RESOLVED: The AIDS epidemic was a good thing for the gay community in America

Great Debates
21

AIDS did not get the gay community where it is today. However, the community “rallied to the cause,” as it were, at a certain point into the epidemic (remember in the beginning there was just as much fear and ignorance in the gay community as well as anywhere else), and by doing so it laid down a blueprint of how the community could work toward greater goals, plus at the same time it gave them an impetus to achieve more. Stonewall in 1969 was a huge watershed in the gay rights movement, but by the 70’s, particularly with such large urban centers like the Castro in San Francisco and the Village in New York, there was a feeling of complacancy - “OK, we’ve got our own little areas and we can walk around in our own ghetto holding hands, so let’s not rock the boat too much” (well, ok, I’m simplifying, but you get the picture). But by the late 70’s AIDS started making its presence known, and by the early 80’s it was spreading out into the general populous. Of course, being the first and hardest hit, it was the gay community that pulled itself up by its bootstraps and said, “OK, let’s get on with this thing.” However, mainstream views for quite some time did revolve around “it’s a gay disease,” as was pointed out. Sadly, Magic Johnson’s public HIV status revelation was another watershed for many people. Community organization on a political level was a natural outgrowth of all the work done for AIDS - change was inevitable. All in all, AIDS was a mixed bag - people who might not have cared otherwise may have become angry at the gay community spreading “its disease,” and others might have softened their hearts and become a little more tolerant when faced with the tragedy of the epidemic.

Now, would this change have happened without AIDS? Yes, but I don’t know that it would be happening right now. Every movement needs a spark, and, perhaps, AIDS might have been one of a long string of them, but something else would have taken its place sooner or later, and we can only guess as to what.

So for that reason, among 430,441 other reasons, I’d be quite happy if AIDS had never happened.

Esprix

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How are we calculating the “cost” of AIDS - costs to the American gay community or costs to the rest of the world?

See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/issues/aidsinafrica/index.html

I’m not flaming you (honest), just hard for me to see the benefits of a disease that is killing millions of people. Or how the OP is making a “utilitarian” argument.

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Well, actually, I really wasn’t asking concerning costs of the disease itself, and I should have made that more clear in my OP. (I don’t think that it needs to be said that, regardless of what effects AIDS has had on the social/political status of gays in America, America and the world would be much better off had the disease never existed.)

I think Esprix’s latest post is on target concerning the issue I’m raising, with the added issue of whether (as has been mentioned by others in the thread) the stigmatizing effect of AIDS on the gay community (“Gay Cancer”, “God’s Punishment”) has outweighed the “rally to the cause” response in the gay community, and whatever empathetic response has been found amongst the straight community.

BTW, sorry I’ve been away so long from this thread - I thought interest had died out.
Sua

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Anti Pro said:

which seems to sum it up well. There were benefits, but they were silver linings to some pretty dark clouds.

While AIDS is/was not good for the gay community in America, let me point out that the gay community was a damn good thing for America with regards to AIDS. Had AIDS not hit this smaller population, and thus been easier to see as something new, it very probably would have taken longer to recognize. And that you can work out all sorts of ways, all of them bad–as a look at South Africa will show. In effect, the gay community took a bullet for the rest of us–not by choice, maybe, but they did. I personally think that deserves a little recognition and gratitude, though I realize recognition and gratitude don’t help much.