, regardless of age or sexual preference, have become
prisoners of war. Over two hundred thousand of those inmates have been
tortured and brutally murdered. (1) Though it was just in the past ten
years that the nation decided to take action among the serial killer.
This mass murderer has no face but it does have a spine-chilling name,
AIDS. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has become a household name
in the United States and there is not a day that goes by that the world
does not hear it. The public has heard all the frightening statistics
and the gruesome details of the disease. Though many people are
uneducated on the origins of the AIDS virus. There have been numerous
speculations and harsh rumors on the history of AIDS but, sadly, the
public still blames the gay community for spreading it throughout the
United States. However, in the year 1995, it is no longer a "gay"
disease but a disease for every person who walks this earth. Throughout
the early years of the AIDS virus, 1980 until 1985, two major
influences helped to allow AIDS to become an epidemic: gay profiteers
and the federal government.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was founded in 1976 in Zaire,
Africa but was not taken seriously until 1985. The media finally began
to pay attention to the deadly disease when actor Rock Hudson passed
away from complications caused by the AIDS virus in 1985. Though by
this time over twelve thousand Americans were either dead or infected
with the virus, but nobody seemed to take notice. (2) The mass media
ignored AIDS until the death tolls were too high to avoid the sensitive
topic. The media, like the government, felt that America was not ready
to cover stories of homosexuals and their sexual behavior. Though one
must wonder if the crisis would be different today if the people had
been better informed about AIDS in the early stages of the epidemic.
The origin of AIDS is quite mysterious to the general public. Ignorant
rumors about AIDS have materialized in the last decade, but none are
close to the truth. The first reported case of a person to die of
complications from the obscure AIDS virus was in 1977. The victim was a
Denmark doctor, Margrethe Rask, who was practicing medicine in
Kinshasa, Zaire for the past five years. Treating patients in Africa,
at this time, was much different compared to current standards. Basic
supplies were limited, so gloves were barely worn and needles were
reused. (3) It is speculated that Rask became ill through one of her
patients via blood. This virus, later to be called the Ebola Fever
virus, spread throughout the village. Then, suddenly, it vanished, but
not before it killed 53% of the people infected. (4) By 1980, this
unknown African disease reappeared, it had found a way out of the
jungle and into the cities. There are many views on how humans became
infected with this disease but the most common are animal bites and
bestiality. (5) Doctors of known homosexuals began to notice an
increase in a mononucleosis-like syndrome. In many gay patients
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), an uncommon infection to the
lungs, was found which is caused by a problem in the immune system. (6)
Finally, on June 5, 1981 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made its
first official announcement on the mysterious disease. In the bulletin,
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, five severe pneumonia cases were
described. All the cases were found in Los Angeles hospitals. In all of
these five patients there were three common qualities found to prove
the importance of the warning: the patients were in their twenties,
they were homosexuals, and they all had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
According to the CDC report: "The occurrence of pneumocystosis in this
five previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent
underlying immunodeficiency is unusual." (7) Could these five patients
have the unknown and deadly AIDS virus? It is quite possible.

Before that weekly report was written, researchers were trying to
locate 'Patient Zero' in 1980. (8) 'Patient Zero' was to play a unique
role in the upcoming epidemic. He was found by the Centers for Disease
Control and his name was Gaetan Dugas, a French-Canadian airline
steward. Many gay men, nationwide, knew of this handsome man in the gay
bars and bathhouses, or sex clubs for homosexual men. Dugas was popular
among the men because of his charming personality and risky sexual
behavior. It was in the summer of 1980 that Gaetan Dugas began to
notice a rash and purple spots on his face and body. The doctors
realized that Dugas had Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS), a form of skin cancer on
the internal organs that was later associated with AIDS. (9) Many
doctors noticed that Kaposi's Sarcoma was only seen in homosexual men,
so it was dubbed the 'gay cancer'. Though this did not stop the
sexually active Dugas, he continued to travel to San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, and New York visiting numerous bathhouses.
(10)

