All language subtitles for remux-The.Eighties.S01E06.WEBRip.x264-ION10_track3_[eng]

Rivera: A mysterious
newly discovered disease.

The most frightening
medical mystery of our time.

Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome.

Incidents double
every six months.

Apuzzo:
How many must die

for this administration
to wake up?

When it comes to preventing
AIDS, don't medicine

and morality teach
the same lessons?

[ Spectators booing ]

Dow: AIDS victims are
becoming increasingly impatient.

Kramer: This is the first case
in history

where the afflicted people are
taking charge of the epidemic.

Norville: Demonstrators
tried to break

into the government's
biomedical research agency.

Hopefully, I can be around
long enough for a cure.

♪♪

Man: It used to be
that it was something to hide.

But last October,

the homosexuals
of this country

publicly proclaimed

themselves to be the newest
legitimate minority.

Jones: How many
of you have heard from behind,

"Hey, faggot.

Hey, dike."

That is why we are here tonight,

and we will not be stopped.

[ Cheers and applause ]

The right of homosexuals

to organize,
like any other minority,

seeking to further
its own interests

is no longer in question.

The question is,
"What will those interests be?"

♪♪

Crile: The estimates of gays
in San Francisco range

from 12% of the city

to 25%.

Jones: San Francisco attracted
a lot

of gay men,
different ethnicities

and racial backgrounds,

very young
and highly sexualized.

To walk down Castro street,
my street,

in 1980,

it could sometimes take a half
an hour to walk a block,

because I knew everybody.

Man: The average gay man
here has had sexual encounters

with at least 500 different men.

28% with more than 1,000.

Crile: Burleigh, the last time
we talked, you said,

"Never in the history
of the world

has there been so much sex
available to men,

as there is for gay men
in San Francisco."

I think
that's probably true.

I don't there's any question
that that's true.

And what's the consequence
of that?

I can't answer that.

What were these?
Capazzi? Kapozi?

A rare
and deadly form of cancer

has shown up
in 41 homosexual men,

and the situation
has created concern

among public health officials.

Levine: The disease
isn't considered contagious,

but officials
at the National Center

For Disease Control

want homosexual men
and their physicians

to be aware of it.

Dr. Guinan:
I was working at the Centers
of Disease Control

in the sexually
transmitted diseases division.

In the early 1980s,

physicians
started calling us to say,

"We've seen these gay men
who are dying,

and we don't have any idea
what's wrong with them.

Is this some new disease
going around?"

Engel: Young,
sexually active gay men

were coming down
with bizarre diseases

that one didn't normally
associate with that age group.

PCP pneumonia and a rare form
of skin cancer, Kaposi sarcoma.

Dr. Guinan: Finally,

Michael Gottlieb from UCLA

had seen a number
of these patients,

and he was the first one
that noted

that their immune system
seemed to be compromised.

Dr. Gottlieb:
It was a very striking,
epidemiologic phenomena.

I was pretty sure
this was something new,

and I wanted to get it
into print.

Jones:
I was quite struck by it.

I actually clipped it out

and put it on my bulletin board

and wrote over it, "Just
when things were looking up."

So far, doctors have
only documents 60 known cases

among gay men,
so it is by no means

an epidemic.

Little did we know, this was
the very tip of the iceberg,

and there was a lot
of ice below the surface

to come up very shortly.

Scientists
at the National Centers

for Disease Control in Atlanta
today released the results

of a study,

which shows that the lifestyle

of some male homosexuals
have triggered an epidemic.

Bazell: Bobbi Campbell
of San Francisco

and Billy Walker of New York
both suffer from a mysterious,

newly discovered disease,

which affects mostly
homosexual men.

Our best guess

is that it's somehow
related to the gay lifestyle.

I was in the fast lane
at one time,

in terms of the way
that I lived my life,

and now I'm not.

Bazell:
Researchers know of 413 people

who have contracted
the condition in the past year.

One third have died
and none have been cured.

Dr. Curran:
All of us who saw patients

in those days

shared a sense of desperation,

as we saw more
and more people become affected.

And there'd simply be no home
once they became ill.

What is killing
these people?

What's killing them
is a severe,

perhaps,
and very profound

and maybe even permanent break
down of their immune system.

-That's caused --
-That's caused by

either some transmissible
infection

or a combination of other
environmental exposures.

And right now,
you gentlemen

here in Atlanta

are frantically searching
for this agent,

if there is one,
that's causing this disease,

and we certainly wish you luck
in finding it.

