AIDS killed 324,029 men and women in the USA between 19. “Riot (Sticker)” by Gran Fury (Art and Activist collective) via NYPL.įor them, the high number of AIDS deaths at the epidemic’s peak (1987-1996) shaped their personal, social, psychological, and community lives, during the epidemic, throughout their life course, and into later years. AIDS killed 324,029 men and women in the USA between 19 (death rates began to drop in 1995, with the introduction of effective anti-retroviral medications in 1996 fuelling this decline). While these older gay people were aged 50-70 in 1980, when HIV / AIDS emerged in the west, gay male ‘ baby boomers’ (born 1946-1964) were aged 34-16.
![public gay sex blog public gay sex blog](https://cdn77-pic.xvideos-cdn.com/videos/thumbs169lll/d7/b8/0d/d7b80d76fb1b95a54aa0c76e7a23e8a5/d7b80d76fb1b95a54aa0c76e7a23e8a5.10.jpg)
Gay rights demonstration, NYC 1976 Peak of the AIDS epidemic
![public gay sex blog public gay sex blog](https://live.staticflickr.com/2861/13896146464_252ec72c02_b.jpg)
For gay men and women born before 1930, whom I interviewed in 1995 and who came of age in an era of political, medical, and scientific oppression, the emergence of gay liberation (which, sparked by the 1969 Stonewall and similar uprisings, formed a new celebratory lesbian and gay culture based on the open expression of, and pride in, same-sex relationships) was the most significant event shaping their experience of gay life. In the 20th century, the gay community saw such watershed moments as the targeting of gay people by the psychiatric enterprise and the McCarthy era witch-hunts, the birth of gay liberation, lesbian feminism, and queer culture, homosexuality’s decriminalisation and demedicalisation, the legalisation of gay marriage, and the overturning of bans on gay people serving in the military.Īs with all watersheds, these events’ impacts were filtered through such characteristics as gender, ethnicity, class, and age at the time of the event.