Gaetan Dugas was, later, to figure that he had two hundred and
fifty sexual contacts a year. In all, Dugas had had two thousand five
hundred sexual partners. In 1982, after major researching by the
Centers for Disease Control, a link was found between Dugas and
nineteen gay patients dying from a bizarre condition. Out of those
nineteen, Dugas had sex with four of the patients. Another four had
gone to bed with people who had had sex with Gaetan Dugas, or 'Patient
Zero'. (11) Finally, Dugas was told by doctors to stop participating in
any sexual activity because he might be transmitting this disease to
others. Gaetan Dugas replied to this harsh order, "Somebody gave this
thing to me. I'm not going to give up sex." (12) Dugas followed through
with his deathly promise and continued to have anonymous sex in the
bathhouses. In fact, after having sex with men, Gaetan Dugas would
point to his purple lesions caused by the disease and say, "I have the
gay cancer. I'm going to die and so are you!" (13) At this same time,
1982, a new name was given to the 'gay cancer.' Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was adopted because it was universal and was
sexually neutral. The previous name for the syndrome, Gay-Related
Immune Deficiency (GRID), was replaced after doctors noticed the virus
did not just affect homosexuals. (14) Up until 1984, Gaetan Dugas
continued to have unprotected sex. On March 30, 1984, Dugas's
aggressive behavior was finally put to an end when he died of a disease
called AIDS. (15) Whether Gaetan Dugas brought AIDS to the United
States is questionable. Dr. Harold Jaffe, of the Centers for Disease
Control, feels the labeling of Dugas as 'Patient Zero' was absurd
because it implied that Dugas purposely spread the disease. (16)
Anyway, there is no doubt that Gaetan Dugas recklessly spread AIDS
throughout the United States. Many questions have arisen during the
lethal time period of 1980 until 1985 about the fast spread of the AIDS
virus. Most Americans wondered why the gay bathhouses were allowed to
continue their business when a majority of the clients were infected
with AIDS. It was a known fact that the bathhouses around the United
States were there for one reason: anonymous sex among men. The
bathhouses were a perfect breeding area for the virus but business
continued as usual. A major controversy emerged about the bathhouses
and state power over these clubs. With these businesses operating, it
showed that the American public could endure the lifestyle of
homosexuals. Thus, when suggestions were brought up to shut the
bathhouses down it became a huge debate about government intervention.
(17) Public Health officials believed that closing the baths would be a
good idea to stop the spread of AIDS. Though many gay owners of the
bathhouses and gay activists saw the options as a way to contain
homosexuality. They were frightened that the shutdowns would not stop
there and continue into the gay bars and other gay establishments. (18)
Also, the owners of the bathhouses were not going to give up a $100
million industry. (19) This type of response is how AIDS was spread so
drastically around North America in the early eighties. The gay
business owners of the baths were not interested about a deadly disease
running rampant through their clubs just as long as they received money
from the clients. During these early years, the owners could have been
more concerned about the health of their numerous clients instead the
owners were just profiting from them. With this type of ignorant
behavior, the Director of the Department of Public Health, Dr. Meryvn
Silverman finally put an end to the bathhouse controversy. On October
9, 1984, Silverman compared the bathhouses to "Russian Roulette
parlors". He ordered the closure of fourteen baths that "promote and
profit from the spread of AIDS". Silverman continued: "These fourteen
establishments are not fostering gay liberations. They are fostering
disease and death." (20) Finally, a public official had taken action
even though it was four years too late. AIDS was beginning to spread
like a brush fire because of inconsiderate profiteers, like some
bathhouse owners. By 1985, all the bathhouses in America had been put
out of business by the government. These owners lost an incredible
amount of money but almost ten thousand people had already lost their
lives to AIDS. (21)

