they were arresting us the Stonewall
Riots 50 years ago gave birth to the gay
rights movement
it's a decades to reach marriage
equality after nationwide demonstrations
even celebrities becoming activists
medical experts agree that we are in the
midst of an epidemic but was it the AIDS
crisis and it's human toll that really
accelerated gay rights in America
some people say yeah it was but not
without an immense cost it was crushing
it was like nothing else that I had ever
experienced I was like Russian Roulette
we didn't know this painful foot
important story goes back to 1969 but
not to the well-known Stonewall Riots in
New York rather to st. Louis where a
black teenager named Robert Rayford died
of pneumonia at the time nothing that
would make headlines there's no photo of
Robert not even a firm birthday and what
doctors wouldn't figure out until many
years later was that Robert had AIDS
likely making him the first AIDS death
in America 50 years ago and 12 years
before we ever knew what it was
unimaginable from when we started that
we could ever get to the point we're at
today it's been incredible progress but
there's still a lot to do I think that's
what people who sign up doctor courier
researches HIV AIDS at UCLA the same
place that was first to report the
disease in 1981 prompting an alert from
the CDC and sending doctors and the
media scrambling to explain what some
people simply began calling gay cancer
which shows that's a lifestyle of some
male homosexuals has triggered an
epidemic of a rare form of cancer
I had a friend named Bernard who told me
he had gay cancer and I'm like what what
is that and I didn't really understand
and then he was gone do you know what I
mean he died yeah that sort of story
began playing out across the country as
hospitals became overwhelmed by AIDS
especially the one not far from the
Castro San Francisco General where Rita
volunteered and Alison and cliff or does
nurses after the the intensive care
units filled up then we started spilling
over into the regular units the hospital
and so that's when things really got
kind of out of hand actually some nurse
has feared this unknown unnamed disease
so much they wouldn't even go near
someone with AIDS the fear was pervasive
carrying an exposed needle contaminated
needle it's a lot like pointing and
pointing a loaded gun but something
different began to happen at San
Francisco General cliff Morrison saw his
friends getting sick dying and realized
AIDS patients needed a special kind of
care which led to the creation of the
nation's first AIDS ward 5b also the
name of a new documentary the film also
I think starts out with you
revisiting part of it was the hardest
thing about doing that I imagine is
probably tough to separate place from
people hmm
I didn't really think about the power of
that image you know what it was going to
do lost friends along the way in that
place yes what are the factors that
inspired the opening of the unit was the
desire to see that the patients as
people not a just and not a disease how
difficult was that knowing that when
people would come in that you probably
couldn't save their life
it was it was difficult we kind of knew
that but then I think speaking for
myself I had this this hope you know
what it was still relatively early on we
didn't know how the numbers would grow
the numbers the deaths did grow quickly
deep breath in and with them sort of the
fear a sizable majority of Americans
believed that no segment of the general
population will be spared aids you know
this felt like it just felt like the end
of the world I've had the opportunity to
again to kind of revisit the reason why
I'm still working at such a late age
it's because I didn't plan for
retirement just like everybody else I
thought I was going to bed and you
thought you were gonna get AIDS and die
yeah
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despite that fear a growing number of
nurses and doctors in Ward 5 B did
something revolutionary at the time they
touched people with AIDS countering the
belief that you could get AIDS like you
get the flu so somewhere in my
unconscious there was a concern but I
think what overrode that in my
consciousness really was really a
passion to provide care and to somehow
make a difference in the course of this
disease every single day aid kills all
kinds of people randomly this was
hysteria this was fear-mongering this
was craziness and somebody had to stand
up and say you got to stop this this
can't go on the caregivers at 5b were
basically doing their own form of
activism trying to show the world that
AIDS patients deserve to be treated like
everyone else and they spread that
message on national television about dr.
Bober day what are you learning in San
Francisco one of the tragedies of the
disease is that a person can be infected
and feel and appear perfectly healthy
and be contagious at the same time
something was happening outside hospital
walls America's streets as pride parades
grew marches and protests also exploded
right along with the AIDS epidemic the
gay community quickly got the message
about it one of those AIDS activists was
Terry Bestwick photographed here
protesting in front of San Francisco
police the send a message to his LGBTQ
allies Terry is now the executive
director of the GLBT Historical Society
and he made a really important point
during our conversation the AIDS crisis
galvanized the LGBTQ community like
nothing had before not even Stonewall
because up until the 80s discrimination
was tough sure but now discrimination
and Prejudice were actually costing
people's lives in a sense it kind of
like propelled petechiae rights movement
forward because it brought it brought to
the fore the necessity of survival we
were fighting for our love and it forced
our community actually even more out of
the closet and forced us to organize and
fundraise for many organizations now
decades later America has marriage
equality we have medicine which merely
eliminates the risk of contracting HIV
and some of the unsung heroes of the
AIDS crisis it's a walk a Hollywood red
carpet for a documentary about their
work also do you have any idea that
she'd be standing here with and I either
I mean I'm with a real hero like she's
done some stuff you know it has really
change lives
we're really we are all heroes and I
feel like I'm standing here with many
many angels who are no longer here and
that's an important point every person
that we talked to for this story every
single one of them knew at least one if
not dozens of the 35 million people who
died from HIV and AIDS and when I asked
each of them what they hope for the
future they talked about the progress
still yet to be achieved especially when
it comes to the transgender community
and queer people of color and improving
access to care medical care we could go
really long way it just seems to be an
absence of compassion compassion you
know the belief that everybody has a
right to be exactly who they are the big
challenge I think is you know just
looking at how health care is delivered
there's there is disparity in in the
care that that's provided to people of
color in our country we're asking for
our rights and ignoring necessity to
fight for the rights of trans people for
example neither one of us win
[Music]
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