[sphinx]

She needs to read And the Band Played ON,,the lack of an early response to aids was mostly because of the gay community not wanting their bath houses closed down.

That, plus a fierce political and PR campaign to suppress any mention of the linkage of AIDS with homosexuality. That is my primary recollection of the early Reagan period: the gay lobby did not want homosexuals to be stigmatized, so candid discussion of AIDS was verboten. This was the "AIDS is everybody's disease" period.

Anybody got the "Safe Bowling" cartoon?

[traditionalist]

That is my primary recollection of the early Reagan period: the gay lobby did not want homosexuals to be stigmatized, so candid discussion of AIDS was verboten. This was the "AIDS is everybody's disease" period.

In some sense, Reagan deserves some blame because he caved into the gay lobby and went along with the "everyone is at risk" myth.

Ironically, it was gays who suffered most from this foolish public health policy.