Grid (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, Also Known As "Gay Cancer")

GRID stood for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, an early name used around 1981 for the mysterious collapse of the immune system first observed largely in gay men before its cause was understood. The press also called it "gay cancer" or "gay plague." The name itself was stigmatizing. It defined a disease by the population thought to be affected and reinforced the false idea that being gay was itself a sickness. As it became clear the illness struck many groups, researchers proposed a neutral term, and it was renamed Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, in 1982. GRID is now only historical, but it remains a stark example of how prejudice shaped the slow and damaging early response to the epidemic.