Shutting down the bathhouses was an obvious answer to slow down the
spread of AIDS. However, the federal government should have taken
action much sooner in the AIDS crisis. The disease had already been
around for nine years when the government shut the bathhouses. With
each passing year the death toll grew larger and the government avoided
the topic. Former-President Ronald Reagan and his administration seemed
to tap-dance around the subject whenever it was mentioned. Like the
media, the government was afraid to bring up the AIDS crisis because of
the group it mostly affected in the years 1980 until 1985. The
conservative Republican party was not ready to make homosexuality a
mainstream topic for its voting public. If more heterosexuals had been
receiving the virus there is doubt that Reagan would have focused more
on AIDS. Finally, in 1982, the Centers for Disease Control asked the
administration for funding so to research AIDS. The CDC received no
money for the AIDS budget. It has been implied that the federal
government only saw AIDS as a homosexual and drug-addicts disease. In
their opinion, there was no rush to fund the budget when it dealt with
"those" type of people. (22)

As the government continued to ignore the existence of AIDS, many
gay activists felt as if the Reagan administration failed to see the
disease as a genuine crisis. Dr. Donald Francis, Centers for Disease
Control AIDS coordinator for laboratory resources, was flabbergasted at
the ill-responsive government in 1983. Francis felt that the money for
AIDS research was tremendously important and necessary for further
studies. He, also, believed that government intervention on AIDS
funding "had been far too little." (23) From 1981 to 1982 the Centers
for Disease Control was only able to spend one million dollars on AIDS
research. However, the CDC was able to spend over eight million dollars
on other diseases that were less threatening than AIDS. Finally, extra
funding was given and later became a law though it was greatly opposed
by the Reagan administration. The CDC was to be given $2.6 million by
Congress for research on the virus. It was a subtle improvement but
nothing changed drastically after that point. Congress would continue
to figure out a budget necessary for the researchers and, like
clockwork, the Reagan administration would resist the increase funding
and try to fight it. (24) In the end, the CDC would receive the small
amount of money. This inability to fund AIDS demonstrated the
decreasing level of domestic concern. (25) It was a perfect example of
the inefficient Reagan administration, especially during its first
term. Although the subject of AIDS was already a sensitive subject,
President Reagan made it practically taboo. In fact, it was not until
1987 that Reagan finally gave his views on AIDS. During the speech,
Reagan outlined his program for AIDS. His main concern was for testing
but he never stressed AIDS education. (26) Reagan, also, never
mentioned anything about civil rights for those who tested positive for
the AIDS virus. Though nothing he proposed would have any effect on
stopping the spread of AIDS. The Reagan administration did nothing for
the AIDS crisis in the early eighties because of the fear of alternate
lifestyles, like homosexuals. The health of our nation was put on the
line by a man who only saw the political view of AIDS. Randy Shilts
strongly believes that Reagan will go down in history as "the man who
had let AIDS rage through America". (27) Though this is a fairly harsh
statement, I do believe that the government had a lot to do with the
spread of the AIDS epidemic. However, I do not just solely blame Reagan
and his administration but, also, the people who ran the bathhouses.
There are many other institutions that are to be condemned for allowing
AIDS to become an epidemic, though I believe these two establishments
could have prevented this plague. It is so hard for me to comprehend
that AIDS could have been stopped if the government and bathhouses
might have worked together. In the years 1980 and 1985, few people saw
AIDS as a critical medical crisis. The vast majority, however, saw AIDS
as either a budget problem or a homosexual problem. As I researched
this topic, I was saddened when I learned that the bathhouses would not
even close their doors when they were informed that AIDS was, at first,
a gay disease. The owners allowed the disease to spread throughout
their businesses because it all came down to greed, similar to our
government. How ironic that the owners of these sex clubs were not
going to give up their earnings and the government was not about to
give up their own money. Though that is the past and we can do nothing
about it now but learn from our fatal mistakes. Life will continue but
the world will never regain its innocence after a disease called AIDS
infected our lives. NOTES (l) Clark, Cheryl. "Definition Changes; new
AIDS Cases Double in 1993." SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: p.A-12

(2) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.XXI

(3) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.4

(4) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.5

(5) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.1

(6) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.15

(7) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. pp.4-5

(8) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS.

