GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN AND AIDS

For the first years of the epidemic, the story of AIDS in North America was the story of gay and bisexual men. The fact that the disease was originally called Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (see card 61) reflected the early epidemiological picture in the U.S. but by 1982, when it was obvious that anyone could get the disease, the name was changed to AIDS. Still, the mark left by that first, unfortunate acronym is with us still, for one of the largest regional AIDS service groups bears the name Gay Men's Health Crisis (see card 108) and many heterosexuals whose religions condemn gay sex say they think homosexuality is the "cause" of AIDS (see card 73). Of course, there is nothing uniquely gay about AIDS. It was just a coïncidence that in North America the disease first struck gay men. Or was it? A vocal portion of the gay community theorizes that HIV was introduced into their ranks via government-sponsored hepatitis vaccines (see card 62). For others, no less outspoken, there is a profound sense that the government did not move fast enough to implement AIDS research and prevention programs, because it considered gay men to be expendable (see card 89).

The CDC says homosexual and bisexual transmission of HIV accounts for 65% of AIDS cases in U.S. men. In San Francisco, a city with a high concentration of gay men who had unprotected sex with multiple partners before the risk was known, 13,336 AIDS cases had been reported by 1993. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (see card 108) estimates 81% of the gay men in Califomia are HIV-positive. In prisons, where gay sex and IV drug use coïncide, AIDS is on the rise: 5% of the men in California prisons have AIDS. Next Card 87: CHILDREN and AIDS

AIDS AWARENESS: PEOPLE WITH AIDS

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