Did AIDS retard the development of the gay rights movement?

[Beet]

Some of the young uns here don't remember the level of hysteria over AIDS in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) dates to July 1996, I remember being startled to read articles celebrating the sharp decline in AIDS deaths in the autumn of 1998. It was around this time that society became aware that the disease had been contained. In fact if you google it, lots of charts end in 1998.

The gay rights movement also jumpstarted around this time. I would say it was definitely established after Vermont shocked the nation by allowing civil unions in the spring of 2000. Yet it was always interesting... after the personal liberty revolution of the 1960s and Stonewall riots in 1969... it took 30 years for gay rights to really take hold as a movement. During this time AIDS was active c.1981-1998 and dominated a lot of public attention, including that of gay rights activists.

I suspect that without AIDS, we may have seen gay rights emerge even sooner.

[kcguy]

I actually heard the opposite theory, that it accelerated the gay rights movement.  This is based on the idea that the most important weapon in the advance of gay rights has been the increasing visibility of glbt people in every arena of life.

In the 1970's, according to the theory, openly gay people were a phenomenon mainly of a few large cities.  Most Americans knew a "confirmed bachelor" or two women who were "roommates" for 30 years, but they didn't know any "gay" people.  And closeted gay people enjoyed the freedom of not having to deal with any backlash.  Don't ask, don't tell.

AIDS changed everything.  Gay men started getting visible lesions, starting dying, all over the country.  In tons of families.  In tons of workplaces.  And their friends and relatives were forced to face the harsh light of reality for the first time.

For those gay men not infected, they spent their time going to more funerals than most 80-year-olds, while society at large seemed completely indifferent.  Keeping their mouths shut suddenly had less appeal.

According to the theory, it was AIDS that destroyed the "closet", both for those infected and for those who weren't.  And once gay people were everywhere, gay rights became pretty much unstoppable.

[barfbag]

yes

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

No, I agree with KCGuy, if anything it energised the gay rights movement, gave it a real impetus.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

No, I agree with KCGuy, if anything it energised the gay rights movement, gave it a real impetus.

I'd concur. AIDS may have spurred a wave of homophobic sentiment, but it also made homosexuality an actual issue instead of some weird but distant thing in NY and SF.

[Beet]

I actually heard the opposite theory, that it accelerated the gay rights movement.  This is based on the idea that the most important weapon in the advance of gay rights has been the increasing visibility of glbt people in every arena of life.

In the 1970's, according to the theory, openly gay people were a phenomenon mainly of a few large cities.  Most Americans knew a "confirmed bachelor" or two women who were "roommates" for 30 years, but they didn't know any "gay" people.  And closeted gay people enjoyed the freedom of not having to deal with any backlash.  Don't ask, don't tell.

AIDS changed everything.  Gay men started getting visible lesions, starting dying, all over the country.  In tons of families.  In tons of workplaces.  And their friends and relatives were forced to face the harsh light of reality for the first time.

For those gay men not infected, they spent their time going to more funerals than most 80-year-olds, while society at large seemed completely indifferent.  Keeping their mouths shut suddenly had less appeal.

According to the theory, it was AIDS that destroyed the "closet", both for those infected and for those who weren't.  And once gay people were everywhere, gay rights became pretty much unstoppable.

Fascinating, you may be right.

[afleitch]

I actually heard the opposite theory, that it accelerated the gay rights movement.  This is based on the idea that the most important weapon in the advance of gay rights has been the increasing visibility of glbt people in every arena of life.

In the 1970's, according to the theory, openly gay people were a phenomenon mainly of a few large cities.  Most Americans knew a "confirmed bachelor" or two women who were "roommates" for 30 years, but they didn't know any "gay" people.  And closeted gay people enjoyed the freedom of not having to deal with any backlash.  Don't ask, don't tell.

AIDS changed everything.  Gay men started getting visible lesions, starting dying, all over the country.  In tons of families.  In tons of workplaces.  And their friends and relatives were forced to face the harsh light of reality for the first time.

For those gay men not infected, they spent their time going to more funerals than most 80-year-olds, while society at large seemed completely indifferent.  Keeping their mouths shut suddenly had less appeal.

According to the theory, it was AIDS that destroyed the "closet", both for those infected and for those who weren't.  And once gay people were everywhere, gay rights became pretty much unstoppable.

Fascinating, you may be right.

I know people who lived through it. As tough as it was, people also got to see how one partner would look after the other one from cleaning up feces to spoon feeding them when no one else would touch them. It was love in it's harshest and people couldn't ignore that even if it took them a while to process it.

[opebo]

Yes, but that wasn't precisely the intention.  The intention was to encourage social conservatism, sexism, racism, and bigotry - in other words The American Way.  In that sense it was a smashing success for a period of time.

[Beet]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/opinion/global/the-aids-epidemic-can-be-ended.html?_r=1&

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Just as a side note:

How did AIDS go from an American gay disease to an African disease? Most people with AIDS today are African Women.

[Joe Republic]

Just as a side note:

How did AIDS go from an American gay disease to an African disease? Most people with AIDS today are African Women.

It was always an African disease.  It came from Africa.  The first known HIV/AIDS epidemic anywhere started in Kinshasa in the 1970s, a decade earlier than in the US gay community.

[afleitch]

And of course some of the lowest rates of infection are among women who have sex with women.

[dead0man]

And of course some of the lowest rates of infection are among women who have sex with women.

Right, it's a gay male's disease, at least in the US/West.  It's actually difficult for a healthy man to get HIV from an otherwise healthy, HIV infected woman.  Slightly easier, but still not that easy the other way around.

[barfbag]

Did you know that 1 out of 100 white men are immune to HIV?