(9) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.16

(10) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.47

(11) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. pp.130-131

(12) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.138

(13) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. p.19

(14) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.3

(15) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. p.19

(16) Fumento, Michael. THE MYTH OF HETEROSEXUAL AIDS. p.34

(17) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter
and the Promise of Medicine." p.596

(18) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter
and the Promise of Medicine." p.596

(19) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.19

(20) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. pp.489-491

(21) Centers for Disease Control. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY
REPORT. p.15 (see Table A-1)

(22) Corea, Gena. THE INVISIBLE EPIDEMIC. p.16

(23) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter
and the Promise of Medicine." p.603

(24) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.214

(25) Fox, Daniel. THE POLITICS OF HIV INFECTION. p.131

(26) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.595

(27) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.595 BIBLIOGRAPHY Antonio,
Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986.

Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter and
the Promise of Medicine." SOCIAL RESEARCH 52.3 (1985): 581606

Centers for Disease Control. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT.
Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 42.53 October
21, 1994.

Clark, Cheryl. "Definition Changes; New AIDS Cases Double in 1993."
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE March 11, 1994: A-12

Corea, Gena. THE INVISIBLE EPIDEMIC. New York: Harper Collins, 1992

Fox, Daniel. THE POLITICS OF HIV INFECTION. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1992

Fumento, Michael. THE MYTH OF HETEROSEXUAL AIDS. Washington D.C.:
Regnery Gateway, 1990

Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 1990

Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. NEW YORK: Penguin Books,
1988 This paper was written May 5, 1995 by Tracy D. Cocco for American
Civilization 18 taught by Dr. Steven Schoenherr

"Newscorp" wrote in message
...

"via Userbeam Remailer" wrote in message
...
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/aids.html

AIDS: The Disease That Could Have Been Prevented

by Tracy D. Cocco

A silent killer has taken our country and the world hostage in the
last nineteen years. Every day more people are sentenced to a death
penalty. Since 1981 until September 30, 1993, over five hundred
thousand people, regardless of age or sexual preference, have become
prisoners of war. Over two hundred thousand of those inmates have been
tortured and brutally murdered. (1) Though it was just in the past ten
years that the nation decided to take action among the serial killer.
This mass murderer has no face but it does have a spine-chilling name,
AIDS. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has become a household name
in the United States and there is not a day that goes by that the world
does not hear it. The public has heard all the frightening statistics
and the gruesome details of the disease. Though many people are
uneducated on the origins of the AIDS virus. There have been numerous
speculations and harsh rumors on the history of AIDS but, sadly, the
public still blames the gay community for spreading it throughout the
United States. However, in the year 1995, it is no longer a "gay"
disease but a disease for every person who walks this earth. Throughout
the early years of the AIDS virus, 1980 until 1985, two major
influences helped to allow AIDS to become an epidemic: gay profiteers
and the federal government.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was founded in 1976 in Zaire,
Africa but was not taken seriously until 1985. The media finally began
to pay attention to the deadly disease when actor Rock Hudson passed
away from complications caused by the AIDS virus in 1985. Though by
this time over twelve thousand Americans were either dead or infected
with the virus, but nobody seemed to take notice. (2) The mass media
ignored AIDS until the death tolls were too high to avoid the sensitive
topic. The media, like the government, felt that America was not ready
to cover stories of homosexuals and their sexual behavior. Though one
must wonder if the crisis would be different today if the people had
been better informed about AIDS in the early stages of the epidemic.
The origin of AIDS is quite mysterious to the general public. Ignorant
rumors about AIDS have materialized in the last decade, but none are
close to the truth. The first reported case of a person to die of
complications from the obscure AIDS virus was in 1977. The victim was a
Denmark doctor, Margrethe Rask, who was practicing medicine in
Kinshasa, Zaire for the past five years. Treating patients in Africa,
at this time, was much different compared to current standards. Basic
supplies were limited, so gloves were barely worn and needles were
reused. (3) It is speculated that Rask became ill through one of her
patients via blood. This virus, later to be called the Ebola Fever
virus, spread throughout the village. Then, suddenly, it vanished, but
not before it killed 53% of the people infected. (4) By 1980, this
unknown African disease reappeared, it had found a way out of the
jungle and into the cities. There are many views on how humans became
infected with this disease but the most common are animal bites and
bestiality. (5) Doctors of known homosexuals began to notice an
increase in a mononucleosis-like syndrome. In many gay patients
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), an uncommon infection to the
lungs, was found which is caused by a problem in the immune system. (6)
Finally, on June 5, 1981 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made its
first official announcement on the mysterious disease. In the bulletin,
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, five severe pneumonia cases were
described. All the cases were found in Los Angeles hospitals. In all of
these five patients there were three common qualities found to prove
the importance of the warning: the patients were in their twenties,
they were homosexuals, and they all had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
According to the CDC report: "The occurrence of pneumocystosis in this
five previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent
underlying immunodeficiency is unusual." (7) Could these five patients
have the unknown and deadly AIDS virus? It is quite possible.

