The most shocking thing that used to happen

I watched And the Band Played On last night for what seems like the 50th time and was irate with the United States government, the Reagan Administration and the egos of men of science just as I had been since the first time I saw the movie.

I had my heart broken by the stories that were woven together all over again and wanted desperately to know if the country's front line against the spread of the disease really boiled down to a half dozen people at the Centers for Disease Control working on a shoestring budget.

About the only thing that was different with this viewing, the first in a few years, was that at the end, the AIDS epidemic seemed so far away. Honestly, the big realization that hit me was that the three most recent references to the disease were lyrics to a Kanye West song, a South Park episode making fun of Magic Johnson and how his sleeping in a room full of money kept the disease at bay and dated episodes of ER that play on TNT during the late morning hours.

Worse yet, it the ongoing hopper of possible blog fodder, this post was only top three in amongst the animal rights episode of 30 Days tonight and the mixed feelings I have from retiring my old bicycle. It's almost shameful how far I've pushed AIDS from my own stream of consciousness.

AIDS has gone from the forefront of public awareness as a death sentence to something that is manageable here in the U.S. and a disease that ravages small, poor, African nations that the average American can't identify on a map. It took me a few seconds to correctly remember which color ribbon is for AIDS research.

When the movie was released in 1993, I was a sophomore in high school and the Magic Johnson press conference had already taken place. The epidemic had already begun to plateau and even the most sheltered homes in America had come to terms with the disease and how it could and could not be transmitted.

The movie - for better or worse - is a docudrama with very little guidance as to what is fact and what was pure inference. I turned to The Girl during the charged scene where Matthew Modine shouts down into the suits from the nation's bloodbanks who were refusing to test for the disease and told her that I knew that scene was probably made up, but it was still one of my favorite scenes.

The PBS affiliate in Chicago recently ran Out and Proud in Chicago about the history of the homosexual population in the city and a familiar refrain rang out when the AIDS era was discussed - if anyone other than gay men and drug addicts were dying, the government would have jumped in from the start and aggressively fought the disease.

The charges are that because gay people were seen as different and unimportant to most Americans, they became expendable when the AIDS epidemic broke loose in the country's major cities.

While the movie is over a decade old, the themes remain fresh and at the heart of the movie is constant drumbeat that gay rights are human rights and shouldn't need to be legislated or fought for - they should be granted as humans are supposed to respect other humans.

And therein lies the contemporary issue - with fights over gay marriage bills, domestic partner benefits and basic levels of humanity, AIDS may have faded from the front pages, but the climate that allowed the disease to spin out of control is still shamefully present. It's just a matter of degree.

If you think this is an overstatement, I'll just point you to the final few blocks of Chicago's Pride Parade which is fenced off and reserved for protesters who will scream all sorts of filthy things at marchers and many of those things in the name of God. I absolutely refuse to believe that any God worthy of worship wishes death upon anyone dependent on whom they love.

While most of us now have at least one openly gay friend, coworker, classmate or family member, the country still requires its gay citizens to jump through hoops or do without for many of the same things that most of us now take for granted.

While working through to proper legal channels is a wonderful thing, it should at least cause most people to pause and wonder why gay marriage needs to be legislated in the first place. Why it is met with such strong opposition is another question altogether.

Consider this quote: "This is not a political issue. This is not a gay issue. This is a human issue."

Now consider that it came from Roger Gail Lyon's testimony before Congress regarding the AIDS epidemic: "This is not a political issue. This is a health issue. This is not a gay issue. This is a human issue. And I do not intend to be defeated by it. I came here today in the hope that my epitaph would not read that I died of red tape."

Just look at how far we've come.

(Image from: IMDB.com)