Gay Cancer

Gay cancer was an informal and now outdated name used at the very start of the AIDS epidemic. In 1981, doctors reported clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare skin cancer causing purplish lesions, appearing in otherwise healthy young gay men in New York and Los Angeles. A July 1981 New York Times headline read Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals, and the press and public began calling the mystery illness gay cancer. Health officials briefly used the label GRID, for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. As it became clear the disease was caused by a virus (HIV) and affected people of every orientation, it was renamed AIDS in 1982. The earlier term reflects the fear, confusion, and stigma of those first years.