The 80s was definitely the peak of the AIDS epidemic, yet its funding was extremely slow until it got people noticing. Forget that, people could not even say the word AIDS without a cackle until the epidemic became too big to ignore or to laugh about. A lot of the challenges came from the fact that were people in fact just scared. They were scared of what it is, where did it come from and what could potentially happen.
It was being scared of the unknown. And of course, we know what fear can do to us, fear of the unknown. It sends us into panic mode, only because we have no answers. When there is little to fall back on, people will just start speculating and from there you see an upward trend of rumors that just take the forefront. And that is exactly what happened in the 1980s.
The rumors just became so counterproductive, where they just contributed to the stigma and not actually in finding a solution. The visual mediums at many times showed the many levels of HIV/AIDS being stigmatized. Back then, it was your associations with being gay, living in poverty, or taking drugs that made you more prone to infection. And of course for the majority of the public this went against their moral compass.
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Of course, the ‘ gay disease’ as it was infamously considered, was seen as a punishment for their immoral behaviors. Just imagine being hit with such a cold attitude when support was the most needed for those inflicted with the disease. Because of their stance, this impeded the amount of attention towards educating the public on HIV/AIDS including its public funding. One of the documentaries even spoke of how once the epidemic got people noticing, out of the billion dollars towards health initiatives, only less than one percent went towards HIV/AIDS.
The Reagan administration was also hugely to be blamed for the lack of HIV/AIDS support. The response from them was extremely slow, which was touched upon several times in the visual mediums. Many people even went as far to say it was the enabling by the Reagan’s that the brand of homophobia lasted. Or a political calculation. The Reagan administration failed to even acknowledge it was a medical problem. For them it was a legal issue.
Simply because of who gay men were, who their sexual partners were, for them it was a matter of breaking the law. Just takes me back to my original point with the rumors and stigmas, they were not willing to buy AIDS as an infectious disease. And that is probably why the public for the most part adopted this behavior. Again, the Reagan administration and their synonymy with HIV/AIDS just suggests there is a very bitter taste that will not be forgotten by those who were hurt by the epidemic.
After watching the videos, what I will really take away from it is how the early years helped to shape the landscape of medicine, one’s sexuality, and even politics in the United States. Probably in other parts of the world too. It breaks my heart to even think how these people were largely ignored owing to their sexuality. Their sexuality took the forefront, when ultimately it needed to be seen as a human conflict to cure this disease. It is important for the generation that was too young to remember or not even born at that time to listen to those who were inflicted. Not only that, but pass on the history so people can see the price people are still paying for it.
