AIDS in the U.S. was first recognized among gay men in the 1980s. It couldn't have happened at a worse time. After a long struggle, American culture had finally begun to accept gay men. There was enormous resistance to HIV risk reduction, which many men saw as a threat to sexual self-expression.
But many gay community leaders spoke out and promoted safe-sex messages. The result was one of the largest and fastest behavior changes in the history of public health -- and a sharp decline in HIV infections among gay men.
These safe-sex messages now are not reaching young men who have sex with men -- especially men who don't consider themselves gay, men of color, and men whose larger communities still stigmatize homosexuality. Such men are far more likely to get, and spread, HIV.
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