In the early 1980s, the LGBTQ movement experienced the first tremors of a shockwave that would shake its very foundations. A disease outbreak diagnosed in just five gay men in Los Angeles in 1981 would eventually claim the lives of more than 700,000 Americans. Nearly 60% of the dead would be gay or bisexual men.
It was the beginning of a global pandemic: AIDS — the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
To mark World AIDS Day — December First — journalist David Hunt revisits a story he first covered for Pacifica Radio more than 40 years ago: the early years of the AIDS epidemic. The program includes rare audio recordings of the nation’s first AIDS demonstrations, some of the first media interviews of AIDS patients and AIDS activists, and an inside look at the panic sweeping the gay community as the death toll mounted and the Reagan administration remained silent.
The program documents the greed, bigotry, and misinformation that would give the AIDS virus a deadly head start as it spread among some of society’s most marginalized populations: gay men, Haitian immigrants, and IV drug users.
And it follows the first steps a small number of progressive leaders, journalists, and ordinary people would take to meet the crisis and rouse the nation to action.
Featured voices include AIDS activists Bobbi Campbell, Bob Cecchi, Bill Bader, Matt Redman, Douglas Wright, and Daniel Warner. You’ll hear pioneering gay journalist Randy Shilts and San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt discuss their efforts to pressure gay bathhouses to protect their patrons. You’ll find out about a meeting with the blood bank industry that had public-health officials pounding the table in frustration. You’ll learn about the health threat sociologist Laud Humphreys said was greater than AIDS. And you’ll meet the self-described “sexual prima donna of New York City.”
Adding context to the archival recordings are recent interviews with retired Rep. Henry Waxman, who helped secure the first federal funding for AIDS research in 1983; Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter B.D. Colen, who covered the epidemic for Newsday; and AIDS activist Colin Clews, a writer and social worker who spearheaded AIDS information and treatment programs in the U.K. and Australia.
Special thanks to the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California and the Pacifica Radio Archives. Photo by Daal Praderas.
David Hunt is an Emmy-winning journalist and documentary producer who has reported on America's culture wars since the 1970s. Explore his blog, Tell Me, David.