Dr. Francis: Number one was
to figure out was it is.

In epidemiology
it's always the "who,

what, where, and why."

And so, we got teams
of CDC folks to go out,

interview these people,
and find out

why they would have gotten it
and what was the risk factors.

Peterson: It appeared a year ago
in New York's gay community,

then in San Francisco
and Los Angeles.

Now, it's been detected
in Hassan refugees.

No one knows why.

And in heavy drug users,
especially in New York City.

No one knows why.

And in some people
with hemophilia,

a disease
that prevents blood clotting

so the patients needs
frequent blood transfusions.

Why just certain
geographic areas?

Why just certain groups?

And most frightening,
the possibility

that it can be transmitted
from person to person,

virtually a contagious form

of cancer.

Specialists argued
that millions of dollars

should be spent
for research now.

But there is almost no money
being spent, so far.

On "After Eight" this morning,

a puzzling disease
that is spreading.

It's called A-I-D-S, AIDS.

It breaks down the body's
immune system,

and 400 people are dead from it.

With me in New York
is Larry Kramer,

co-founder of The Gay Men's
Health Crisis Taskforce.

How many friends have you lost
to this disease?

20.

-20?
-Yes.

And you have some more friends
who are sick?

Very ill.

Jane, can you imagine
what it must be like

if you lost 20
of your friends...

-No.
-...in the last 18 months?

And you don't know why?

Nobody knows.

Three years later,

as little is known
as three years ago,

when all of this started.

Do you know if you have it?

There might be a time
bomb inside of me,

we may have all been
exposed to it

and have some kind
of immunity to it.

Again, no one knows.

Dr. Jaffe,
what happens if years pass

and you still don't know
what it is,

what causes it, much less
how to cure it?

Well, we hope
that doesn't happen, but, uh --

But if it does?

We're going to be
in for a big problem.

-Who's "we?"
-All of us.

Announcer:
Come to Man's Country,
see what we're all about

and what we have to offer.

Come to Man's Country
and develop your body,

or a friendship
with somebody else's.

Visit us once
and you'll come again

and again.

Taylor:
I honestly am not sure

that the public
was as aware of the fact

that even bath houses existed
or what went on there,

and I'm talking
about the straight population.

Man: Gay bath
houses are widely considered

as sex clubs, places

where homosexual men
share sex often

with several partners
whom they may or may not know.

Jones:
There was a lot of sex going on,

but there was also
a lot of socializing.

Going to the bathes
was a weakly event

that most of us enjoyed
quite a bit.

Staley: I was a closeted bond
trader on Wall Street,

leading a double life.

And it was behind closed doors,

and it felt regulated,
very safe, very commercial,

where you'd
walk around in towels

and see hot men in towels.

Kramer:
Guys, until we know better,
cool it.

Lay off the number
of people

you are having sex
with until we know better,

because if it is a virus

and it is sexually transmitted,

it is passing between us,
so let's cool it for a while.

It was an enormous amount
of denial.

France: Larry Kramer's
most famous essay,

"1,112 And Counting,"

started out by saying,

"If this article

doesn't scare the shit
out of you, then it should."

Specter:
Larry basically anticipated
what was going to happen,

and he was shunned.

These people

who were just feeling
the vigor of freedom

were told, "Everything
you're doing is killing you."

And these bath houses,
where there's lots of sex

with different partners
who you don't even know,

that's the worst thing possible.

Feinstein: I don't believe

that this city has any business

permitting businesses to operate

whose sole source of being

is the very activity
that communicates the disease.

Dr. Silverman:
Dianne Feinstein wanted
me to close the bath houses.

And she basically said,
"If you can save just one life,

it's worth closing them."

There are still number of people

who refuse to believe
that the problem exists,

and what we're talking about is
playing Russian roulette.

I got a call one day from Cleve,

and he said to me, "Merv,

if you close the bath houses,

I'm going to man
the barricades."

Jones: I did not want them to be
shut down by the government.

I mean, what's next,
we going to close the bars?

I mean,
I don't think it was unrealistic

to be frightened
of government action against us

during a period

where we had only just recently
been de-criminalized.

It is the most frightening
medical mystery of our times.

AIDS has spread worldwide.

But apparently it began
in equatorial Africa

and somehow spread to Haiti,

and from Haiti,
to the The United States.

Scientists strongly suspect
it is a virus.

