Cultural Conservatives Relate AIDS Crisis to “Immoral” Behavior (1983)

a terribly, terribly disturbing and serious problem in health today. Many people who are getting autoimmune deficiency syndrome are either gay people, Haitians, or drug abusers. These are people who are not necessarily seen as strong political forces. If it were Legionnaires' Disease, if it were Toxic Shock Syndrome, we'd see an immediate response. But look how long it's taken them when it's Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. I do think it is gross irresponsibility for homosexuals active who have go to these bathhouses in the rest of it to cry out that the government's got to do research to save us when they continue indulging in the kind of activity that spreads a disease. It's the height of irresponsibility. When you violate the laws of nature, you violate the laws of nature's god. And like driving faster than 55 miles an hour, you pay the fare. And I think that AIDS, herpes, venereal diseases are all a result of violating the laws of decency and of nature. And I feel that whenever you do that,

be not deceived, Paul said. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. I think that the fact that there is this disease called AIDS, which is scary, which is attributed to gay people for which we are being blamed, even though we're the ones who are coming down with it, only further fuels the fires of people's homophobia. They're afraid of us. They don't understand us. We're people, just like anybody else. [music] I have the subjective feeling that if this were occurring in heterosexuals as a sexually transmitted disease, the emotional reaction would not be nearly what it's been. The single most adverse effect from a sociological standpoint of AIDS is that large segments of the population, that I fear have been and are biased for their own good or bad reasons,

are finding a more acceptable format in which to express those biases. It's too easy for society to grow impatient with AIDS