Living

Gay, bi men remain key to HIV epidemic

After 30 years of AIDS, many breakthroughs but infection rates on the rise

Published

15 years ago

June 3, 2011

On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an article in its authoritative journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report that experts now consider the first signal that an unprecedented worldwide epidemic had begun.

“In the period of October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carini pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the patients died,” the MMWR article stated.

“Pneumocystis pneumonia in the United States is almost exclusively limited to severely immunosuppressed patients,” said the article. “The occurrence of pneumocytosis in these 5 previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency is unusual.”

It would take another few years before scientists named the condition detected in the men discussed in that MMWR article as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. The name AIDS followed an earlier term used by some researchers and the media – Gay Related Immune Disorder or GRID.

In reflecting on the tumultuous developments surrounding AIDS over the past 30 years, leaders of AIDS advocacy organizations and LGBT activists in the U.S. who lived through the early years of the epidemic say that, to some extent, the MMWR article of June 1981 still has considerable resonance for gay men.

They acknowledge that so much has changed for the better over the past 30 years, including breakthroughs in biomedical research resulting in highly effective drugs that transformed AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable, chronic illness like diabetes.

But AIDS activists also point out that HIV and AIDS continue to disproportionately impact gay men or men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States and other countries.

And although the perception of AIDS as a “gay disease” has largely receded from the minds of most Americans, AIDS activists say they find themselves in the ironic position of having to remind Congress and state and local governments that more resources and funding are needed for HIV prevention programs targeting gay and bisexual men.

“MSM is the only group for whom, according to the CDC, new infections are still increasing,” said Ronald Johnson, vice president for policy and advocacy for AIDS United, a national group formerly known as AIDS Action.

“So there continues to be a concern that there is not enough targeted prevention resources to MSM, particularly MSM of color and young MSM of all races and ethnicities,” Johnson said.

According to the CDC, while MSM account for about 2 percent of the U.S. population, more than half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. each year (53 percent) occur among MSM. CDC data also show that MSM make up nearly half of all people living with HIV in the U.S. – 48 percent.

CDC figures show that white MSM “account for the largest number of annual new HIV infections of any group in the U.S., followed closely by black MSM,” according to a CDC fact sheet released last month.

“There are more new HIV infections among young black MSM (aged 13-29) than among any other age and racial group of MSM,” the fact sheet says.

The Obama administration, with input from AIDS advocacy organizations, released a National HIV/AIDS Strategy document in July 2010 that, among other things, calls for an aggressive effort to develop better HIV prevention programs targeting MSM.

Johnson and Carl Schmid, deputy executive director of the AIDS Institute, a national advocacy group, praised the administration for developing the strategy document, which they say covers most of the bases needed for addressing HIV prevention programs for MSM.

But the two said the proposals in the strategy document have yet to be fully implemented. They note that delays in its implementation are due, in part, to the U.S. economic situation that has prevented needed increases in federal AIDS funds and severe cutbacks in state and local funding for AIDS-related programs.

Phill Wilson, president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, said in a commentary last week in the Washington Informer, a black community newspaper, that he fears the horrors of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, when friends and family members watched loved ones die due to a lack of effective medical treatment, could return to some degree in the next few years.

According to Wilson, if the federal government fails to boost funding for the federal-state AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), low income people who rely on the program to provide them the medications they need keep the AIDS virus in check could become casualties just as their predecessors became casualties years earlier. But this time, he said, an inability to gain access to medicine due to funding shortfalls would be responsible for their fate at a time when effective medicine is readily available.

He called such an outcome “immoral.”

The ADAP program was created under the Ryan White AIDS Care Act to provide life-sustaining drugs for low-income people with HIV and AIDS who are under insured or don’t have any health insurance to help pay for the drugs.

ADAP funding cuts by states and a large increase in the number of people applying for ADAP assistance has resulted in nearly 8,000 people being placed on state waiting lists for the AIDS drugs they need to remain healthy.

The health insurance reform law that President Obama proposed and Congress passed two years ago was expected to relieve the ADAP funding pressure on states when it takes effect in 2014. However, some states that oppose the law have filed lawsuits seeking to prevent its provision requiring all citizens to buy some form of health insurance from going into effect, making its outcome uncertain.

Nearly all AIDS advocacy groups support the law, saying it would strengthen medical care for large numbers of people with HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an arm of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has been the leading federal government official monitoring the AIDS epidemic and directing AIDS-related research since the disease burst on the scene in 1981.

In a speech commemorating the 30th anniversary of AIDS at NIH headquarters in Rockville, Md., on Tuesday, Fauci said he’s optimistic that an AIDS vaccine can be developed in the near future.

“We have scientific evidence that a safe and effective HIV vaccine is possible,” he said in a statement released on May 18.