All the evidence
indicates it can be transmitted

only by sexual contact
or mixing of blood.

Rivera: To every single
one of us

who may need a blood transfusion

because of an accident
or operation,

there is now
a steadily growing fear

that the nation's
entire blood supply

may be threatened by AIDS.

Rucker:
Last year, a baby

received a blood transfusion
from this bank

and developed AIDS.

Records indicated
the donor was a homosexual.

Some doctors believe,

the best precaution might be
to restrict all homosexuals

from donating blood,

until more is known about AIDS.

We realized
that gay men

had to get out
of the blood-collecting system,

and so we called a meeting
to make that recommendation.

Rivera: The Red Cross,

the commercial blood companies,

and The Center
for Disease Control

have joined in asking the groups

who are at risk

not to donate
or sell their blood.

With new AIDS cases
being reported

at the rate of 4 to 6
every single day,

the purity of the nation's
blood supply

has literally become a matter
of life and death.

Dr. Curran:
Once the epidemiologic
pattern was clear

that this was caused by a virus,

the race was
on to find the virus.

Dr. Fauci: The two labs,
The Montagnier lab

at the Institut Pasteur in Paris

and Bob Gallo's lab at the NIH,

the National Cancer Institute,

were both trying to show

that not only
do we have the virus,

but we have absolute proof

that it's the virus
causing the disease.

Dr. Gallo: I think healthy
competition is very useful.

It sparks you.
It sparks creativity.

Engel:
We wanted to be able to say,
"We had cracked

this, not the French."

The probable cause
of AIDS has been found --

a variant of a known
human cancer virus.

And Heckler called a press
conference

and said, "We've done it. The
Americans have discovered it.

We are so proud
of our American scientists."

Heckler: We now have a blood
test for AIDS.

We should be able to prevent
transfusion-related cases.

Hager:
This is what the virus

looks like, magnified
thousands of times.

Dr. Johnson:
Now labeled HIV

for
Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

The virus
is particularly destructive,

because it attacks the T4 cells,

which direct the body's
immune system.

Dr. Gallo:
We just made a serious
scientific advance,

and we've developed
a blood test.

Without the blood test,
you don't know who's infected.

There could never be therapy.

Hager: But what about
French scientists

at the Pasteur Institut in Paris

who say they found
the real virus?

Dr. Guinan:
Because of this fight
between the French

and the Americans
about who discovered the virus,

the test was delayed by a year.

Federal health officials
today announced the licensing

of a new screening test

for AIDS for protect
the nation's blood supply.

Test kits are now being sent
to blood banks

all around the country.

We want to identify
every person who's a carrier.

We want to identify
every possible way

to stop them from
spreading the disease.

Levi: The controversy
is over

whether those
who test positive

should be reported
to the state, and the reason

that we're generally
opposed to that is

that it will discourage people

from being tested for fear

that their names will become
part of a master list.

There are not
Civil Rights guarantees

to protect your confidentiality.

You may lose your medical
insurance.

You may lose your employment.

Specter:
The AIDS test was like an atomic
bomb going off.

It was something everybody
wanted, but then suddenly,

there was a way of really
focusing that discrimination.

If the only way to stop
it is quarantining people,

I don't think
there's anyway around it.

I think they're gonna
have to do it.

Jones:
Some were saying that people

who tested positive
should be quarantined,

should be tattooed,
so we were frightened by it.

And also, we had no treatment,

so what do you really do
with that information?

Rather:
AIDS is a frightening disease

that is known
to have struck

at least 12,000 Americans
and probably more.

Tonight,
another case of AIDS

has been confirmed,

affecting the most
well-known victim yet.

Mr. Rock Hudson has Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

It was a huge news story.

And Rock Hudson had been one
of the biggest movie stars

of three decades prior to that.

Erickson: Rock Hudson
made more than 60 movies,

earning an Oscar nomination
for "Giant"

with Elizabeth Taylor in 1956.

Miller: Hudson came to Paris
to get treatment for AIDS

under one
of the experimental programs

run by the Pasteur Institut,

The Institut Pasteur immediately
went to finding that virus,

starting looking for treatments.

Rock Hudson went there.

Many other people
with money went there.

The United States
of America didn't have anything.

Dow: The disclosure
comes as AIDS victims

and their allies
in this country

are becoming
increasingly impatient

with what they see as a lack

of commitment
to conquering the disease.

