Aids

When the Captain Will Not Right the Ship the Crew Will:

Reagan’s Gap Filled by Activists

In the late 1970’s, people all over the world were exposed to a rare, new disease. As the years progressed, the disease seemed to spread, resulting in the death of several thousand lives in the span of five years.[1] Americans had growing concerns about the people who were being infected by the rare disease. Many of the first victims were homosexual men, which led to the use of the term GRID (gay-related immunodeficiency) by medical professionals and later adopted by the media when reporting the disease.[2] That term faded as doctors found the disease also affected intravenous drug users, both male and female, along with heterosexual, drug-free men diagnosed with hemophilia. Doctors also found that patients that received blood transfusions and organ donations were contracting the same disease.[3] By 1982, doctors had finally developed a name for the disease, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, or more commonly, AIDS.[4] Unlike the doctors, Americans were either unaware of the disease, or they believed they were safe from a gay disease. The ignorance of Americans to the AIDS epidemic shone through their ring leader, President Ronald Reagan. Luckily for the thousands of people suffering from AIDS, groups like the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and Queer Nation formed to fill the gap the government had left in educating and informing the public about the AIDS epidemic and raising money to fund research, which are seen in Today’s battle with AIDS. Reagan would provide scientists with insignificant funds for research, create bizarre laws that would give the effect of involvement, and keep the public ignorant to the spread of AIDS. While, ACT UP demanded more funds, protested for education, and had the government pass laws that would be beneficial to AIDS victims.

The first few years of the AIDS epidemic, the Reagan administration made every attempt to...