“In 2009, a clinical trial in Thailand involving 16,000 people demonstrated for the first time that a vaccine could safely prevent HIV infection in a modest proportion of study participants,” he said. “Many of the best minds in HIV vaccine science are examining blood samples and data from the Thai trial to learn how the vaccine candidate prevented HIV infections and to consider how it could be modified to be more effective.”

Fauci said NIAID is also optimistic about development within the next few years of effective vaginal and rectal microbicides that can be used to prevent the transmission of HIV during sexual contact.

Fauci and other researchers have also pointed to studies showing the effectiveness to a certain degree of prescribing HIV drugs for use by non-infected people believed to be at high risk for HIV infection, such as men who have sex with men.

Known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, the use of this prevention measure is said to have the drawback of being less effective if people fail to take the drug as required. Some also have expressed concern that people using this prevention method are subject to potential side effects of the drugs and may be discouraged from using condoms, which experts say is one of the most effective methods of HIV prevention.

Events and developments in the early years of AIDS

• 1981: The CDC reports in its June 1981 edition of MMWR and subsequent editions that year that an estimated 170 gay men had succumbed to Pneumocystis carini pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma, a rare skin cancer, over the preceding two years. The CDC studies of these cases cited a serious malfunctioning of the body’s immune system in those who contracted the conditions.

• 1982: Gay Related Immune Disorder, or GRID, became the first name to describe what is now known as AIDS. Cases reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., moving beyond clusters of gay men in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and into groups with no obvious risk factors.

• 1983: Gay leaders, independent medical researchers and health and social services agency officials testify before a congressional committee that the federal response to AIDS was highly inadequate. They issue a plea for the federal government and the Reagan administration to increase federal funding and federal initiatives to fight AIDS.

• 1985: In late July, actor Rock Hudson stunned the nation when he issued a statement saying he had AIDS and was receiving treatment in Paris that he said he couldn’t get in the U.S. He died three months later at age 59. His announcement and death drew massive mainstream media attention to AIDS. His death prompted his close friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, to help found the American Foundation for AIDS Research to raise funds for AIDS causes.

• 1988: The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt makes its second trip to Washington in the spring, where it’s displayed on the Ellipse near the White House. Later that year, about 1,100 AIDS activists staged a protest at the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in suburban Maryland outside D.C., denouncing the FDA for taking too long to approve new drugs for people with AIDS. Police arrested at least 176 of the protesters after they blocked access to the FDA building’s main entrance.

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Autos

Hot hatchbacks: Honda Civic, Subaru Impreza

Two fun and functional rides

Published

4 hours ago

July 19, 2026

Joe Phillips

Honda Civic

The latest Honda Civic hatchback and Subaru Impreza are two of the segment’s stars. Both offer sensible pricing, excellent utility and enough personality to avoid feeling like appliances.

The Civic is more polished. The Impreza, more rugged. Luckily, neither is trying to be obnoxiously flashy.

HONDA CIVIC

$28,000

MPG: 30 city/38 highway

0 to 60 mph: 8.9 seconds

Cargo space: 24.5 cu. ft.

PROS: Fuel efficient. Spacious cargo area. Good resale value.

CONS: No all-wheel drive. Fussy infotainment. Low rear headroom.

WHAT’S NEW: Only minor updates for 2026. The biggest change carries over from last year’s refresh: the addition of the hybrid, which has become a star performer.

The Honda Civic hatchback won’t scream for attention. It won’t arrive wearing sequins and carrying a smoke machine. It’s more like Nomi Marks from “Sense8”: intelligent, sophisticated and impressively capable.

The styling remains handsome and clean. Long hood. Low roofline. Crisp lines everywhere.Honda resisted the urge to make this vehicle look like a spaceship or an angry robot. That’s refreshing.

Inside, the dashboard is simple and elegant. The honeycomb air-vent treatment remains one of the coolest interior details in the segment. Materials feel expensive. Controls are easy to understand. And visibility is excellent.

I love how the cargo space is generous, with rear seats that fold flat. A bicycle, several suitcases or enough supplies for an ambitious weekend road trip fit without much hassle.

Then there’s the hybrid. The system produces a healthy amount of power while delivering fuel economy that borders on the absurd. Around town, handling feels smooth, quiet and surprisingly quick. You almost glide through traffic. The standard gasoline engine isn’t bad, but the hybrid is stellar.

The Civic also shines on twisty roads. Steering is precise. Body motions stay controlled. The suspension strikes a sweet balance between comfort and sportiness.

Biggest weakness? No all-wheel drive. For drivers in snowy climates, that’s not so good.

Still, the Civic’s stellar combination of efficiency, quality, and driving enjoyment remains incredibly hard to beat.

