The Role Of Discrimination In Response To The AIDS Epidemic

Throughout this book, France argues that public attention and response to the AIDS epidemic was slow because the disease primarily affected gay men. Consciously or not, people were less willing to pay attention to a sickness they felt was caused by the community’s own immoral behavior. This dynamic was apparent in the plague’s earliest days, when very little news coverage was devoted to the growing number of men suffering and dying from the new, mysterious illness. News outlets like the New York Times rarely ran stories about the epidemic and often used discriminatory rhetoric when it did. Obituaries of AIDS victims often did not mention their gay romantic partners, adding to the sadness of their death. It was left to gay-specific publications like the Native to document cases of the disease spread information about possible treatments. This...