…that AIDS originally showed up in an African community as a mutation of the monkey immuno-deficiency (sp?) virus.
I also was a young straight college student in the 80’s who thought that AIDS was a disease of the gay community. As a professional musician, MANY of my friends succumbed to AIDS - all gay men. The bottom line, though is this - you are at a TREMENDOUSLY higher risk if you involve yourself in the following activities -
*sex, often and with multiple partners of whom you don’t know their sexual history.
*Especially rough sex, as the virus is passed through the blood stream most easily, with other fluid systems being possible transmitters but much less likely. Anal sex would fall into this category.
*You are a habitual or frequent intravenous drug user in which needles are shared amongst a group of people.
Not to stereotype, but the combined above scenarios are basically a description of the “desired lifestyle” of the many gay musicians and theater folk with who I worked and was friends with (at least in the 80’s).
In contrast, we learned that -
*You could not catch AIDS from contact, sneezing, kissing or most other forms of contact.
*the AIDS virus itself could not live outside of a host organism (or at least outside a host medium, such as blood or serum) for more than a few seconds, so you could not catch it from toilet seats or other normal instruments or objects.
*Sex (and rough sex even more so) was basically the only way to catch it if you didn’t do drugs, and if you were into monogamy with a non-infected partner, you were at very little risk.
So…a straight, non-drug using musician who was saving it for marriage to another with similar values was not overly worried about AIDS, while my “hard-partying” gay friends were beginning to drop like flies, much to our horror.
And so that is how AIDS began life in America as the “gay disease”. Much of the above is still valid information for today, and you can see why the minority religious right was tempted to latch onto it. It seemed to prove that “clean living” and a value system that lined up with theirs in the areas of sexual behavior gave one a metaphorical vaxination against AIDS, while those that engaged in activities long shunned by the religious community were falling victim to a disease that would at first have appeared designed to target that community.
However, now because of the length of time in which we have lived with AIDS, other avenues have developed in which the disease is being transmitted -
*Before AIDS was widely understood or the public made aware, AIDS was introduced to the blood supply, and infections were occuring during operations that utilizes the blood bank.
*Those who once active in the gay community who were harboring the Virus made a switch and accidently gave it to those who would call themselves hetero (no flaming please - this is not a statement about folks “giving up homosexualtiy” per se. I state this simply because I know personally two friends who contracted AIDS in this way. Call them “Bi”, I guess)
*And of course, intravenous drug use crosses all kinds of barriers, both sexual and social.
So know, AIDS has spread more into the hetero community than it was at the first appearance of the disease. Even so, the disease is still MUCH more prevalent in the gay community. IN the 90’s much time and effort were spent to dissassociate the disease with the gay community for two reasons - to avoid the unfortunate stereotyping and horribly bigotted attitudes that arose and were mentioned by and earlier poster, and also as a service to the public in the interest of health - you COULD catch AIDS if you were straight and were not careful. It reminded me of the 70’s-80’s ad campaign that tried to get people beyond the idea that Venereal Diseases were not just for “Bad, slutty types” but that anyone was at risk. I remember it had this HORRIBLE theme song that played during the commercial “VD, is for EVERYbody, not just…” an that’s where I can’t remember the words (Someone please fill in the rest!). I remember walking around the house as a 7 year old singing that at the top of my lungs and my mom telling me “STOP SINGING THAT SONG. Don’t EVER sing that song again!”
Despite the succesful and needed ad campaign for AIDS, the disease is still mostly prevalent in the gay and drug user communities. I’ve probably known 15 people who have died from it in the last 10 years, and all of them gay men. My wife (also a professional musician) and I have bourne much sadness due to the inability of science and medicine to control this disease.