SUBARU IMPREZA

$27,000

MPG: 27 city/33 highway

0 to 60 mph: 8.5 seconds

Cargo space: 20.4 cubic feet

PROS: All-wheel drive. User-friendly tech. Safety cred.

CONS: No hybrid version. Some road noise. Modest cargo room.

WHAT’S NEW: The Impreza receives relatively minor updates for 2026. Subaru continues refining this hatchback rather than reinventing it.

If the Honda Civic is urbane, the Subaru Impreza is unfussy. There’s a kind of Kristen Stewart energy here. Cool without trying too hard.

The styling isn’t dramatic, but it works. This hauler appears ready to tackle rain, snow, dirt roads or an impromptu weekend escape.

And all-wheel drive comes standard on every Impreza. (Most competitors only offer front-wheel drive or include all-wheel drive as a pricey option.)

The result: Slippery roads simply don’t create much anxiety. The suspension absorbs bumps nicely. Long trips are comfortable. Visibility is great, thanks to relatively thin roof pillars and large windows.

I like how the cabin is functional rather than fancy. Materials don’t quite match the Civic’s upscale vibe, but everything feels sturdy. A large infotainment screen dominates the dashboard and generally works well, though some drivers may prefer more physical buttons.

Cargo space is respectable, and the design makes loading bulky items easy.

Performance depends heavily on trim. The base engine gets the job done, but nobody will confuse it for a sports car. The RS trim’s larger engine provides more power and makes the ride livelier. But even then, acceleration remains merely adequate.

The Impreza’s real appeal lies elsewhere, with a mix that few rivals can match: hatchback practicality, standard all-wheel drive, strong safety scores and reasonable pricing.

Perhaps that’s the key difference between these two hatchbacks. The Honda Civic impresses immediately. The Subaru Impreza grows on you.

Fortunately, choosing between them is less stressful than deciding who gets the last mimosa at brunch.

Real Estate

When buying a home, it’s decisions, decisions, decisions

Keeping notes on the process makes for an informed purchase

Published

5 hours ago

July 19, 2026

Joseph Hudson

If you’re buying a home, take careful notes throughout the process. (Photo by Andy Dean Photography/Bigstock)

When looking to buy a home, there are lots of details to consider. Many of my clients would come to me and say, “Joe I want to buy a place, but I haven’t decided which neighborhood to buy in.” And the struggle was real. A few clients had everything decided from the color of the hallway walls to the cabinet handles and sometimes which three square blocks they wanted to look at.

But other clients were occasionally looking at properties in areas as distinct as Union Market/NOMA, Brookland, Logan Circle, and then we would even go across the river to look at a property in Shirlington or the Van Dorn areas of Virginia, which all have their own unique flavor and characteristics.

Sometimes clients would tell me, “I only want to look in Mount Pleasant or Adams Morgan.” Or, “don’t even show me any properties west of this street or south of that street.” My job wasn’t to convince people where to live. It was to just take the parameters they set for me and find as good of a property in that zone as I could, coordinate the showings and, if necessary, offer the strategy.

One can see that buyers often had more decisions to make than a seller. From a seller’s perspective, the house was where it was, and we just had to make the best of it. But working with a buyer could mean looking at five different neighborhoods, and then being a “thought partner” to help them figure out which were the top two or three areas they had seen, and then further distilling those down into what was available and weighing those options against each other.

One house could have the dream bathroom but also be located six blocks further from a Metro stop, walkable shopping and dining, and “just too far away from my friends.” Another house could have all the neighborhood options a client was looking for, but was just not in turnkey condition, and would require an additional $30,000 of upgrades once purchased to make it into the dream home they envisioned.

One activity I often asked buyers to do was to keep an active list in their heads of the properties they liked, and to keep a running rank of the top three. I often encouraged them to bring a notebook along on the journey where they could take notes and write down questions they thought of as they looked. It was an important decision, and sometimes the largest purchase of their lives. Why not take it a little seriously, and take notes? This could often help the buyer later when they felt it was time to decide.

The point here is, keeping a notebook handy can sometimes help a person with what feels like an overwhelming process. It provides a space to explore how one feels, jot down important details to remember, and then use that to make an informed decision.

Joseph Hudson is a referral agent with RLAH. Reach him at 703-587-0597 or [email protected].

Real Estate

Under-the-radar Delaware beach towns smart buyers are targeting

There are other options if Rehoboth prices are scaring you off

Published

2 weeks ago

July 5, 2026

Justin Noble

If you want to escape the crowds and nightlife scene of Rehoboth Beach, Sussex County offers plenty of options. (Blade file photo by Daniel Truitt)

Look, we love Rehoboth. We will always love Rehoboth. Queer folks have been flocking there since the 1940s, and with scores of LGBTQ-owned businesses and a Pride calendar packed tighter than the boardwalk in July, “Rehomo” earned its crown fair and square.

