AIDS Hysteria: The Law Steps In to Combat Bias

‘We’re fighting an epidemic of fear and ignorance.’

--David Schulman,deputy city attorney

In his sparsely furnished cubicle in the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, David Schulman spends his time fighting the fires that burn in the hearts of the fearful, the ignorant and the bigoted.

As the deputy city attorney who handles complaints of discrimination against AIDS victims, Schulman uses the law to help extinguish invisible fires of fear and prejudice over the deadly virus.

“We’re fighting an epidemic of fear and ignorance,” he said. “We investigate complaints on behalf of the city. We’re an objective source of information, and we offer information people can trust. We use the law to help quell people’s fears.

“This is an area where the law can remind us what’s good and decent and make sure we live up to it.”

The City Council’s August, 1985, passage of the country’s first municipal ordinance banning discrimination against victims of AIDS focused national attention on the need for such laws, Schulman said.

About 90% of AIDS patients are homosexuals, bisexuals or intravenous drug users. Most of the rest contracted the disease from contaminated blood.

As of April 6, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta had recorded 2,917 cases in Los Angeles County.

Four deputy city attorneys working overtime began enforcing Los Angeles’s new law, but Schulman replaced them full time in January, 1986, when it became evident that the volume of complaints necessitated a separate AIDS discrimination unit, he said.

At the time, he was the only lawyer in the country whose full-time job was to enforce an AIDS anti-discrimination law, but soon similar posts were set up in San Francisco and New York, the other cities with major populations infected with AIDS.

The three men often pool resources and work together, co-authoring papers and appearing on discussion panels to educate the public about AIDS.

Since the law was passed, the city attorney’s office has handled more than 140 complaints alleging discrimination against people with AIDS. All were settled without having to file suit to force compliance with the law, Schulman said.

He said most discrimination is based on ignorance and anxiety about AIDS, compounded by a flammable mixture of prejudice against homosexuals and fear of death. Acting as both teacher and counselor, Schulman, 35, says he can assuage most fears.

“There’s no doubt about it that fear of death and contagion and homophobia go hand in hand right now,” he said. “But once I get the people in here and talk to them, give them some reliable information to calm them down and show them there’s nothing to be afraid of, I find that’s usually all it takes.”

Schulman says his background of social activism and concern with medical ethics suits him for the job perfectly. As a youth growing up in Long Beach, an elderly aunt dying of cancer took her own life after warning the family of her plan. Memories of that trauma are vivid for Schulman.

“We knew the night she was going to do it and we did nothing to stop her,” Schulman said. “That moral dilemma really focused me on the issues of death and dying. It sensitized me, made me realize how difficult it is to die in pain and how afraid others are of witnessing it. With AIDS, it’s very similar.”

His focus on medical ethics persisted through his undergraduate years at Stanford University from 1969-1973 and into law school at UCLA. He feels now that his main mission is to help people strip away their “phobic fears” in order to deal rationally with the AIDS crisis.

“This is such a profound cultural bucking bronco because it touches on all our worst fears,” he said. “Fear of sexuality, fear of any sexuality different from the norm, fear of disease and its accompanying pain and helplessness, and fear of death.”

So he spends his lawyering time much like a therapist, talking with people about their beliefs and worries, arming people with facts: You cannot contract AIDS from toilet seats, tears or drinking cups.