Bay Windows - June 1, 2006

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Warning signs - March 1983

In its debut issue, Bay Windows featured an unsigned article from the Fenway Community Health Center titled "What You Should Know About A.I.D.S." which detailed symptoms to watch out for:

* fever and night sweats, with or without shaking chills
* fatigue
* unexplained weight loss
* shortness of breath
* enlarged lymph nodes (swollen glands)
* persistant diarrhea
* red or purple bumps or spots on the skin

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Tracking the numbers - April 12, 1984

On the letters page, Bay Windows published available statistics on AIDS. Massachusetts had 65 confirmed cases of AIDS. There were 36 cases in Boston and one each in Andover, Amherst, Brookline, Concord, Haverhill, Kingston, Weymouth and Yarmouth. Forty-four of the 65 cases were "homosexual/bisexual."

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Hopes for a vaccine - May 10, 1984

In "Finding The Virus Is Just The Start" Mark Johnston reported that the discovery of the virus thought to cause AIDS was a cause for cautious optimism:

"The possibility of developing a vaccine to protect individuals from the AIDS is made more likely by viral identification, but it is unclear when such a vaccine may be developed - or even if development is possible at all. The American researchers who identified the virus as the cause of AIDS have suggested that a vaccine may be ready for testing in as little as two years, but others are more skeptical ...

"The most important point that is stressed by medical professionals and gay activists alike is that intimate sexual contact with multiple partners is no safer today than it was three weeks ago. There is concerns that many gay men may misinterpret whatever medical progress occurs as a sign that old practices may be resumed. But even if a vaccine is developed to protect individuals from HTLV-III, such a vaccination will not work retroactively."

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The bathhouse wars - May 10, 1984

In "AIDS Conference Looks At New Virus And New Concerns" Johnston reported that during AIDS Action Committee's "Fighting for Our Lives Conference," AIDS activist Larry Kramer said that despite the discovery of the virus, closing gay bathouses was the surest way to prevent the spread of the disease:

"'There's no question in my mind that baths and backrooms have to stop operating,' he said despite civil liberty concerns. ... I don't want them [straight public officials] to close the baths,' he said. ' I want someone to stand outside with a sign that says "Ten new cases every day." I think that will have an effect. We have to change the whole way we look at ourselves. We can no longer be defined by what we do with our cocks.'"

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Tracking the numbers - January 9, 1986

In its "AIDS Update," Bay Windows reported that there were 418 confirmed cases of AIDS in Massachusetts. Of those, 171 of them, or 41 percent, had died. Boston was home to most of them, with 167; 56 of them came from outside Greater Boston.

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The death of sex - March 27, 1986

In "Tending The Gay Male Psyche: AAC's Next Step" Jeff Black spoke with Raymond, a 29-year-old who had already lost two acquaintances to the disease but increasingly found himself talking nostalgically with his friends about their sexual exploits in the days before AIDS made sex deadly:

"'We swap these stories, not to titillate one another, but because the sense of loss we feel is too great to keep them bottled up inside. I catch myself sounding like Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind lamenting the passing of the South.

"'When you think about it, a group of thirty-ish men sitting around talking about the good old days like we're a bunch of old geezers on the front porch of the general store is pretty frightening psychologically. ...

"'It's like neverending mourning. For friends, for a lifestyle, for a group of specific acts we can never perform again. It is a mourning that just seems to get deeper as each day passes.'"

***

Tracking the numbers - January 15, 1987

In its "AIDS Update," Bay Windows reported that there were 729 confirmed cases of AIDS in Massachusetts. Of those, 372 of them, or 51 percent, had died. Suffolk County was home to most of them, with 317 cases. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Controls had reported 28,523 AIDS cases and 16,128 deaths from the disease.

***

AIDS behind bars - August 20, 1987

In "Inmate With AIDS Denied Pre-Trial Transfer," Paula Charland reported on the unsuccessful attempt by Elmo Johnson to challenge the Massachusetts Department of Correction policy to confine inmates with AIDS outside the general inmate population. Johnson's attorney told Bay Windows that the judge said that there was "fear bordering on hysteria" among inmates and guards if Johnson were returned to the general population.

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Tracking the numbers - March 24, 1988

In its "AIDS Update," Bay Windows reported that there were 1344 confirmed cases of AIDS in Massachusetts. Of those, 640, or 48 percent, had died. Suffolk County was home to 574 cases; 860 of them were gay or bisexual men. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Controls had reported 54,233 AIDS cases and 30,355 deaths from the disease.

