I recently saw the movie "The Normal Heart" last night and it quite frankly made me cry. It shows the beginning of the HIV/AIDs plague and how it was ignored, and how it was handled in the 80's(the beginning of it in 81' approximately). I was just realizing I was gay myself, then. I was wondering how many have seen this film, it's just released and on HBO currently. It actually showed a few things even I didn't realize had happened. The fact that gay men who died of this disease were not even accepted in the Morgue, nor would anyone perform an Autopsy due to fear. The families and lovers had to come get the bodies of their dead loved ones and place them in plastic garbage bags, put them in the backseat of their cars and find someone who would be willing to cremate, or bury them. When sick gay men were taken to the hospital, doctors and nurses would refuse to treat them of even touch them. That made me angry, I work in medical, and I have HIV+ patients. I knew and remembered the government refused to invest in any type of research, they tried to get a law passed that those HIV+ be tattooed for easy identification of them by others and the talk of putting them in concentration camps. The talks of the gay community being punished by God and deserving it. I know sometimes I get very passionate on these boards, but it is because I remember this type of thing and youngsters do not. I get very frustrate that people just want to forget the pain and fights we went through, instead of celebrating themselves. Has anyone else yet seen this movie? I would recommend it as it did a wonderful job of showing the hate and anger we had about it.
I haven't seen the movie yet but will definitely look out for it. It sounds like a very important film that my daughter should see. I also remember the 80s and the talk about HIV/AIDS being God's punishment for homosexuality and the refusal by the government to back any research. In the late 80s I was nanny for a lady who had lost a good friend to AIDS and she told me of the awful conditions of the medical facility her friend was in and how so many people did not want to touch her friend for fear of picking up AIDS just from skin-to-skin contact.
Yes, I bawled my eyes out. I saw it just after I had come out to my first few people when it first aired. I had an idea of how it was being 31 myself even though I had been bi since 12 and in the closet and in denial until recently. I remember very clearly though when Magic said he had HIV on TV. It made an impression on me at the time, but I still had no idea the depth and breadth involved in the disease. I hadn't been sexually active since 2002 and tested negative for HIV in 2010. However, the movie inspired me to get tested again and have a full panel test at a prominent LGBT center here in Metro Detroit(one you probably know Lipstick Leuger). All negative by the way. 99 problems but an STD isn't one.
