Gay Community Research Paper
The gay community didn't help prevent the spread of AIDS in many ways. The first reason being, bathhouses were very popular in the 1900's especially gay bathhouses. During the 1980's ( when the AIDS breakout began ) gays were being discriminated against and looked down upon by a great amount of people.
When the AIDS epidemic started entered within the gay community, the government initiated that a way to prevent this from happening consisted of shutting down all bathhouses. However, the gay community didn't think this concept would be a good solution. They assumed that the government was out to get them and this would be another form of discrimination. Like I had mentioned prior, injustice towards gays was at a much higher
rate than it is today. The government also could not close the bathhouses on their own due to them not owning the businesses.
Another reason the gay community didn't help stall the outbreak of AIDS was that they didn't believe having intercourse could cause you to develop AIDS, so they continued. During the early times of the epidemic, a low amount of money was provided to discover what kind of disease they were dealing with. Due to this, doctors could not prove that AIDS could be sexually transmitted. If they didn't have the money, technology, and information to support their hypothesis, no one would care what the doctors were saying. Overall, without proof, the people would not listen and believe what the doctors were attempting to inform them.
In conclusion, the not closing of bathhouses and having absent proof of how the disease is spread, were the reasons the gay community did not help prevent the spread of AIDS.
When the AIDS epidemic started entered within the gay community, the government initiated that a way to prevent this from happening consisted of shutting down all bathhouses. However, the gay community didn't think this concept would be a good solution. They assumed that the government was out to get them and this would be another form of discrimination. Like I had mentioned prior, injustice towards gays was at a much higher
rate than it is today. The government also could not close the bathhouses on their own due to them not owning the businesses.
Another reason the gay community didn't help stall the outbreak of AIDS was that they didn't believe having intercourse could cause you to develop AIDS, so they continued. During the early times of the epidemic, a low amount of money was provided to discover what kind of disease they were dealing with. Due to this, doctors could not prove that AIDS could be sexually transmitted. If they didn't have the money, technology, and information to support their hypothesis, no one would care what the doctors were saying. Overall, without proof, the people would not listen and believe what the doctors were attempting to inform them.
In conclusion, the not closing of bathhouses and having absent proof of how the disease is spread, were the reasons the gay community did not help prevent the spread of AIDS.