***

Finding comfort in the Quilt - Oct. 13, 1988

In "The Mind Behind The AIDS Quilt" Susan Lumenello spoke with Cleve Jones, creator of The Names Project, better known as the AIDS Quilt:

"In the old days, women would get together for quilting bees to make sturdy bedcovers and to exchange stories. Jones has a lot of stories, too, and he told one about the Kansas parents who were planning to sue The Names Project. One of the Quilt's panels was for their son and they didn't like it. The family priest suggested the parents just see the Quilt and their son's panel before they filed suit. Jones always loves to tell the stories of the unconverted who changed their minds after having seen the Quilt - like the parents in Kansas. ...

"'I believe we're going to survive this.' 'This' to Jones means all of it - the homophobia, the gaybashing, the AIDS epidemic. He added, 'I'm so proud of gay and lesbian people. I'm not saying don't get angry, [but] look at what we've done.' He urged gay women and men to fight our 'real enemies.'

"'Who are they?' a reporter asked. 'Oh,' said Jones, 'they live in the White House.'"

***

A new mandate: get tested - Sept. 21, 1989

In "New Use For Old Weapon In AIDS Battle" Stephan Pardi reported that the success of the drug AZT in prolonging the lives of AIDS patients prompted AIDS organizations to endorse AIDS testing, heretofore a subject of intense debate among many activists and service providers:

"Because of this, and representing a major policy shift in the perceptions of the AIDS epidemic, on August 19, AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), and the New York-based Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), joined the San Francisco AIDS Foundation endorsement (from the beginning of this year), and flatly stated: all those in risk groups for being possibly exposed to the AIDS virus, should voluntarily, immediately, and anonymously, be tested.

"Until recently, gay men have resisted taking the antibody test (ELISA or Western Blot) for fear of discrimination, apathy and fatalism about the disease, or the belief there wasn't anything anyone could do about it anyway. That's all changed now."

***

ACT UP vs. Gov. Weld - Feb. 28, 1991

In "AIDS Protest At State House Ends With Arrests" Peter Erbland reported on ACT UP's protest of Gov. William Weld's proposed cuts to the Medicaid budget, which resulted in the arrests of 11 of the group's members:

"Chanting 'penny-wise pound foolish,' about 30 members of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power dropped thousands of pennies on the marble floors of the State House to symbolize what they feel are meager, short-term savings at the expense of the poor, elderly and disabled. ...

"As the five were arrested on the third floor, six other activists took over the Governor's Correspondence office on the first floor. While the Capitol Police tried to talk them into surrendering, other ACT UP members handed out press releases printed on the governor's stationary.

"'Governor William Weld announced today that the cuts he planned to make in the Medicaid budget would cause a great increase in human suffering and misery and thus could not be allowed to happen,' read the mock press release."

***

A prayer for the dying - Sept. 7, 1995

In "Hope And Heroism On Front Lines" Loren King spoke with David Brennan, a 31-year-old AIDS hospice worker who tended to the dying and the loved ones they would leave behind:

"For gay men dying of AIDS there are still issues such as isolation and fear of coming out. 'The partner of a man who died recently went to work the next day because people in his office did not know. That stuff still happens,' says Brennan. 'The world still is not safe for us.' "Working with the dying and the families of the dying has given Brennan an invaluable perspective on life and its impermanence, he said. 'I pray a lot. I go to Trinity Church in Copley Square and just sit quietly. This has taught me that there is no good time to die, ever. Hollywood tends to glamorize death. But no matter what it is hard and painful,' he said.

***

Dawn of new era - Feb. 15, 1996

In "Reasons for Hope" a group of the Boston AIDS activists and medical professionals calling themselves the Boston AIDS Writers Group saw hope for people with AIDS in the arrival of protease inhibitors:

"A revolution in the treatment of HIV disease is bringing a renewed sense of hope to HIV+ people in the nineties. It's time to get tested if there's even a remote possibility that you have the virus because there are new drugs and strategies that can virtually eliminate HIV from infected people for a period of time and keep them alive and healthy longer."

***

Supremes: ADA covers HIV - July 2, 1998

In "Supreme Court Ruling On ADA Is Seen As A Watershed Event In Protecting People With HIV" Scott A. Giordano reported on the landmark 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in Bragdon v. Abbott that asymptomatic HIV positive people were protected under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. Filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders on behalf of Sidney Abbott, who was refused treatment by a New Hampshire dentist because of her HIV status, it was the first case dealing with HIV-related discrimination to reach the nation's highest court:

"'From the moment of infection and throughout every stage of the disease, HIV infection satisfies the statutory and regulatory definition of a "physical impairment,"' the Court held in its opinion delivered by Justice Anthony Kennedy. ...

"'When Dr. Randon Bragdon refused to fill my cavity simply because I am HIV positive, I experienced firsthand the fear and misunderstanding which has surrounded HIV since the beginning of the epidemic,' said Abbott, 37, in a prepared statement."

