Running head: THE ORIGIN OF HIV/AIDS AND
The Origin of HIV/AIDS and its Association with Homosexual Males
Teebeh Nyakoon
Marshall University
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Running head: THE ORIGIN OF HIV/AIDS AND
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AIDS is a destructive disease that became an epidemic in the United States in 1981
(Stolley & Glass, 2009). This disease occurs during the late stages of an HIV infection. Much
debate has taken place over its origins and how it became so widespread. AIDS affects all
groups of people but the group that it is most prevalent in is the male homosexual community.
The origin of HIV is traced to Central Africa where SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency
Syndrome) is said to have crossed species from chimpanzees to humans and mutated into HIV.
This occurred during the 1930s (Pisani, 2011). Just how this happened has caused speculation.
Some theories assert that a hunter was bitten by an infected chimpanzee. Other ideas, likened to
conspiracy theories, claim that Polio vaccines were cultivated in infected monkeys and given to
Africans on a wide scale. A more convincing theory states that the disease probably accelerated
in Belgian and French colonies in Africa in camps where laborers had attendant prostitution or
when needles were repeatedly used in health campaigns (Pisani, 2011). The French link that
Central Africa and Haiti shared explains why HIV showed up in Haiti. By way of Haiti, the virus
came to America in the late 1960’s (Pisani, 2011). A table in “The Origin and Diffusion of
AIDS…” (Shannon & Pyle, 1989) shows the course of AIDS during the 1970s and 1980s. The
table traces the virus from Central Africa to North, South, and Central America, Europe, and
South Africa. The table also shows the path of HIV from Southern Africa to South America,
from Southern and Eastern Africa to Southern Asia and Australia/Oceana and from North
America to Asia and Australia/Oceana. Additionally, it illustrates HIV’s diffusion patterns
contained within North, South, and Central America and Europe.
HIV infects the body’s immune system and leaves the victim vulnerable to many
infections and cancers that would be warded off otherwise. In the late stages of HIV, AIDS
develops as a collective of these infections (known as opportunistic infections) (Stolley & Glass,
Running head: THE ORIGIN OF HIV/AIDS AND
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2009). The devastation of Aids is not only seen in its victims’ health, but also in the global
community. According to advert.org, over one million people in the United States are living
with HIV (“HIV, AIDS and Young Gay Men”). The rate of infection is painfully frequent: one
person ever 9 ½ minutes (“U.S. Statistics”). In 2002, India bared the testament of having the
world’s largest population of “Aids Orphans” (Stolley & Glass, 2009). On a global scale, 33.4
million people were infected with HIV/AIDS in 2008 (“AIDS”).
One group of people that has been hit particularly hard by HIV/AIDS is the gay
community. In fact, so many early cases of HIV were found in homosexual men that the
condition was first named GRID for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (Pisani, 2011).
Throughout the 1980s, about 90% of AIDS victims were gay men (Bauer, 2007). Reasonably, it
has been questioned and investigated as to why the virus (HIV) and the syndrome (AIDS) have
been considerably prevalent in the gay community. According to Bauer (2007), “the cultural
shake-ups of the 1960s and the recreational drug use of the 1970s overlapped with the gay civil
rights movement and enticed gay men into extraordinary promiscuity and blatantly unhealthy
activity” (.p 87). It is also stated in The Origin, Persistence and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory
that gay men seem more promiscuous because males are the more promiscuous sex of most
species. Ultimately, the exuberant displays of carefree sexual promiscuity of the 1970s were in
celebration of gay liberation (Bauer, 2007).
A more fact driven approach to the issue of HIV/AIDS and the gay population has to do
with “MSM”. MSM refers to “men who have sex with men” and is generally uses in context with
HIV/AIDS (Stolley & Glass, 2009). This term is applied to men regardless of their sexual
orientation (gay, bisexual, or straight). MSM represent the majority of deaths from AIDS in the
United States (“U.S. Statistics”). It has been said that because MSM may participate in high-risk
Running head: THE ORIGIN OF HIV/AIDS AND
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activities, such as intravenous drug use and unprotected anal sex, they are at a high risk of
contracting the virus and passing it on to gay men. Anal sex in itself has a higher risk of
transmitting HIV than vaginal sex because it can create “small tears or cuts in and around the
rectum through which HIV can pass” (“HIV, AIDS and Young Gay Men”). Another contributing
factor in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the gay community is the stigma attached to
homosexuality and HIV/AIDS. The stigma can deter gay men from getting tested and finding out
whether or not they are carriers of HIV which can then lead to them unknowingly infecting
others.
In a public opinion poll, 43% of those surveyed named gay men as a group they
associated with AIDS (Stolley & Glass, 2009, p. 67). Some of the reason for this could be
attributed to popular culture. According to Stolley and Glass, the arts community was “hard hit”
from the early days of the AIDS pandemic (p. 99) so it is understandable that many art works
and productions would center on AIDs and the group that was most affected by it. More than the
arts community, the press can be held accountable for the association of aids with gay men. An
example of this is clear in the fact that the first popular press article in the United States on
HIV/AIDS was titled “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals” (Stolley & Glass, 2009). In
addition to the press’s selective reporting, prominent conservative religious leaders went public
with statements that AIDS was God’s judgment on homosexuals and society. Additionally, AIDS
activist Larry Kramer called the Reagan administration’s slow response to the epidemic a
genocide against homosexuals (Stolley & Glass, 2009). Probably the most quietly influential
aspect of all is the fact that the first research done by American epidemiologists, physicians, and
researchers on HIV/AIDS focused on the condition as a disease of homosexual males (Stolley &
Glass, 2009, p. 65). According to Stolley and Glass, if the focus of the research had not been this
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narrow, the researchers would have seen the largely heterosexual transmission of AIDS in Africa
and elsewhere (Stolley & Glass, 2009, p. 66).
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References
Aids. (2011, June 09). Retrieved from
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Bauer, H. H. (2007). The origin, persistence and failings of hiv/aids
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Kalichman, E. C. (2009). Denying aids, conspiracy theories,
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McCusker, J., Stoddard, A. M., Mayer, K., Cowan, D. N., & Groopman, J. E. (1988). Behavioral
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Center. American Journal Of Public Health, 78(1), 68-71.
Pisani, E. (2011). HIV. New Scientist, 211(2828), i-8.
Shannon, G. W., & Pyle, G. F. (1989). The Origin and Diffusion of AIDS: A View from Medical
Geography. Annals Of The Association Of American Geographers, 79(1), 1-24.
S t o l l e y, K . S . , & G l a s s , J . E . ( 2 0 0 9 ) . H i v / a i d s . S a n t a B a r b a r a , C a l i f o r n i a :
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U.s. statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://aids.gov/hiv -aids-basics/hivaids-101/overview/statistics/
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