I think everybody is saddened
that Rock Hudson has AIDS,

and I think people
should be saddened

that almost 12,000 other
Americans also have AIDS.

Jones: It was so ironic
when Rock Hudson

got on the cover
of People magazine.

They said,
"Now we're all at risk."

Really? You picked this one old
closet case from Hollywood,

and you focus on him?

Dr. Gottlieb: Mr. Hudson
returned to Los Angeles

in order to be
a familiar environment

and to be cared for
by his own physicians.

Jones: You know,
the money the media

spent getting
that helicopter shot

of him coming back
on the gurney from Paris

was probably more
than the feds

had spent on research
at that point.

Woman: Doctors say
Hudson's in good spirits

and happy to be home.

Hanks:
Suddenly, we all knew somebody
who was dying of AIDS,

and suddenly there was
a different degree

of compassion and attention
paid to this thing

that we did not understand.

It was a game changer.

Do you think that the identity
of the early victims,

and I'm speaking of the groups

that it was supposed
to be limited to, you know,

the whole group.

Did that have anything
to do with the pace

of government
taking action.

Can there be
any doubt about it.

AIDS has gotten
more publicity,

since Rock Hudson
was declared an AIDS victim

than it has in the previous
two years, in my opinion.

There's no doubt
in my mind

that the response of the Federal
Government was lethargic,

it was apathetic,
it was grudging.

The President of The United
States, God bless him,

has not yet mentioned
the word "AIDS" in public.

In Hollywood last night,

a special benefit
to rally support and money

for the fight against AIDS.

Nelson: Some of Hollywood's most
famous names

and faces turned out
for the benefit called,

"Celebration of Life."

The goal was to raise
a million dollars

for organizations
that support AIDS victims.

It was a glittery
Hollywood affair,

but the evening turned serious

when Burt Lancaster read
a message from Rock Hudson.

"I'm not happy that I have AIDS.

But if that is helping others,

I can at least know
that my own misfortune

has had some positive worth."

Even though it was widely known

that Rock Hudson
was suffering from AIDS,

it was stunning news today
when word came of his death.

Downs: It's said news
for his millions of fans.

For the country,

it threatens to fuel
the fear about AIDS.

In some places,
fear of the disease

is itself becoming epidemic.

Wilson: Even though we have made
some progress by then

in understanding the disease,

there is huge amount of panic.

People still believe
that it was an airborne disease

and there are things
about mosquitos.

There's just all
of this misinformation going on.

The misunderstanding and fear
about AIDS are so widespread,

that even hospitals
have difficulty

getting proper medical
and volunteer help

to provide regular care
for these sick children.

Walters: Doctor, the other day,
I put my arms

around a 2-year-old baby

who has AIDS,

and the baby was perspiring,

and later a friend said to me,
"How could you do that?

What about
the perspiration?"

Should I have been scared?

Absolutely not.

Should one be worried
about kissing?

We don't think so.

Suppose someone sneezes
on you or at you.

There's no evidence
that the disease

is transmissible
by that kind of exposure.

Toilet seats,
locker rooms, restrooms?

There's no evidence that
that's ever been demonstrated.

But doctor,
you keep saying no evidence.

But that kind of
scares me.

I mean, no evidence
may mean it can happen

so therefore
so you shouldn't kiss

and you shouldn't use
the glass

and you shouldn't do some
of the things we talked about.

We began to sense the fear
and the ignorance.

The crew
at my television show

would not change the furniture

that the HIV guests sat on.

And of course, it did a lot
to promote homophobia.

God ordained
a monogamous relationship,

and we're not having these
problems and I think it's wrong.

Even though it doesn't cause it,
it's wrong.

But I want to point out,
homosexuality...

[ Applause ]

It's wrong, all right.

Let's hear it for it's a sin,
all right.

Lots of people
feel that way.

They're blatant with their sex.

That's what's causing it.

That's what's causing a lot
of the spreading around.

I don't like it.

If you, like, spread AIDS
around and stuff,

it kills innocent people.

Stossel: Complaints
about gay discrimination

and violence,
gay bashing

is the name for it,
have risen dramatically.

Jones:
He had a five-inch dagger,

which he buried in my back
just about the shoulder blade,

and then the two
of them ran off, screaming,

"Queer! Queer!"

Man: In Atlanta,
police believe there may be

as many as five unsolved murders
of gay men.

Experts believe that one reason

for the increase
in anti-gay violence

is the public's fear
and anger of AIDS.