***

A silver lining in AIDS? - June 7, 2001

On the 20th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic, columnist Mubarak Dahir pondered the impact of AIDS on the progress of the gay rights movement:

"There is no silver lining to AIDS. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't acknowledge how AIDS shaped the American political debate around gay rights, and even won us understanding and compassion from an often otherwise hostile general public. Another reason some activists refuse to acknowledge that AIDS moved the issue of gay rights forward in the national consciousness is the belief that somehow by doing this, we denigrate or minimize the efforts of political activists, both before and during the worst of the AIDS crisis. But I think that is a narrow interpretation of history.

"Indeed, I would argue that the general public's eventually sympathetic response (even if it did take way too long to come about) to gay men battling a disease that not only was decimating individuals, but an entire community, was not independent of our activism, but in direct response to it."

***

AIDS funding under attack - May 2, 2002

Beth Berlo reported in "Proposed Cuts In AIDS Budget Hit At Protest" on the proposal by lawmakers to whack the state's AIDS budget by a whopping $8.1 million to counter the $2 billion budget shortfall, drawing hundreds to the steps of the State House to protest:

"Larry Kessler, [AIDS Action Committee] founding director, called the proposed cuts 'the final nail in the coffin.'

"Kevin Koerner of the Boston Living Center said what the Legislature doesn't seem to understand or care about is that 'people are still dying. There's need for AIDS services now more than ever. We get an average of one new client a day.'"

***

Debunking the bug chaser myth - Jan. 30, 2003

In an editorial titled "Bug Chasers: Rolling Stone Steps In It," Andrew Rapp took the magazine to task for publishing a controversial report by Gregory Freeman about "bug chasers" - men who actively seek HIV infection for erotic thrills:

"Freeman's not talking about one or two sad sociopaths here, but as many as 25% of the new HIV infections each year! That's as many as 10,000 people a year who were hell-bent on their own destruction!

"Shocking? Yes. Eye-catching? Definitely. True? Well, there it's looking a little thin. Actually, it's looking 9,998 individuals too thin. On closer examination, Freeman cited only two individuals who represent this trend, one of whom speaks anonymously. The 25 percent figure? Well, that comes from a doctor who doesn't really work in epidemiology, and denies saying it, and says he told Rolling Stone not to print it because that's not what he believes...

"You won't read about bug chasers, Freeman's article, or the accompanying controversy on the news pages of Bay Windows, however. Why? Because Freeman's article is dog shit. Put it on a silver platter. Garnish it with parsley. Dip it in a raspberry mango coulee and serve it at the Ritz. It's still dog shit."

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Black gay men under siege - Feb. 10, 2005

In "Soaring Rates" Ethan Jacobs reported on a meeting between Phill Wilson, executive director of the L.A.-based Black AIDS Institute, and Bay State HIV/AIDS advocates in which Wilson discussed the disproportionately high rates of both new infections and full-blown AIDS diagnoses in the African American community:

"'[T]he truth of the matter is, in America in 2005 AIDS is overwhelmingly a black and brown disease no matter how you look at it,' [Wilson said].

"The numbers presented in the report are alarming: African Americans make up 54 percent of annual AIDS infections although they represent just 13 percent of the population. Forty-two percent of people diagnosed with AIDS are African-American, and a 2001 study shows that black women make up 67 percent of female AIDS cases.

"Within the LGBT community the numbers are equally staggering.

"'It's estimated that among black gay men under the age of 30, in urban cities in America one in three are already HIV positive,' Wilson explained during the roundtable. 'Now to put that in perspective, the only place on the planet that has a worse AIDS epidemic than in young black gay and bisexual men in America is Botswana.'"

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Reality check - Feb. 2, 2006

In "LA HIV Prevention Ads Pull No Punches" Ethan Jacobs reported on an ad campaign by the L.A.-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation called "HIV û Not Fabulous" aimed at countering AIDS medication ads that depicted sexy, buff, healthy people by showing the reality that even in the era of life-saving drugs, living with HIV and AIDS was not pretty:

"Compared to the upbeat drug ads, the campaign is downright shocking. Some of the ads feature a man naked except for a diaper and a caption reading, 'I'm afraid to leave my house because I might shit my pants. If I go out, I can't be far from a bathroom. It bothers me when guys who don't have HIV think it's not that bad. I'm glad I'm still alive, but there's no substitute for being HIV negative. If you don't have it, don't get it! Another ad in the series depicts a topless man with a bloated belly caused by lipodystrophy, a side effect of some AIDS drugs that causes abnormal distribution of body fat. Another ad depicts facial wasting, another side effect of some AIDS drugs."

060601
BY060603

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