AIDS and a Community: The Impact on the Gay Lifestyle in Laguna Beach

Thank you for printing the article chronicling the lives of several gay men and their experience with AIDS. The article struck many of my emotions as I read the history of gay men’s sexual conduct in Laguna Beach. But the title of the article is a misnomer.

I am concerned that the article will leave in many the impression the majority of gay men still indulge in promiscuous unsafe sex as many of the interviewees with AIDS in Smith’s article had.

As a young gay man of 22, I would like to point out most of the subjects in this story are well over 30, and two of the most revealing quotes on homosexual conduct in Laguna Beach were by men ages 58 and 52.

The article chronicles the impact of AIDS on an older generation, but not the entirety of Laguna Beach or of all gay men, as it may have been construed. While the older generation in this fine article deserves every bit of our care, compassion and love, their sexual conduct does not, I believe, represent the future of Laguna Beach: gay men in their 20s and younger.

It is because of articles like this portraying the human sacrifices made of people with AIDS (and who have received little help from our government, thank you Ronald Reagan) that men my age practice safe sex. But while I am close enough in age to the generation hardest hit by AIDS to realize and learn from its devastation, younger men and women are not, and must be educated by our schools in a frank and honest manner about AIDS and safe sex.

MICHAEL J. SHINDLER, Laguna Beach