Back in the 80s when AIDs first came out no one knew what it was or how it was transmitted except that it appeared to only be in the gay community. Then it xame out that women could get it too. There was no treatment and a lot of folks died horrible deaths. Rock Hudson was the poster child for it in the tabloids. There was a lot of paranoia. No one who was gay could give blood. Descrimination was really rampant. I gof married at age 22 in '83 during the peak of it and didn't have any gay friends that i knew of as they were staying in the closet. Kids that i had gone to school with that were gay were dropping dead from it. There was no such thing as sex without strings attached. Gay or straight. Religious fundamentalists insisted that it was the wrath of God bringing justice down upon the immoral acts. Meanwhile the major players in the moral majority were getting caught with their pants down with their gay lovers. Suicides were rampant as those infected found themselves cut off from friends, family, jobs, housing... Finally there came word of medications to extend the lives of those infected. Education and treatment funded by the federal government reduced the blatent descrimination. But a vaccine was never developed. MRNA techniques were developed but politics has prevented it from being used to make a vaccine. The religious right has prevented it from happening. Forty years later i think there is more fear of drug resistant gonorrhea and syphilis. Herpes was the big scare for a time. That too seems to have reduced with the availability of antiviral treatments. Vaccines for hpv are now available and are encouraged.
