Crisis: Heterosexual Behaviour in the Age of AIDS [antikvár]

PREFACE 1,1 ! V • ' r 1', ••v r AIDS is a frightening disease. The fears engendered by the AIDS epidemic tap into the very roots of our human condition: fear of the unknown, fear of blood, fear of sex, fear of disease, fear of helplessness, fear of desertion and loneliness, fear of death. Such fears are not, of course, entirely irrational. AIDS is a killer, and our uncertainty about the exact magnitude of the AIDS epidemic only magnifies our anxieties. There is also a darker underside to these anxieties. The fears provoked by the AIDS epidemic have led to acts of bigotry, discrimination, callousness, and even de-structiveness. People infected with the AIDS virus have been stigmatized as though they chose to be infected. Entire groups of people—most notably, homosexual and bisexual men and intravenous drug users—have been vilified, cast as expendable commodities best left to the ravages of contagion. Judging from public reactions, many people seem to believe that these pariahs should be wiped from the face of the earth in apt retribution for their social and moral deviance. This is distressing, because it is only by recognizing the dignity of others that . t I ! vn í