It's a Sin - AIDS in the 80's - Real life examples

[smellywellies9]

I have just finished watching It's a Sin and it's really hit me hard, I was born early 80's and had no idea how AIDS victims were treated back then, I feel like this has almost been hidden from us.
I would be really keen to hear some real life stories from people older than myself who lived through this. Things that have shocked me:
They were imprisoned in hospital wards with no one allowed in or out.
Homosexuals were not allowed a mortgage in the 80's and possibly 90's?
People use to destroy all cups etc that homosexuals had touched for fear of catching it.
The general ignorance from the government on this.
The attitude from the general public, were people really that cruel??

Take a look at The Aids Memorial on Instagram, it has stories of victims from those who knew them and have chosen to share their stories.

@SushiSoozie

Just because you personally didn't know about it doesn't mean anything has been hidden.

And don't believe everything on a tv show as gospel. "Homosexuals" have been getting mortgages since mortgages existed. Nobody was imprisoned on hospital wards with no one allowed in or out (didn't you even see people visiting on the show, fgs?)

If you are interested, ask questions of those of us who live through it. Don't take a drama series as fact. It is based on fact, sure, but its not as cut and dried as you seem to think.

Gay men were unable to gain mortgages until fairly recently, people who had a HIV test were banned by many providers, other providers then started to offer mortgages but only with proof of a negative HIV status.

Some AIDS patients were locked in hospital wards, look at Brompton hospital.

suggest you read In the absence of Angels by Elizabeth Glaser it was about her fight for treatment for AIDs for her child and herself in the early days and how they were treated by friends. Her husband was "Starsky" from Starsky and Hutch

Gay men were unable to gain mortgages until fairly recently

You know that's not true, right? My gay uncle had a mortgage in the 1950'S!

So you’d rather hide what happened? So we can repeat it?

No, I'd rather people didn't come on flaunting their ignorance, talking nonsense, and asking for peoples real life experiences of extreme trauma as if they were asking for the time of day.

None of its been hidden. Just because some younger people don't know anything about it, because they haven't paid attention, doesn't mean anything is hidden.
Have you not even watch Philidelphia, or the Normal Heart? And the band played on, Longtime companion, The Dallas Buyers Club....none of them?

How can anyone be unaware?

I know two people who have disclosed positive HIV status' to me - I did use to work in very much in a field related to sexual health.

One is a gentleman in his early 60s, diagnosed 20 years ago, and another one is was diagnosed in his early 20s and is now in his early 30s - their stories are wildly different but both are "well' if that makes sense. They have both faced discrimination and I personally believe they always will.

There are still some issues getting mortgages with a positive HIV status - just like their are issues getting a mortgage sometimes with other illnesses.

One of the things that struck me from watching the series is that history hasn't actually made us a population change our behaviour much - we saw similar behaviours, particularly from the members of the public, when coronavirus first emerged. These were mostly aimed at the South Asian populations.

It’s true about aids patients and mortgages - if a pp knows their gay uncle had a mortgage in the 50s, that was pre-AIDS and when mortgage companies wouldn’t ask about sexual preference - being gay was a crime until 1967, so they’d probably have a different question for you like “are you a criminal” to cover off all criminal activities. They did for partner’s mortgage last year anyway!

yes, aids patients and mortgages, of course that would be a (pretty normal) reason to deny a mortgage. You can still get a mortgage if you are HIV positive, although it's harder.
Being gay was never a crime. Certain sexual acts were crimes. It's not at all the same thing.

HIV is an entirely controllable infection now. You can't pass it on if your partner takes Prp, a pill.

But in the 80s it wasn't fixable cos no one knew what the infection was - bar a new virus. Remind you of anything? Docs thought it was cancer, pneumonia, you name it.

The social prejudice story was that gays had brought it upon themselves though being, er, gays +

3so it served them right - society uses illness as a metaphor for social punishment quite a lot.

Aids is a massive, massive deal, still, in the gay community because so many people were told they were going to die. Some did, but mostly they didn't.

A lot of gay over-40s had to rebuild their lives after getting a surprise death sentence that turned out to be a false alarm. You can see why it's such an emotional thing even today.

Everything on Its A Sin is true apart from the suggestion thst gay people couldn't get mortgages but they did ask about HIV tests for mortgages then.

Thanks for all the helpful replies, really interesting!

Surprised my question caused any offence, I wasn't asking to hear people's gory stories, just interested to hear what it was like back then. I have read a lot of articles etc but always good to hear real life stores.

Definitely not the Daily Fail, hate everything about them!!

@ThisIsNotARealAvo

There was definitely issues with getting mortgages or life insurance if you had had an HIV test.

This is true and put people off having a test.

I remember being asked about it when I applied for a mortgage in 1987.

It is still true regarding HIV testing though, it affects many things and not just mortgages (travel, visas, employment etc.)

This is true and put people off having a test

I and the people I knew would go to the clinics and use any old name. Never to your own doctor using your own!

People certainly did think you could catch AIDS from touching someone who had it. It’s not such a way-out belief when you think we were all being vaccinated for TB at the time (taking 80s here) which you can catch from close proximity to someone. We just didn’t know better. Now we do.

Future generations will looks back at our handling of Covid and be aghast in the same way. They will know a lot more about it than we do now.

People certainly did think you could catch AIDS from touching someone who had it.

Indeed. This is why Princess Diana shaking hands with HIV-positive people without gloves was such a huge deal at the time.

I applied for a life insurance and mortgage in 2002 and was asked if I had ever had a HIV test or engaged in homosexual behaviour. I’m a straight woman. My boyfriend at the time, who I was buying with, was also asked. I haven’t been asked subsequent times though.

Also, I was born in 1979. I distinctly remember sitting in the doctors waiting room and there being lots of posters and leaflets ‘warning’ about AIDS. They were very scary to see, real scaremongering. My mum wouldn’t discuss it when I asked.

@SushiSoozie

yes, aids patients and mortgages, of course that would be a (pretty normal) reason to deny a mortgage. You can still get a mortgage if you are HIV positive, although it's harder. Being gay was never a crime. Certain sexual acts were crimes. It's not at all the same thing.

So it was still de facto illegal to be openly gay.

As a child I believed you could catch aids by touching someone. I remember the scaremongering. It was Mark Fowler’s storyline on Eastenders that made me realise it was just unprotected sex and blood sharing!

So it was still de facto illegal to be openly gay

No it wasn't.

I was born in 1978. I can remember the tv health campaigns re AIDS and in particular the one that ended with a close-up of a gravestone. It was really shocking and frightening. I didn’t have a clue what it was about other than some new illness. Parents didn’t generally discuss it. I can remember children at school would sometimes joke “ugh, he’s got AIDS” etc without knowing what they were saying.

I do wonder if the more hard-hitting Covid adverts have the same effect on our children. Something bewildering that is killing adults and changing their whole way of living. That’s why I have explained at length to mine what it’s all about and reassured them that they are incredibly unlikely to catch it.

@SushiSoozie

So it was still de facto illegal to be openly gay

No it wasn't.

How? If you were a gay man and were or had been in a relationship with another man, you could be arrested. You might be okay if you were celibate I suppose, at least in the eye of the law if not society.

@NastyBlouse

People certainly did think you could catch AIDS from touching someone who had it.

Indeed. This is why Princess Diana shaking hands with HIV-positive people without gloves was such a huge deal at the time.

Princess Diana did a massive thing there and it outweighs all the silly or dubious things she may or may not have done before or after.