Thread by @LeeWalzer

Thread:
As a gay man, the parallels between the early years of the AIDS epidemic and our current #COVID pandemic r many. Then, as now, there are hostile govs making the situation worse. Reagan never uttered the word AIDS until pressured by the death of his friend, Rock Hudson.

His administration was populated w/homophobes who were indifferent to gay men dying from a disease transmitted primarily thru sex. There was widespread public fear/hostility, too. Many hospitals isolated AIDS patients, even demeaning them as they died.

Most of all, there was so much public stigma directed at people w/HIV-AIDS. So much fear. So much ignorance. Gay men, the primary early victims, were left to suffer alone. Even now, those at risk from #COVID r mocked. washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09…

The gay community came together to care for the sick, to advocate for public health-based measures, and to fight the epidemic. Gay men came to embrace safe-sex practices (& even eroticize them) out of necessity and self-preservation.

While (thankfully) there is not too much stigma against people w/#COVID, there is widespread gov. indifference to combatting the pandemic. Instead, governors like @GovRonDeSantis & @GovAbbott are content to let people die. The fed. gov under Trump tried to hide the scope of COVID

The toll from #COVID, both in the US & around the 🌎, dwarfs the toll from #HIV and #AIDS. Just as the fed. gov. in the 1980s was indifferent, so today are many state governments.

There r differences b/w then and now. For one, the fed. gov has swung into action. There r vaccines. There is extensive knowledge of public health measures (much sooner than was the case w/AIDS). In many parts of the country, the spread of COVID has declined markedly.

Yet in hard-hit states, there is widespread indifference or even mockery of public health. Gay men organized to fight the then-indifference/hostility from gov. They staged vivid public protests thru #ActUp & other groups to demand better from gov.

Why r sensible people in red states not protesting loudly? Why r they not staging Die-ins, parading w/coffins in #Florida and #Texas?

Yesterday, we marked the 20th anniversary of #September11. Nearly 3,000 died that day. Even w/vaccinations, we have had that amount of people dying in a single day from #COVID in the past month, and certainly every 2-3 days. Yet there's nothing.

The loved ones of people w/AIDS created memorial panels to commemorate those lost. The AIDS Memorial Quilt created powerful public awareness. We need a COVID Memorial Quilt to acknowledge the losses we've experienced and to educate. @MarkedByCovid @kdurquiza @FacesOfCOVID