Before that weekly report was written, researchers were trying to
locate 'Patient Zero' in 1980. (8) 'Patient Zero' was to play a unique
role in the upcoming epidemic. He was found by the Centers for Disease
Control and his name was Gaetan Dugas, a French-Canadian airline
steward. Many gay men, nationwide, knew of this handsome man in the gay
bars and bathhouses, or sex clubs for homosexual men. Dugas was popular
among the men because of his charming personality and risky sexual
behavior. It was in the summer of 1980 that Gaetan Dugas began to
notice a rash and purple spots on his face and body. The doctors
realized that Dugas had Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS), a form of skin cancer on
the internal organs that was later associated with AIDS. (9) Many
doctors noticed that Kaposi's Sarcoma was only seen in homosexual men,
so it was dubbed the 'gay cancer'. Though this did not stop the
sexually active Dugas, he continued to travel to San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, and New York visiting numerous bathhouses.
(10)

Gaetan Dugas was, later, to figure that he had two hundred and
fifty sexual contacts a year. In all, Dugas had had two thousand five
hundred sexual partners. In 1982, after major researching by the
Centers for Disease Control, a link was found between Dugas and
nineteen gay patients dying from a bizarre condition. Out of those
nineteen, Dugas had sex with four of the patients. Another four had
gone to bed with people who had had sex with Gaetan Dugas, or 'Patient
Zero'. (11) Finally, Dugas was told by doctors to stop participating in
any sexual activity because he might be transmitting this disease to
others. Gaetan Dugas replied to this harsh order, "Somebody gave this
thing to me. I'm not going to give up sex." (12) Dugas followed through
with his deathly promise and continued to have anonymous sex in the
bathhouses. In fact, after having sex with men, Gaetan Dugas would
point to his purple lesions caused by the disease and say, "I have the
gay cancer. I'm going to die and so are you!" (13) At this same time,
1982, a new name was given to the 'gay cancer.' Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was adopted because it was universal and was
sexually neutral. The previous name for the syndrome, Gay-Related
Immune Deficiency (GRID), was replaced after doctors noticed the virus
did not just affect homosexuals. (14) Up until 1984, Gaetan Dugas
continued to have unprotected sex. On March 30, 1984, Dugas's
aggressive behavior was finally put to an end when he died of a disease
called AIDS. (15) Whether Gaetan Dugas brought AIDS to the United
States is questionable. Dr. Harold Jaffe, of the Centers for Disease
Control, feels the labeling of Dugas as 'Patient Zero' was absurd
because it implied that Dugas purposely spread the disease. (16)
Anyway, there is no doubt that Gaetan Dugas recklessly spread AIDS
throughout the United States. Many questions have arisen during the
lethal time period of 1980 until 1985 about the fast spread of the AIDS
virus. Most Americans wondered why the gay bathhouses were allowed to
continue their business when a majority of the clients were infected
with AIDS. It was a known fact that the bathhouses around the United
States were there for one reason: anonymous sex among men. The
