Epidemic Status Of Homosexuality During The 80's

Baneen Aljabiry Wgs 305 Professor Eickmeyer 7/28/2024 Historical context During the Early 1980s of HIV when reached Epidemic Status Before 1980 societal attitudes toward homosexuality were predominantly negative. In 1977, 69.9% of people believed that sexual relations between two adults of the same sex were always wrong, and in 1977 that continued to increase from 1980-1991 (Smith & NORC/University of Chicago, 2011, p. 2). Based on Monette's book, we saw the influx of the sexual norms of the 80’s. How it was more freedom and more exploration due to most STDs having a cure. Although homosexuality at the time was often stigmatized and considered taboo; the rising percentage of people holding negative views can be partially attributed to the impact

This form of hatred led to a lack of care since the only people being affected were people of marginalized groups. Othering is a concept that groups people into a certain identity and discriminates against them because of that. During the AIDS epidemic, this was very dangerous because people thought it only affected gay people, and thus, were not careful (Early HIV Epidemic (43:10), n.d., 18.07). Othering affected many marginalized communities, and any group of people who were sorted into different categories like racial, gay, and bisexual people were discriminated against because of it. In the film, We Were Here, there was a personal narrative of a nurse who was working in hospitals during the epidemic. She saw a witness to the horrors of how neglectful the doctors were being for fear of losing funding to being labeled an “AIDs hospital”. She had to personally speak with the families to inform them of what was going on. As previously stated, the medical institutions were afraid of losing funding because the people affected by AIDs were drug users and who were

The CDC presented an update on the epidemic of opportunistic infections, noting that the one common thread among all groups affected (i.e., homosexual men, IV drug users, Haitians, and individuals with hemophilia) was the presence of markers for hepatitis in more than 90 percent of each group (Hansen 1982). Leveton et al., 1995, p. 66. Addressing the crisis would be useful in helping prevent cases, as noted: “AIDS caused the nation to take note of homosexuality and drug use, which were easily avoided before these issues became such obvious matters of public health, and AIDS required clinicians and public health officials to address matters of personal behavior that had been heretofore taboo” (Leveton et al., 1995, p. 59). By simply bringing it to the public, people can avoid contracting it themselves by being aware of the danger. As we discussed in the lecture, the initial emergence of HIV was thought to be around 1981 in California. The initial part of the epidemic wasn’t big enough to be