The government was not aggressively pouring money into figuring out what this disease was or how to treat it. Groups like Act Up were protesting, there was violence, people were mad...people were dying. President Ronald Reagan did not acknowledge the AIDS crisis and his presidency is judged by many for his lack of leadership during the initial years of the crisis. We were recently reminded of the type of hate that came from the political world when Senator Jesse Helms died. Act Up actually wrapped a condom around his house for his anti-gay remarks and refusal to support AIDS research. It was an angry time. I would like to say some of those wounds are healed, but I don't really know.

A significant source of Reagan's support came from the newly identified religious right and the Moral Majority, a political-action group founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. AIDS became the tool, and gay men the target, for the politics of fear, hate and discrimination. Falwell said "AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals." Reagan's communications director Pat Buchanan argued that AIDS is "nature's revenge on gay men."

In 1985 Rock Hudson died of AIDS and caused a shift in thinking. For one, he was one of the last to be called a "victim." Celebrities began bringing attention to the fight against AIDS and HIV and worked hard to remove the stigma of the disease. Elizabeth Taylor said: "Please God, he has not died in vain".

Today, AIDS and HIV are not a death sentence. I am old enough to remember when it was. I am old enough to have lost friends that died entirely too young. I'm old enough to know that even though HIV is now a "treatable disease" rather than a fatal disease, it is still deadly.

While the number of Americans living with HIV/AIDS has increased year over year thanks to new treatments, it is still a staggering number of deaths each year from the disease.

The latest CDC data shows that African-American men are showing an increase in infection rates. There was a story in the Austin American-Statesman recently about how infection rates are on the rise in both the African-American and Hispanic communities in Austin.

I guess we don't talk a lot about AIDS anymore in the gay community, but just remembering back to 1985 and hearing that song reminded me of the beginnings of AIDS and how far, yet not very far at all we've come with the disease.

If you haven't seen HBO's Angels in America you are missing one of the most moving chronicles of AIDS ever put to film.

For those of you that think AIDS could not affect you, I urge you to practice safe sex and get tested. I get tested every 6 months and some think I wait too long between tests. I would counter that I'm not that sexually active to warrant more frequent testing, but that's a different story altogether.

I tend to worry about the gay youth. I'm afraid they don't know this history. I'm afraid they aren't afraid of HIV/AIDS. I'm afraid they are too relaxed about safe sex. If I'm totally honest, I'm afraid that I'm too relaxed about safe sex.