Fiasco: The AIDS Crisis | Episode 3 | The Baths 

I remember reading about Robert Rayford. He was just a child, lived in poverty, had to do sex work to survive and sexual abused. Died when he was 16. Some pedophile pig had sex with an impoverished child and infected him with HIV (a pig regardless, having sex with a child).

Very true. Because of the PC nature of society a lot of things aren't said but should be because as hard as it is to hear, it is history and will help others learn from mistakes. Gay men were highly promiscuous and had unprotected rampant physical relations. Even today the community is highly focused on sex. Just go to a parade and you'll see a large nbr of sexualized clothes, signs, symbols and behavior.

You think the sex stopped because they locked a door? lol

Probably less than Fauci killed by delaying the endorsement of Bactrim prophylaxis for years.

If anything, it became worse because men had to go back to cruising in dark, sketchy outdoor places where safe sex was much more difficult than the baths where condoms and lube were at least available.

​@sharonrigs7999, Why did they have to? Do homosexuals not have the ability to control themselves on any level?

So it seems like a problem with the people and not the method of transfer.

Totally agree. We need to stop politicizing. Everyone was fearful not just the "right".

I’m afraid that the lack of response to AIDS and the resulting state of affairs was used to fear monger and frighten the general public when there was a new “pandemic” on the horizon. Sadly, it won’t be the last time that playbook is used to gradually take every last liberty we have left.

The ridiculous idea of the universe "trying to tell you something" is harmful, in that it informs the opinions of people (apparently, like yourself) who are scarcely affected by the scientific process. Moreover, are you a legal scholar qualified to assess the "constitutional vigor" (whatever that means) of a public policy? What happened in the 1980s and 1990s with the AIDS crisis ought to be considered through a public health lens, to be sure, but also through an understanding of sociology and psychology, which can illuminate the complexity of human motivations. While a critique to the resistance of the closure of the baths is merited based on our understanding of the relevant medical and public health science, I also know what it feels like to grow up in a homophobic society bent on punishing you for your existence. Their responses were not unlike those who pushed back against the slightest guidance about covid prevention protocol and vaccinations. We can extrapolate other situations to reveal the absurdity of your profoundly illogical reasoning. The notion of an interventionist universe that has intent leads to pronouncements that, say, a tornado in the Midwest USA is punishment for the bad choices of an entire population. Should they offer a rain dance to the "heavens" as penance? What immoralities were perpetrated by the dinosaurs to "invite" an asteroid to Earth, ultimately catalyzing their destruction? (Perhaps you are convinced that dinosaurs were a species concocted by evolution-promoting Darwinians?).

Let's compare it to the death toll from heterosexual fornication. That's what, a million babies a year? Most AIDS deaths worldwide are heterosexual too.

Let's compare it to the death toll from heterosexual sex. That's what, a million babies a year? Most AIDS deaths worldwide are heterosexual too.

Let's compare it to the death toll from heterosexual fornication. That's what, a million babies a year?

What?? You mean he had a gun to their heads? No, Dr. Silverman DID think the bathhouses should be closed but knew there were a lot of gay men who wanted them open & felt that closing them was an affront to their lifestyle.

@@julieann4616 Read what you wrote again, until it clicks. AN AFFRONT TO THEIR LIFESTYLE!? Are you for real?!

@@Ranman1 lol yes I do know about Dr. Mervyn Silverman & his role as the Director of Health for San Francisco. I wish I was old enough to have married him, he was hot!!

I agree! The baths should have been shut down from the beginning. So many people needlessly died. So sad 😢!

@@Ranman1 Kinda like how practically it would make sense to institute further gun control in the US nationwide but we never really do, because it's an 'affront to the American lifestyle'.

I agree. Some of the men would have listened. It saved some lives.

I think that should have been pressed further rather than the closure of the bathhouses. It may have been too late for those infected already, but the bathhouses would have been a great place to reach young gay men who didn’t understand the epidemic. I hope the closure helped, but as stated in the episode, these men were most likely engaging in these behaviors in secret places that did not offer an opportunity for safe sex education.