A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
rarehistoricalphotos.com
A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#2> The biggest opponents of doing anything about AIDS, anything at all, were conservatives trumpeting family values.
Reagan’s response to HIV/AIDS should be a shameful memory for all republicans. Mike Pence willfully made the HIV pandemic in Indiana worse. Americans learned nothing and instead history repeated itself.
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#3I don’t understand.
> The biggest opponents of doing anything about AIDS, anything at all, were conservatives trumpeting family values.
And then later in the article:
> The notion of “pregnancy is the only drawback to sex” ended up setting the groundwork for HIV spread amongst the gay community, as there was no need for the use of condoms.
Diseases which can be sexually transmitted among humans have existed a lot longer than AIDS. Syphilis (as the first STD that comes to mind) does not discriminate by gender or sexual orientation, and while it isn’t a death sentence, it can be fatal, and many of its symptoms can drastically reduce quality of life.
I’m not sure I understand what this article is saying. Did gay men at the time not consider syphilis a threat worthy of protecting themselves?
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#4I don’t understand. > The biggest opponents of doing anything about AIDS, anything at all, were conservatives trumpeting family values. And then later in the article: > The notion of “pregnancy is the only drawback to sex” ended up setting the groundwork for HIV spread amongst the gay community, as there was no need for the use of condoms. Diseases which can be sexually transmitted among humans have existed a lot lon…
The 1950s through 1970s were the golden ages of antibiotics. New ones discovered all the time, and minimal resistance. Stuff like syphilis was readily curable.
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#5I don’t understand. > The biggest opponents of doing anything about AIDS, anything at all, were conservatives trumpeting family values. And then later in the article: > The notion of “pregnancy is the only drawback to sex” ended up setting the groundwork for HIV spread amongst the gay community, as there was no need for the use of condoms. Diseases which can be sexually transmitted among humans have existed a lot lon…
All of the known STDs at the time we’re bacterial and cured with antibiotics. Syphilis was curable for decades. AIDS scared the shit out of everyone because science didn’t know what was going on. Fauci is a damn hero.
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#6I don’t understand. > The biggest opponents of doing anything about AIDS, anything at all, were conservatives trumpeting family values. And then later in the article: > The notion of “pregnancy is the only drawback to sex” ended up setting the groundwork for HIV spread amongst the gay community, as there was no need for the use of condoms. Diseases which can be sexually transmitted among humans have existed a lot lon…
Were you around when this came about?
There was a lot of fear and uncertainty. There was also a strong undercurrent of hate, and that these gay men deserve to die for being "bad".
There still is a lot of hate (hat tip to Mitch Hedberg), but it was worse back then.
I lost several friends to this disease -- it was, and remains, heartbreaking.
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#7I don’t understand. > The biggest opponents of doing anything about AIDS, anything at all, were conservatives trumpeting family values. And then later in the article: > The notion of “pregnancy is the only drawback to sex” ended up setting the groundwork for HIV spread amongst the gay community, as there was no need for the use of condoms. Diseases which can be sexually transmitted among humans have existed a lot lon…
The 1950s through 1970s were the golden ages of antibiotics. New ones discovered all the time, and minimal resistance. Stuff like syphilis was readily curable.
So Hep B, herpes, HPV and anything else that is viral and not readily cured by a course of antibiotics is simply not a concern?
I’m not a doctor, gay man, or a sexually active person, but it doesn’t take much research to figure out that unprotected sex with random people will cause health problems that cannot be waved off with a simple pill.
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#8I don’t understand. > The biggest opponents of doing anything about AIDS, anything at all, were conservatives trumpeting family values. And then later in the article: > The notion of “pregnancy is the only drawback to sex” ended up setting the groundwork for HIV spread amongst the gay community, as there was no need for the use of condoms. Diseases which can be sexually transmitted among humans have existed a lot lon…
>Did gay men at the time not consider syphilis a threat worthy of protecting themselves?
Well, there was penicillin. I think most just preferred 'rawdogging' it.
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 1950s through 1970s were the golden ages of antibiotics. New ones discovered all the time, and minimal resistance. Stuff like syphilis was readily curable.
So Hep B, herpes, HPV and anything else that is viral and not readily cured by a course of antibiotics is simply not a concern? I’m not a doctor, gay man, or a sexually active person, but it doesn’t take much research to figure out that unprotected sex with random people will cause health problems that cannot be waved off with a simple pill.
[deleted]
Re: A father comforts his son on deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS
#10Perhaps the most important contrast that can be made here is between the ideas about causality. When AIDS first hit hard it was gay men in coastal cities, so people quickly became comfortable with the idea that rampant decadent buttsex was the cause and the issue and that allowed them to frame the whole mess in a more comfortable way. Later it was found that the virus had been for some time percolating in the Caribbean. Many stayed stuck to the original narrative and others came up with a minor variation that decadent travelers were the cause and the spread and the only at risk. Only much later was it found that the virus started in the wilds of Africa, and by that point many had already locked in their own preferred framing and causality story.
When COVID-19 hit people saw Wuhan, the wet market there, and the virology institute as being obvious scapegoats. Seriously studying and pinpointing the origins of infectious agents often takes decades and much rigorous science, but once again a simple story was quickly set to assign blame and explain the tragedy in simple terms. Now it is common knowledge worldwide that the virus was created or accidentally caused in a lab in Wuhan even though the true inception story may be quite different and perhaps will remain unknown to us for decades. The desire for simple stories to direct blame ends up being even more powerful than the killing power of a pandemic virus. Such is the human condition.