AIDS Nostalgia....Where were you?

[Guest Bauer]

Oddly enough, HIV in the USA holds more the stigma then other things that take our lives... heart disease, diabetes, cancer, as contributed by our food industry, or even meth which contributes to HIV and other STD risk~ (meth: first synthesized from ephedrine by Nagai Nagayoshi 1893 and then chrystalized by Akira Ogata in the mid 1900's. In spite of Japan banning it in the 50's, the US picked up their stock pile and sold it here~ US FDA approved it for treatment of ADHD and exogenous obesity, dispensed as Desoxyn.)

With the exception of meth, I guess the rest are somehow beside the point~

Sadly, there are far too many street drugs on the streets targetting users. Harm reduction programs (having a doctors prescription for Benzedrine) so that at the least users aren't doing kooky things with Drano, would be one useful community-oriented step which could be taken.

 

Of course, one needs to be aware that kids might just sell the beans rather than their asses, but that might be one risk we as a community might prefer over what is often a vicious circle.

[+ Gar1eth]

I was 21 in college--I think I knew--or at least had strong suspicions that I was gay--as I was never turned on by women--but I was hoping it might be something that I grew out of. The start of AIDS drove me even more into the closet--bolted and nailed shut the door and threw away the key--and I didn't even attempt to have sex with anyone or thing except Misters Right and Left Hand until I was 41. Being closeted with the door nailed shut saved me from AIDS-but has had repercussions I am still dealing with today.

 

My deepest sympathies for those who lost loved ones.

 

Gman

[rossthebosssf]

I was living in New York at the time. I remember reading one of the first articles describing this gay cancer. Though I was openly gay I didn't worry about it as I was rather shy and prudish. I didn't enter my slut phase until about 1987. By then I knew what to do to be safe. I thank my lucky stars that I was the late bloomer that I was as most of my friends from college are now dead.

[Guest Bauer]

I was growing up with security all around me when the first people began to fall.

 

I had my cell phone and was listening to the music of Soft Cell's Tainted Love (my straight mother's favorite song as it happens).

 

Cruising mainly.

 

Running with English punks (with their shiny little aluminum foil packages) and a regular at the Four Seasons dining room.

Whoops, forgot to mention where I was at. This was in a major "petrochemical arms" installation. Petrochemical cities looking to outside observers like cities but being engineered to a different order than most regular civilian bases. Industrials basically. (Like Los Angeles with Disney, like Detroit with GM). International Division, deep in the heart of America.

 

My wolf pack had just made introductions to the son of the Chief of Forensic Psychiatry -- (there being all types of elements in societies, criminals, crazies, schizo's etc., all people), and it was in his arms, the arms which provided security to he and his family, his son's circle, that I was first beginning to hear the news.

 

Not to sing acappella, but basically, I was on a fast track from my prep school for a joint MIT/Harvard program following my work for the projects division of the US Department of Defense. I was a "1,600 SAT type" which basically meant "non-competitive entry".

 

The news itself, delaying that entry, and becoming the start of my "gap year".

 

Impressive as that sounds, it really isn't. Poppers and Punks and bathhouses leaving more of an impression than, .... well .... and then the news.

 

(Smooth muscle and vasopressin dilators aside ....)

 

As an aside, I really like the music of SoftCell. Opening as it does with sweet sound of lasers, as if a Laser Light show were if at least if not imminent, then, in the works. The only other really good song from that English synth-pop duo was "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye". From their "Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret" album.