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概述-歷史記載
Introduction
- Historical Notes |
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廣泛流行的愛滋病-三藩市流行的愛滋病1 |
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三藩市，這個以其秀麗而著名的美國城市，有適宜的氣候和寬容的社會風土人情。她於1950年代吸引著“巡迴”詩人紛至遝來，1960年代又吸引著“嬉皮士”和“鮮花兒童”的腳步。1970年代，她曾經是全美國各地、甚至許多其他國家的同性戀者和雙性戀者青睞的目的地。從而，三藩市不久就成了“世界同性戀之都”。在那裏，男同性戀者和女同性戀者取得了相當大的社會和政治上的成功，他們/她們的性烏托邦似乎會成為現實。 然而，1980年代早期，當第一批新的、神秘的病例在加州和紐約被報導的時候，不期而至的災難便展開了帷幕。後來，這種疾病開始被稱為愛滋病（AIDS），但是起初它沒有名字而且困擾著每一個人，包括醫生也迷惑不解。隨著病例數量的增加，人們開始認識到它是有傳染性的，它是通過性接觸傳播的，它能夠致死人命的，而且它似乎專門感染男性同性戀者。確實，普通大眾開始把它看作是"男同性戀病"，認為它只局限在三藩市和其他彙集有大量同性戀者人口的城市。
面對這個日益令人恐懼的局面，組織嚴密的三藩市男同性戀社團齊心協力，制定出預防和治療的開拓性計畫，它成了美國其他城市的範本，最後為其他國家所效仿。
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The
AIDS Pandemic
- AIDS in San Francisco I |
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The American city of San Francisco, famous for its beauty, culture, good weather, and tolerant social climate, had attracted the ”beat“ poets in the 1950s and the “hippies“ and “flower children” in the 1960s. In the 1970s, it was the favourite destination of homosexuals and bisexuals from all over the country and indeed from many other countries. Thus, San Francisco soon became the “gay capital of the world”. There, gays and lesbians made considerable social and political gains, and their dreams of a sexual utopia seemed to be coming true.
However, in the early 1980s an unexpected tragedy began to unfold as the first cases of a new, mysterious disease were reported in California and in New York. This disease later came to be known as AIDS, but at first it had no name and puzzled everyone, including the doctors. As the number of cases increased, people began to realize that it was contagious, that it was sexually transmitted, that it could be deadly, and that it especially seemed to affected gay men. Indeed, the general public came to think of it as a “gay disease” which would restrict itself to San Francisco and other cities with large homosexual populations.
In this increasingly frightening situation, the well-organized San Francisco gay community pulled together and developed pioneering programs of prevention and care that became models for other American cities and, eventually, for other countries and the world.
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