bathhouses were a perfect breeding area for the virus but business
continued as usual. A major controversy emerged about the bathhouses
and state power over these clubs. With these businesses operating, it
showed that the American public could endure the lifestyle of
homosexuals. Thus, when suggestions were brought up to shut the
bathhouses down it became a huge debate about government intervention.
(17) Public Health officials believed that closing the baths would be a
good idea to stop the spread of AIDS. Though many gay owners of the
bathhouses and gay activists saw the options as a way to contain
homosexuality. They were frightened that the shutdowns would not stop
there and continue into the gay bars and other gay establishments. (18)
Also, the owners of the bathhouses were not going to give up a $100
million industry. (19) This type of response is how AIDS was spread so
drastically around North America in the early eighties. The gay
business owners of the baths were not interested about a deadly disease
running rampant through their clubs just as long as they received money
from the clients. During these early years, the owners could have been
more concerned about the health of their numerous clients instead the
owners were just profiting from them. With this type of ignorant
behavior, the Director of the Department of Public Health, Dr. Meryvn
Silverman finally put an end to the bathhouse controversy. On October
9, 1984, Silverman compared the bathhouses to "Russian Roulette
parlors". He ordered the closure of fourteen baths that "promote and
profit from the spread of AIDS". Silverman continued: "These fourteen
establishments are not fostering gay liberations. They are fostering
disease and death." (20) Finally, a public official had taken action
even though it was four years too late. AIDS was beginning to spread
like a brush fire because of inconsiderate profiteers, like some
bathhouse owners. By 1985, all the bathhouses in America had been put
out of business by the government. These owners lost an incredible
amount of money but almost ten thousand people had already lost their
lives to AIDS. (21)

Shutting down the bathhouses was an obvious answer to slow down the
spread of AIDS. However, the federal government should have taken
action much sooner in the AIDS crisis. The disease had already been
around for nine years when the government shut the bathhouses. With
each passing year the death toll grew larger and the government avoided
the topic. Former-President Ronald Reagan and his administration seemed
to tap-dance around the subject whenever it was mentioned. Like the
media, the government was afraid to bring up the AIDS crisis because of
the group it mostly affected in the years 1980 until 1985. The
conservative Republican party was not ready to make homosexuality a
mainstream topic for its voting public. If more heterosexuals had been
receiving the virus there is doubt that Reagan would have focused more
on AIDS. Finally, in 1982, the Centers for Disease Control asked the
administration for funding so to research AIDS. The CDC received no
money for the AIDS budget. It has been implied that the federal
government only saw AIDS as a homosexual and drug-addicts disease. In
their opinion, there was no rush to fund the budget when it dealt with
"those" type of people. (22)

