a series of moral oppositions that defined gay men as disease carriers polluting an innocent population. Homosexuality, which had only recently been de-labeled as an illness, became quickly remedicalized, with gay men labeled as responsible for their own plight and thus undeserving of sympathy. The Christian right was quick to exploit the new opportunity. Jerry Falwell, promoted as an instant expert on the topic by an obliging television network, announced that AIDS was God’s punishment upon homosexuals, called upon people with AIDS to be quarantined (or imprisoned if they had sex with anyone), demanded mandatory blood test for AIDS antibodies and a central file of those testing positive, and urged the closing of gay bathhouses (Body Politic 96, 1983). Rumors began circulating in the gay press that AIDS was a virus developed as a biological weapon by the CIA. The result of media exposure was the beginning of research funding and the development of a public panic. Medical personnel denied people, who looked gay, services. Funeral directors declined to accept the bodies of people who had died of AIDS. An AIDS-antibody test was developed, and the U.S. military announced that all military personnel would have to take the test and those testing positive would be expelled without benefits. The antibody test instead of helping, only lead to identifying large number of traditionally stigmatized classes of people, initiating a new round of discriminatory practices. It is a story that is still ongoing. Unrecognized by the larger public are hundreds of stories of individual heroism both of people with AIDS and their supporters—such as the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), who have struggled to make the idea of gay community a reality and have ministered to the needs of the beleaguered.Conclusion The problems of lesbians and gay men living in modern societies will not be simply solved through public educati...
