Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Political attitudes toward AIDS have gone through dramatically different phases. In the early 1980s, it was dubbed the gay disease and as such was easy for lawmakers to ignore. No one hurried to fund research into a disease that seemed to be killing only members of a historically unpopular group. When it was not being ignored, some groups dismissed AIDS as a problem that homosexuals deserved, perhaps brought on them by divine intervention. Discriminatory action matched this talk as gay men lost jobs, housing, and medical care. AIDS activists complained bitterly about the failure of

most U.S. citizens to be concerned. Public opinion only began to shift in the late 1980s, largely through awareness of highly publicized cases. As soon as AIDS had a familiar or more mainstream face, it became harder to ignore; when it became clear that heterosexuals were also contracting the disease, the epidemic acquired higher priority.

By the late 1980s, much of the harshness in public debate had diminished. Both liberals and conservatives lined up to support legislative solutions. President RONALD REAGAN left office, recommending increases in federal funding for medical research on AIDS. Already the amount spent in this area had risen from $61 million in 1984 to nearly $1.3 billion in 1988. President GEORGE H.W. BUSH took a more active approach, and in 1990 signed two new bills into law. One was the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act (Pub. L. No. 101-381, 104 Stat. 576), which provides much-needed money for states to spend on treatment. The other was the ground-breaking Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (42 U.S.C.A. §§ 12112–12117), which has proved to be the most effective weapon against the discrimination that individuals with the disease routinely suffer. Bush also hurried approval by the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION for AIDS-related drugs. Though he supported Americans with the disease, Bush agreed to a controversial ban by Congress on travel and immigration to the United States for people with HIV.

Like his predecessors, President BILL CLINTON called for fighting the disease, rather than the people afflicted with it. In 1993, he appointed the first federal AIDS policy coordinator. He fully funded the Ryan White Care Act, increasing government support by 83 percent, to $633 million, and also increased funding for AIDS research, prevention, and treatment by 30 percent. These measures met most of his campaign promises on AIDS. He reneged on one: despite vowing to lift the ban on HIV-positive ALIENS, he signed legislation continuing it. In addition, he met a major obstacle on another proposal: Congress failed to pass his HEALTH CARE reform package, which would have provided health coverage to all U.S. citizens with HIV, delivered drug treatment against AIDS on demand to intravenous drug users, and prohibited health plans from providing lower coverage for AIDS than for other life-threatening diseases.