Brief History of HIV/AIDS in the UK
With World Aids Day on the first of December it seems fitting that we exam exactly why HIV and AIDS have been associated with gay men. Why is it that Aids has become labeled the “Gay plague” when the virus isn't selective, it isn't discriminative, it can effect everyone regarldless of your gender, sexuality or ethnicity. HIV and AIDS is a real threat, especially today as globally, HIV and AIDS are on the increase. However many still feel that this illness is a gay only disease, but its time to wake up and realise that so ideas are actually the result of a homophobic Conservative government and their ignorance to accept that HIV and AIDS on affects one group in society.When first discovered AIDS provided a medical justification for discriminating a group already stigmatised. Initially called the “Gay Plague” by doctors and was later renamed Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID). Yet it wasn't until Gay campaigners protested over the name and claiming it caused further discrimination, that it was renamed again to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Unfortunately the initial label, which was supported by 'medical' proof that gay men were the highest infected group in the West, meant that homophobia was maintained.
Thus prominent figures, such as the Chief Constable of Manchester were openly discriminatory claiming that AIDS was self-inflicted. And it was due to the initial ideas and feelings that encouraged the Thatcher government to refrain from acting straight away. It took them four years after the first recorded case in Britain before they started to provide funds for treatment and counselling. AIDS is a disease, which can be exchanged through blood and other bodily fluids, and it would seem that a disease of this kind would be a top priority for any government, and that it would embark on blood screening, educating and providing for treatment. The government's delay can be associated with a few key moral and political ideas: disgust of homosexuality and the lack of concern they showed.
Attempts at prevention through education have been somewhat distorted. With the introduction of Section 28 schools would have been unable to mention HIV or AIDS as they were then seen as gay related. Even after the acceptance that these illnesses aren't restricted to gay people specific teaching on HIV and AIDS was limited and focused around heterosexual sex. Nevertheless the LGB community has educated itself and there is a mass of information available for gay men but the biggest threat is no longer to gay men but to everyone else. They are less aware of treatments, testing and prevention than gay men simply because AIDS is still classed by society as a “Gay Plague”.
