Alexa Westlake - Period 4Due Date: April 28AP Social History Exam Review ProjectShort Essay: Analyzing the Political and Social Response to the AIDS CrisisIn 1981 the Report of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first rare cases of what is apparently pneumonia in young gay men. These cases were then grouped together and the disease known as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) took root in American society. This disease spread rapidly and the events that followed were responses to the spread of the disease in America known as the AIDS crisis, where the response of both the people and the government would impact and change American society and culture and bring to the emergence of a gay identity. , persecution and fear of the sick, commercialization of safe sex and deterioration of class barriers. Most of the first infected people, such as Robert Rayford, a 16-year-old from Missouri, died very quickly, leaving doctors baffled. As news of the disease spread, so did the stigma that came with it: AIDS was known as a homosexual disease because the first cases were discovered in a smaller group of partners. In the beginning, people were extremely misinformed and there was widespread persecution of gays and the gay community, known as homophobia. The disease was known as GRID, or homosexuality-related immune deficiency, in its early stages. But through the AIDS crisis, the gay community has developed an identity that wasn't there before. They would respond with gay activist groups like Gay Men's Health Crisis, National Association of People with AIDS, Project Inform, American Foundation for AIDS Research, and get involved at the government level to push for more research funding and access to more drugs for ......middle of paper......ment for the sick. This received criticism but was nevertheless renewed and became a useful resource for patients. Despite all the new programs working to stop the spread of AIDS and inform the community and sufferers, in 1991 AIDS claimed the lives of 100,000 people. By 1992, AIDS continued to increase to become the leading cause of death among men aged 25 to 44. and then the cause of death no. 1 among all Americans aged 25 to 44 in 1995. The response to AIDS also had a conservative backlash due to more talk about sex and sexuality, especially from Senator Jesse Helms (for mostly by blocking financing and stopping high expenses). school education), but the criticism did not slow down his efforts. The real solution to AIDS was the discovery of new drugs in 1996. Although the cost of these drugs was very high and out of reach for some, it led to a decrease in AIDS deaths by 40% in 1997 compared to 1996.