It was in 1981 that gay men in the United States first started to contract and die from a mysterious disease, now known as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus.
Essentially, the disease weakens the immune system, making individuals more susceptible to other infections. It is transmitted through mucous membrane contact with bodily fluids — blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk. It can be transmitted through sex acts, using hypodermic needles and through pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding, mother to child. It can also be transmitted through contaminated blood transfusions or organ transplants.
In the early years of the virus, the stigma and discrimination around it were immense. Since transmission was unclear at first, people panicked. People thought to have HIV/AIDS were fired, refused treatment, denied housing and quarantined. They were shunned by family and friends, turned away from health-care and education institutions. Gay men were labeled vectors of disease. Ryan White was kicked out of school.
Religious and moral beliefs colored public reaction — the vestiges of this still exist in preachers who blame natural disasters on gays or march with signs that say, “AIDS kills fags dead.” Some associated HIV/AIDS with “immoral” behaviors, such as homosexuality or drug use, and believed HIV/AIDS to be a punishment.
Because many doctors refused to treat HIV/AIDS patients, separate service organizations had to be established, which both provided a safe haven for those with the disease and allowed stigmatization to continue by not integrating treatment.
In a survey released just this week, one in 20 dentists in Los Angeles won’t treat an HIV-positive person.
In another form of stigmatization, states have criminalized consensual sex between people with HIV — and even situations where it can’t be transmitted, such as through saliva (e.g., spitting on someone). Classifying a person as a criminal because he or she has a communicable disease won’t slow transmission or end the epidemic. (And really, would anyone consider criminalizing transmission of TB or syphilis?)
That the rate of new infections remains steady from year to year speaks to the lack of will around HIV/AIDS, both political and personal. Stigma still exists. People don’t want to get tested and don’t want to protect themselves or others. Governments are slow to take steps to increase education and prevention efforts, slow to conceive and fund new initiatives.
That minority groups are more likely to contract the disease and not get diagnosed or treated also speaks to the lack of political will around ending HIV/AIDS. If all the people who had it were white, heterosexual and rich, likely the epidemic would be over.