Disease

ready saturated with syphilis and gonorrhea,nhepatitis A and B, and variousnparasitic infections. Studies in Los Angelesnrevealed that 93 percent of malenhomosexuals were infected with cytomegalovirus,na variety of herpes linkednto cancer. Epstein-Barr virus, anotherncancer-causing microbe, was pandemicnamong them. These infections werenmarked by latency periods duringnwhich infectious carriers looked andnfelt well, often long before they exhibitednclinical manifestations of disease.nAs homosexual activity became commercialized,nwith bathhouses, sexnclubs, spas, and tours flourishing acrossnthe country and around the world,nthere was no stopping the spread ofndiseases. Homosexual doctors whonvoiced concern about the frightful conditionnof their “community” werendenounced by other homosexual leadersnfor being “sexual fascists.” A prominentnSan Francisco homosexual psychotherapist,nGary Walsh, counselednthat “promiscuity was a means tonexorcise the guilt and self-alienationningrained in all gay men by a heterosexualnsociety clinging to the obsoletenvalues of monogramy.” (He later diednof AIDS.)nAs early as spring 1981, a once-rarenform of pneumonia, Pneumocystisncarinii, was turning up with alarmingnfrequency among male homosexuals.nDrs. Michael Gottlieb and JoelnWeisman wrote what would be the firstnarticle relating to AIDS, for the June 5,n1981, issue of the Morbidity and MortalitynWeekly Report, published by thenfederal Center for Disease Control innAtlanta. Gottlieb and Weisman notednthat all their clients had a history ofnsexually transmitted infections prior tonthe onset of Pneumocystis pneumonia.nThey went on to observe that, “Thenfact that these patients were all homosexualsnsuggests an association betweennsome aspect of homosexual lifestyle orndisease acquired through sexual contactnand Pneumocystis pneumonia innthis population.” When they submittedntheir article to the CDC, it wasnentitled, “Pneumocystis pneumonia innhomosexual men — Los Angeles.”nHowever, before the publication,nCDC editors dropped any reference tonhomosexuality from the title, in ordernnot to offend the sensibilities of organizednhomosexuals. The unwritten policy,nShilts points out, was: “Don’t of­nfend the gays and don’t inflame thenhomophobes. These were the twinnhorns on which the handling of thisnepidemic would be torn from the firstnday of the epidemic.”nIn addition to Pneumocystis, homosexualsnand newly arrived Haitian immigrantsnwere found to be comingndown with taxoplasmosis, a lethal infectionnof the brain. Other maladiesnbegan to appear. Following extensiventesting, a homosexual in San Francisconwas discovered to be infected withncryptococcus, a parasite that inhabitsnbird feces. Pigeons had been depositingndroppings in San Francisco for over ancentury, without humans becomingninfected by them. University of Californianexperts were left speechlessnwhen one of their homosexual patientsnwas diagnosed as having chronic diarrheancaused by Cryptosporidium, a parasitenthat lives in the bowels of sheep.nOne anxious doctor asked the preeminentnexpert of Cryptosporidium, a professornat the University of Iowa agriculturenschool, how they treated infectednsheep. He was told, “There is nontreatment. We shoot them.” This particularnpatient soon died, making medicalnhistory as the first human beingnwhose cause of death was listed as andisease of sheep.nSo many homosexuals were succumbingnto a host of lethal infectionsnthat medical authorities designatedntheir condition GRID — Gay RelatednImmune Deficiency. The typicalnGRID sufferer had sex with 1,100nmen in his lifetime; some boasted asnmany as 20,000 sexual contacts. Footloosenhomosexuals quickly spread thenvirus across our country and aroundnthe world. At the Bureau of CommunicablenDisease Control in San Francisco,nDr. Selma Dritz realized thatnthe bathhouses were “biological cesspoolsnfor infection” and that a “textbook”npublic health response would bensimply to close them down as a menacento health. Dr. Donald Francis of thenCDC characterized the commercialnhomosexual sex industry as an “amplificationnsystem” for the disease. Suchnestablishments ensured that AIDSnwould proliferate among homosexualnmales. At this point, Shilts remarks,n”Common sense dictated that bathhousesnbe closed down. Commonnsense, however, rarely carried muchnweight in regard to AIDS policy.”nnnIn Shilts’s account, AIDS is personifiednby “Patient Zero,” one GaetannDugas, a strikingly handsome Air Canadansteward who apparently carriednAIDS from France to the homosexualnplaygrounds of North America. Doctorsnhave traced at least 40 of the firstn248 homosexual AIDS cases, as ofnApril 1982, to Dugas or someone whonhad sex with him. Long after he knewnthat he had the disease, Dugas continuednto haunt gay bars and bathhouses.nAfter sodomizing his partners, henwould turn up the lights, point to hisnKaposi’s sarcoma lesions, and announce,n”I’ve got gay cancer. I’mngoing to die and so are you.” Almostnuntil the day he died (at the age of 31nin 1984) Dugas managed to find mennanxious to couple with him (he hadnover 2,400 sexual contacts during hisnlifetime. His partners, many infectednwith AIDS by him, in turn have hadnintimate contact with untold thousandsnof others). Dugas figured that sincensomeone had infected him, he couldngive it to others. When a doctor advisednhim to quit, he replied, “It’s theirnduty to protect themselves. They knownwhat’s going on there. They’ve heardnabout this disease. I’ve got it. They cannget it too.”nThe CDC had evidence bynmid-1982 that GRID was an infectiousndisease. However, not to alarm thenpublic, Drs. James Curran and HaroldnJaffe reassured reporters that it wasn’t.nIn the meantime, GRID was redesignatednAIDS, a sexually neutral term.nAs time went on, doctors discoverednthat the range of infections related tonAIDS was much broader than they hadnpreviously suspected. Among thesenwere Burkitt’s lymphoma, a viruslinkednlymph cancer, and Kaposi’s sarcoma,na usually mild variety of skinncancer that turned lethal among AIDSncarriers. Mycobacterium aviumintracellular,na horrific fungal infectionnnormally found in birds, was detectednin the bone marrow of AIDS patients.nAIDS was confirmed, by late 1982, toncause extensive damage to the centralnnervous system, with researchers informingnmembers of the AmericannNeurological Association that somenpatients were dying of brain disorders,ntheir cerebral matter reduced to “anboggy mass.” Other fungal infectionsnof birds, cats, sheep, and deer, as wellnas cancers on the tongue, in the rec-nSBPTEMBER 1988/47n