Times Poll on AIDS
I would like to thank you for bringing to light the Los Angeles Times Poll (Dec. 19) on AIDS and gays, and for exposing the attitudes held by today’s Americans, though I must say, I found it to be extremely disturbing and disheartening.
Once again, you have demonstrated, in black and white, the social blindness that has fueled this devastating disease since its discovery in the United States. It is through such hate and ignorance that acquired immune deficiency syndrome has become the plague of the century, filled with myths, fears and stereotypes. It is now estimated that up to 1 million “people” are now infected with this disease, and it is due to the prejudices and suppressions of the American public toward gays that it has been allowed to grow to such epidemic proportions. It took more than a virus to create what we have.
Gays are obviously termed in our society as being “unwanted,” or perhaps better yet, “disposable.” Not only has our society held moral judgments upon their life style, but our own government also does little, or nothing to help in the combat of AIDS or to adequately inform the public. People are dying and drugs may be available, but the federal government doesn’t make the money available to test them. Society not only responded with total indifference at the onset of this disease, but now that AIDS has finally proven itself to be a threat to all human life the medical field and government in an attempt to wipe the egg off their faces, have continually stated that AIDS was not reported until 1981, when in fact, it was first discovered in this country back in 1979. But, hey, it was “just a bunch of fags dying.”
By 1983, governmental funding had increased by seven- or eight-fold, yet AIDS still received less than Legionnaires’ disease, even though the number of AIDS victims was already spreading at epidemic proportions.
It has always been my hope that through AIDS, this country would have to take a serious look at the ills of our society, and would develop a profound respect for life, despite the differences of race, religion, political views, sex, etc., and realize that people all live with the same basic needs of love, compassion, hope and happiness. It is difficult for me to even conceive of a country that was originally founded on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to have fallen to such depths of undeniable oppression and blatant persecution.
To even consider a “quarantine” of all AIDS victims, who are already in such desperate need of our kindness, borders on Nazi ideology. Life is a gift, not a tool for moral or human judgment. Unfortunately, learning to love is not a course taught in schools. Thus we remain with our hearts and souls as empty as ever. We are superficial and selfish in our search for a better world, allocating love and concern to only a select group of people, as we idly watch the sufferings of thousands, until soon our own cherished hopes and dreams will be shattered by the consequences of our own thoughtless regard.
It is through the sheer persistence and support of the gay community alone that AIDS has been brought to the attention of the American public, and researched to its present state. I feel their relentless efforts deserve more than can ever be returned to them. Yet, they remain a very courageous and noble breed of men chastised and allowed to die by our “sick society.” They have been saddled with the shame, guilt, and sorrow of AIDS as man attempts to incorporate “God’s punishment” into his own wicked scheme of divine laws and commandments.
KEVIN RAYE LARSON
Panorama City