AIDS Panic.

After the glory days of the 1970s gay people experienced the effects of the fear and panic triggered by the AIDS crisis.

Suddenly we were under attack - we were spurned, blamed, and shamed.

Whole generations turned against us.

Religious people damned us.

And secular people shunned us.

This was mitigated to some extent by the gay-friendly movies of the 1990s.

But AIDS was still a threat and the reaction has hardened into a snub-nosed prejudice which is hellbent on reforming gays.

Now HIV can be stopped from developing into AIDS no one dies of AIDS anymore.

So the knee-jerk reaction of society no longer has any foundation.

Our task remains to educate this last remnant of AIDS panic and restore gay people to their rightful place of equality in society.


Photo Credit: Elvert Barnes Flickr via Compfight cc