But let’s be honest with each other: trying to buy property there right now feels a lot like trying to get a reservation at the one good restaurant in town on a Saturday in August. Everyone wants in, inventory is tighter than your swim trunks after Labor Day brunch, and the prices have officially entered “are you kidding me” territory.

So here’s a thought: What if you didn’t fight the crowd? What if, instead, you let Rehoboth keep doing its glorious, chaotic, glitter-bomb thing and you quietly built your beach life 15 minutes away for considerably less drama and considerably more square footage? Here are four towns ready for their close-up.

Lewes: The Charming Overachiever

Lewes is what happens when a beach town actually has its life together. Historic charm, walkability, proximity to Cape Henlopen State Park, less crowding, and a strong year-round community. Unlike towns that turn into ghost towns after Labor Day, Lewes maintains a real community all year long, which is more than we can say for some situationships.

And right now, the market is practically begging you to make a move. It’s one of the most desirable and stable markets in the county — built for buyers thinking long-term, not flippers, and Sussex County overall has flipped into genuine buyer’s market territory for the first time in years. Translation: you finally get to be the one with leverage.

Bethany Beach: My Personal Pick

Full disclosure: I own in Bethany. So consider this section a little biased — and also the most honest thing I’ll tell you in this whole article.

When I drive down from D.C., I’m not looking for more of D.C. I love this city, but I also love leaving it — and yes, some of the people in it too (you know who you are, and so do I). Bethany gives me that full exhale. It’s quiet in the way that actually means something: fewer crowds, slower mornings, a soundtrack that’s mostly waves instead of nightlife. It leans hard into its “quiet resort” reputation, with low property taxes and a limited geographic footprint, and it is not the least bit sorry about it.

But quiet doesn’t mean isolated. I’ve got a genuinely excellent food scene nearby, real shopping, and a string of charming neighboring beach towns — and when I do want a taste of Rehoboth’s energy, it’s a short, easy drive away. I get to choose my dose of chaos instead of living inside it.

And here’s the part that matters most for this article: the price. If you’ve looked at Rehoboth listings and quietly closed the tab in despair, I need you to hear this — you can absolutely afford a beach house. It just doesn’t have to be in Rehoboth. Bethany’s average home value sits around $848,592, which is still real money, no question — but it buys you more house, more land, and more peace than the same budget gets you closer to the boardwalk. Bethany is welcoming too, just without Rehoboth’s decades of built-in queer institutional history — and for plenty of us, that trade-off is more than worth it.

Fenwick Island: Small Town, Big Flex

Fenwick rarely gets mentioned and, frankly, it should be insulted. It’s tiny, it’s quiet, and it has beach access without the carnival energy. The market data tends to lump it in with Bethany, where single-family oceanfront homes clear $1 million while entry-level condos start in the $600s — proof that “under-the-radar” doesn’t mean “bargain bin,” it means “fewer people fighting you for it.”

South Bethany: For the Boat Gays

Some of us want sand between our toes. Others want a private dock and a boat named something deeply unserious. South Bethany’s canal communities are built for the latter — water access on both sides, fewer crowds, and a lifestyle that says, “I have a captain’s hat and I am not afraid to wear it.”

The Math Works in Your Favor Now

Here’s the part that should really get your attention: Sussex County’s median sold price has dropped to $440,000, down 3.3% year-over-year, and buyers are routinely closing around 88 cents on the dollar compared to asking price. That’s a far cry from the unhinged bidding wars of 2021 and 2022, when overpaying was basically a competitive sport. Inventory across the county sits at nearly 2,500 active listings — the most of any county in Delaware, meaning you actually get to be picky for once. Revolutionary, we know.

And no, choosing one of these towns doesn’t mean leaving your people behind. Sussex Pride serves the entire county, not just Rehoboth proper, and CAMP Rehoboth’s resources extend well beyond town limits too. You’re not exiling yourself to the suburbs of queerness — you’re just getting a bigger kitchen, a quieter porch, and a much shorter line for the bathroom.

Add in the fact that Delaware has no estate tax and some of the lowest property taxes around, savings that genuinely add up over a retirement horizon, and the case writes itself. Rehoboth will always be the beating, sequined heart of queer beach culture in Delaware. But if you’ve been telling yourself a beach house isn’t in the cards — I’m here to tell you it absolutely is. It just might be 15 minutes south, with your own quiet porch, your own salt air, and considerably more room to breathe.

Have a real estate question or Rehoboth market tip? Reach out to [email protected] for LGBTQ-friendly real estate resources in the Rehoboth area.

Justin Noble is a Realtor licensed in D.C., Maryland, and Delaware with Monument Sotheby’s International Realty. Reach him at [email protected] or 302-897-7499.