AIDS: A History

Abstract

The AIDS epidemic transformed the lives of a generation of gay men and lesbians in ways that we could never have imagined. More than three decades after the first cases were evident, not one social, economic, political, and scientific institution in the world has escaped the impact of HIV/AIDS. What follows is a personal chronicle of my journey through the history of HIV, focusing on some of the issues that have transformed the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, and psychiatry and medicine. For those coming to consciousness after 1981, AIDS has always been part of the world. Younger people often do not know the history of the civil rights or the gay liberation movement. The HIV pandemic continues to plague the world's most vulnerable people. The obstacles most in the way of eradicating this virus include religious prohibitions against same sex behavior, poverty, lack of access to medical and mental health care. Medical science has transformed the infection from an acute, lethal disease to a chronic condition where access to care and support is available. What stands in the way now are the coexisting epidemics within our nations and the stigma associated with sexual and substance use behaviors.