As the government continued to ignore the existence of AIDS, many
gay activists felt as if the Reagan administration failed to see the
disease as a genuine crisis. Dr. Donald Francis, Centers for Disease
Control AIDS coordinator for laboratory resources, was flabbergasted at
the ill-responsive government in 1983. Francis felt that the money for
AIDS research was tremendously important and necessary for further
studies. He, also, believed that government intervention on AIDS
funding "had been far too little." (23) From 1981 to 1982 the Centers
for Disease Control was only able to spend one million dollars on AIDS
research. However, the CDC was able to spend over eight million dollars
on other diseases that were less threatening than AIDS. Finally, extra
funding was given and later became a law though it was greatly opposed
by the Reagan administration. The CDC was to be given $2.6 million by
Congress for research on the virus. It was a subtle improvement but
nothing changed drastically after that point. Congress would continue
to figure out a budget necessary for the researchers and, like
clockwork, the Reagan administration would resist the increase funding
and try to fight it. (24) In the end, the CDC would receive the small
amount of money. This inability to fund AIDS demonstrated the
decreasing level of domestic concern. (25) It was a perfect example of
the inefficient Reagan administration, especially during its first
term. Although the subject of AIDS was already a sensitive subject,
President Reagan made it practically taboo. In fact, it was not until
1987 that Reagan finally gave his views on AIDS. During the speech,
Reagan outlined his program for AIDS. His main concern was for testing
but he never stressed AIDS education. (26) Reagan, also, never
mentioned anything about civil rights for those who tested positive for
the AIDS virus. Though nothing he proposed would have any effect on
stopping the spread of AIDS. The Reagan administration did nothing for
the AIDS crisis in the early eighties because of the fear of alternate
lifestyles, like homosexuals. The health of our nation was put on the
line by a man who only saw the political view of AIDS. Randy Shilts
strongly believes that Reagan will go down in history as "the man who
had let AIDS rage through America". (27) Though this is a fairly harsh
statement, I do believe that the government had a lot to do with the
spread of the AIDS epidemic. However, I do not just solely blame Reagan
and his administration but, also, the people who ran the bathhouses.
There are many other institutions that are to be condemned for allowing
AIDS to become an epidemic, though I believe these two establishments
could have prevented this plague. It is so hard for me to comprehend
that AIDS could have been stopped if the government and bathhouses
might have worked together. In the years 1980 and 1985, few people saw
AIDS as a critical medical crisis. The vast majority, however, saw AIDS
as either a budget problem or a homosexual problem. As I researched
this topic, I was saddened when I learned that the bathhouses would not
even close their doors when they were informed that AIDS was, at first,
a gay disease. The owners allowed the disease to spread throughout
their businesses because it all came down to greed, similar to our
government. How ironic that the owners of these sex clubs were not
going to give up their earnings and the government was not about to
give up their own money. Though that is the past and we can do nothing
about it now but learn from our fatal mistakes. Life will continue but
the world will never regain its innocence after a disease called AIDS
infected our lives. NOTES (l) Clark, Cheryl. "Definition Changes; new
AIDS Cases Double in 1993." SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: p.A-12

(2) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.XXI

(3) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.4

(4) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.5

(5) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.1

(6) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.15

(7) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. pp.4-5

(8) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS.

(9) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.16

(10) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.47

(11) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. pp.130-131

(12) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.138

(13) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. p.19

(14) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.3

(15) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. p.19

(16) Fumento, Michael. THE MYTH OF HETEROSEXUAL AIDS. p.34

(17) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter
and the Promise of Medicine." p.596

(18) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter
and the Promise of Medicine." p.596

(19) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.19

(20) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. pp.489-491

(21) Centers for Disease Control. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY
REPORT. p.15 (see Table A-1)

(22) Corea, Gena. THE INVISIBLE EPIDEMIC. p.16

(23) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter
and the Promise of Medicine." p.603

(24) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.214

(25) Fox, Daniel. THE POLITICS OF HIV INFECTION. p.131

(26) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.595

(27) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.595 BIBLIOGRAPHY Antonio,
Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986.

Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter and
the Promise of Medicine." SOCIAL RESEARCH 52.3 (1985): 581606

Centers for Disease Control. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT.
Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 42.53 October
21, 1994.

Clark, Cheryl. "Definition Changes; New AIDS Cases Double in 1993."
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE March 11, 1994: A-12

Corea, Gena. THE INVISIBLE EPIDEMIC. New York: Harper Collins, 1992

Fox, Daniel. THE POLITICS OF HIV INFECTION. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1992

Fumento, Michael. THE MYTH OF HETEROSEXUAL AIDS. Washington D.C.:
Regnery Gateway, 1990

Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 1990

Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. NEW YORK: Penguin Books,
1988 This paper was written May 5, 1995 by Tracy D. Cocco for American
Civilization 18 taught by Dr. Steven Schoenherr