The Pulse nightclub in Orlando was established in memory of Barbara Poma’s brother, a victim of the AIDS crisis. The massacre that happened in Pulse has caused us all to reflect on many issues that still face the LGBT community and our nation. This includes extremism and hatred, the lack of gun control, and even internalized self-hatred and homophobia.
This tragedy to our community has made me reflect on another crisis the gay community began to face in the 1980s. Although not caused by hatred or extremism, the AIDS crisis was equally as scary and more deadly to the LBGT community.
In 1981, 159 people died from a “Gay related cancer” or “GRID” (Gay Related Immune Disease). What followed was a period of terror for our community. As tens of thousands of gay men died, researchers scrambled to learn it was not just a gay specific disease as first reported. It took 6 years for the first medication to be available to help treat HIV. As the years passed, hundreds of thousands of lives were taken from our community. In fact, 660,000 have died to date in the US. There were a lot of politics, healthcare polices, stigma, prejudices, and outright discrimination to overcome to develop proper treatment and support.
However, with the push from LGBT activism organizations like ACT UP, proper legislation, policies, medical research, and treatment were established. Today we can proudly say AIDS- related deaths are at an all time low, with approximately 13,500 deaths a year now in the US.
In contrast, it is estimated that more Americans have died from gun violence than from war to date. 1.5 million deaths are a result of gun violence and 1.4 million from war related. There are 32,000 deaths a year now from gun violence!
Many of us can remember losing so many friends during the 1980s. Their lives abruptly ended right before our eyes. We all felt it could have been us. This is the exact feeling I have been feeling since the massacre. It is like the same lives were snatched from us again. We the survivors are left to cope and to ACT.
The AIDS epidemic motivated me to refocus my career to treat HIV and be an advocate in LGBT health issues that were ignored in mainstream healthcare.
I know the Orlando massacre will cause the LBGT community to rise to the occasion again and act, both as individuals and organizations, to help make out country safer with less gun violence and less hatred. And, it is already happening. One example is the organization, California Equality, that launched the huge “ Safe and Equal” campaign to push for gun control. Equally important and more interesting to me is on an individual level, I hear challenging stories from individuals every day in my office. I will not share those stories, but I will share what I recently read about the bravery of Sam Johnson, a 18-year-old star soccer play, who will begin his college soccer career this fall. The Orlando massacre motivated him to come out and begin college soccer as a gay man. He joined the Sports Equality Foundation and plans to become an active member to help combat the prejudices and bigotry in the sports arena. So I am hopeful to know a new generation is stepping up to act. In his words:
“I have been silent for a very long time. I have listened, I have observed and I have reflected on a proper time and place to do this; but I decided that the time was now. You all are aware of what has happened in Orlando, and regardless of your opinions of the topic, a man walked into a bar and targeted people of the LGBT community and killed them, and that is the simple fact. You grow up being afraid of who are you, and then eventually you come to terms with it. And then something like this happens and you go right back to where you were. Put yourself in the shoes of the mothers, fathers and siblings of those people who won’t come home after their Saturday night out, put yourself in the shoes of people who have to watch their backs and live in fear for simply expressing who they love.”
Sincerely,
T. Douglas Gurley MD