1987
Craig Harris and Carl Bean direct NMAC until early 1987,
when Don Edwards begins the process of incorporating the new Council. He sublet
office space from National AIDS Network and the Human
Rights Campaign Fund soon after taking over, and played a key role in
obtaining NMAC's first grant: $10,000 from the CDC. He says of the time:
I sat at this little desk in [former NMAC Board
Member] Gil Gerald's office at the National AIDS Network and set about getting
the first money we got. Looking back on all the effort just to get that
$10,000, it really communicates where our issues figured in things at the time
and how little attention was being paid to us. I had to meet with everyone
almost up to CDC director, James Mason, to get it.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference at Howard University
discusses the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS in communities of color,
encouraging African Americans to address HIV/AIDS more aggressively. Some
representatives fear protecting the rights of those living with AIDS posed a
health risk. Norman Nickens, one of NMAC's founders and an AIDS discrimination
representative for the San Francisco Human Right Commission notes: "If
individuals are afraid of being discriminated against for acknowledging they
have the disease, they may try to hide it, or fail to obtain proper medical
care. That would pose a greater health risk to the larger public."
The Names Foundation displays 1920 quilts on the Mall in Washington, DC as part of
the National March on Washington
for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
The news around HIV/AIDS veers dramatically between hope and fear. On the
former,
the FDA approved AZT (zidovudine, Retrovir), the first drug approved
for HIV/AIDS treatment, and the ACT UP is
formed in March, in New York City.
The organization's activism quickly convinces the FDA to shorten the AIDS drug
approval process by two years.
$30 million in funding is awarded to states to fund the
distribution of AZT; this program serves as the foundation for the AIDS Drug
Assistance Program (ADAP), authorized by the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS
Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 1990.
Fear of the disease still reigns in many public circles,
though, as evidenced by the Department of State's decision to close the United States'
borders to non-U.S. citizens living with HIV/AIDS.
Louise and Clifford Ray, of Arcadia, FL,
make national headlines after successfully fighting their local school board's
decision to bar their three HIV positive, hemophiliac sons, Ricky, Robert and
Randy, from class. A week later, an arsonist burns down the Ray's house.
On March 5, 1987, Koop
made a joint presentation with the Deputy Surgeon General to the California
Legislature detailing the latest information around AIDS detection, as well
as their recommendations for AIDS prevention.
President Reagan appeared before the College
of Physicians in Philadelphia, for his "major
speech" on AIDS, calling it "public enemy number one," on April
2, 1987. At the same event, Vice President George Bush calls for mandatory
HIV testing; he is heckled by the audience.
The Asian & Pacific Islander (A&PI) Wellness Center
forms to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis in communities of color in the San Francisco area. It is
the oldest organization in North America
addressing sexual health and HIV/AIDS issues in A&PI communities.
July 1987
President Regan names 13 members of a new national
commission on AIDS, including Dr. Frank Lilly and John Cardinal O'Connor.
At left: President Ronald Reagan, HHS Secretary Otis R. Bowen, Dr. James B.
Wyngaarden and members of the Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Epidemic. In his remarks, the president said, "I hope the commission will
help us all put aside our suspicions and work together with common sense
against this threat."
August 1987
The CDC holds first AIDS conference in New York City and announces a shift in
Federal AIDS resources to minority organizations to address the growing impact
of HIV/AIDS in communities of color. Dr. Stephen Margolis of the CDC is quoted
in the New York Times as stating: "What we are doing now is pinpointing
minorities, because we recognize that prevention strategies must take into
account racial and ethnic differences, if they are going to be successful."
Dr. Beny Prim and Gilberto Gerald, who helped found NMAC, are being heard in
the media; but the stigma around HIV is overwhelming. Gilberto Gerald, then
head of minority affairs for NAN, observed:
"Not only is homosexuality a taboo topic in both the black and Hispanic
communities, but intravenous drug users have no political constituency either.
AIDS patients are a minority within a minority."
U.S. Senator Jesse Helms successfully introduces the Helms
Amendment, which
prohibits the use of federal funds for AIDS education
materials that "promote or encourage, directly or indirectly, homosexual
activities."
The third International AIDS Conference is held in Washington, DC.
In the US,
16,488 people die of AIDS, including many iconic members of the entertainment
community, including Liberace, the pianist, and Michael Bennett, the Broadway
director of A Chorus Line. Tom Waddell, founder of the
Gay Games, also dies.