834 Chapter 31 From Boomers to Millennials
By 1982 the CDC called this new disease
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
The CDC learned that AIDS was caused by the
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a lethal
virus that destroys the body’s defenses against infec-
tion, making victims susceptible to many diseases.
HIV spreads when an infected person’s body fluids
come in contact with someone else’s. By the end of
1982, the CDC had documented 900 cases of
AIDS; the disease was increasing exponentially (see
the maps on p. 833). Soon HIV contaminated a few
of the nation’s blood banks, and some recipients of
transfusions came down with AIDS. In June 1983,
when the federal budget approached $1 trillion,
Congress finally voted $12 million for AIDS research
and treatment.
Not until 1985, when the square-
jawed romantic actor Rock Hudson
confirmed that he was dying of AIDS,
did the subject command widespread
public attention. President Reagan,
an old friend of Hudson’s, publicly
acknowledged that the disease consti-
tuted a grave health crisis. Congress
approved Reagan’s call for a sub-
stantial increase in AIDS funding.
But Reagan’s appeal was belated
and insufficient. By then, nearly
21,000 Americans had died; by
1999, the total number of AIDS-
related deaths approached 400,000.
The AIDS epidemic affected
public policy and private behavior. A
nationwide educational campaign
urged “safe” sex, especially the use
of condoms, which by 1990 were
distributed free in many high
schools. Fear of the disease, and of
those who suffered from it, exacer-
bated many people’s homophobia.
But the AIDS epidemic also forced
most people to confront homosexu-
ality directly and perhaps for the first
time, and thus contributed to a
deeper understanding of the com-
plexity of human nature. After
Hudson’s revelation, for example,
the New York Times commenced
using “gay” and “lesbian,” the
terms then preferred by the people
so identified, instead of “homosex-
ual.” Gay and lesbian organizations,
the vanguard in the initial war
against AIDS, continued to fight for social accep-
tance and legal rights.Publicly Gay
Although gays had always served in the military—
Milk had been an officer in the navy during the
Korean War—they were technically banned. In 1992
President Bill Clinton had promised to end the ban
on gays and lesbians in the armed services, but when
the Joint Chiefs of the armed forces and a number of
important members of Congress objected, he settled
for a policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” meaning
that such persons would be allowed to enlist only if
they did not openly proclaim their sexual preferences.
In 2010 Congress voted to openly admit gays and les-
bians to the armed forces.In this electron microscopic photograph, two human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cells,
in different stages of budding, are emerging from an infected T-lymphocyte human
blood cell (pink). The HIV cell that has almost broken free includes RNA (green—the
cell’s genetic code) and it will reinfect other T-cells. T-cells are part of the body’s
immune system.