We do reap it in our flash

when we violate the laws of God.

Frank: There were some people
on the right

who said, "See what happens
when people have unnatural sex?

It serves them right."

Mayoral candidate
Louie Welch

has announced his plan for
dealing with AIDS in Houston.

We'll talk live
with the candidate

about his four-part answer

to combating spread
of that disease.

Four points?

I can remember the two of them.
-What was that?

One of them was
to shoot the queers.

[ Laughter ]

There are new warnings

tonight that the AIDS virus

may have already infected
one million Americans.

-Ryan White.
-Here.

Nissenson:
The first day of school
was even more disappointing

than Ryan White had expected.

He wanted to go
with the other children,

but the Western Middle School
wouldn't let him.

Ryan, I'm gonna get ready
to give my notes.

The school set up
a speaker phone.

But the phone worked so poorly,

that it left Ryan
feeling frustrated and angry.

White: It stinks.

You can't hear anything.

It's all muffled.

Harris: Not that life
has ever been easy for Ryan.

A hemophiliac since birth,

he's always had to be careful
to keep the usual bumps

and bruises of childhood

from leading
to uncontrolled bleeding.

The greatest shock came when
Ryan was diagnosed with AIDS.

The source was the same blood
product

that had helped
control his hemophilia.

Rivera: Since each bottle
of concentrate

contains the blood
of at least 26 different donors,

each and every month,

hemophiliacs are using blood
from scores of different people.

Specter:
Ryan White was the first kid
who was trying to go to school

when he was HIV positive.

And many, many people
in America are saying,

"You know you got HIV
in an acceptable way,

and we're so, so sorry,

but we're not gonna let you
go near our children."

Harris: Today, the Whites
asked the Federal court

to force the school
to let Ryan in.

Ryan said, "Yeah, they're trying
to prolong this in the courts."

"They think I'm going to die.

Well, they better not hold
their breath," he said,

"'Cause I'm gonna get
to go back to school."

It gave him something
to live for.

Mr. President,
if you had younger children,

would you send them to a school

with a child who had AIDS?

It was actually
his 30th press conference

since the epidemic began,

and a reporter finally
asked Reagan about AIDS.

It is true
that some medical sources

have said this cannot be
communicated in any way,

other the ones
we already know,

and which would not involve
a child being in a school.

And yet, medicine
has not come forth unequivocally

and said,

"This we know for a fact

that it is safe."

Reagan seemed to be throwing
that little doubt as a sock

to the right wingers

that he didn't
want to antagonize.

But when The President
of The United State

makes a statement like that,

you can imagine how people
think he must know,

and maybe they should worry

about their kids
going to school.

This was a disservice

by The President
of The United States.

Man: Do you guarantee

that my daughter will not
get AIDS by helping him?

If you can't,
then he shouldn't be in school.

Brokaw: Today, a long,
legal battle

shifted in Ryan's favor.

Cummins:
Dozens of parents pulled
their children out of school

when word spread
through this small town

that Ryan had returned to class.

White: Some kids, you know,
if I walk by them in the halls,

they flatten themselves
up against the locker.

And they're saying, "Look out.

Look out.
There he is."

They wrote "fag"
on his folder inside his locker

and put a lot of obscenities.

White-Ginder: People were just
being very cruel.

I mean,
we'd be out grocery shopping,

walking out to the car, "Homo!"

So, Ryan
definitely knew

how the gay community
was being treated,

because he was being
treated the same way.

Ryan White's problem is one more

and more schools
are going to be facing.

You're not gonna
kill my baby.

Man: Go to hell!

Taylor:
The stories of mistreatment
of persons with AIDS

are often unbelievable
and always unconscionable.

And it so angered me

that I finally
thought to myself,

"Bitch, do something yourself."

Elizabeth Taylor was
about passion and about love.

Her personal force
brought powerful people

to the table,
so she partnered with

Dr. Mathilde Krim, and the two
of them together created AMFAR.

At that point,
there was no turning back.

AIDS was not going to go back
in the closet.

Dr. Gottlieb:
In 1987 in Washington D.C.,
AMFAR had an event

and Ronald Reagan
agreed to speak.

Elizabeth Taylor says to him,

"Whatever you feel about this,
do this for me."

Dr. Silverman:
I was the master of ceremonies,

and I was standing there next

to The President when
was giving his speech.

America faces a disease
that is fatal and spreading,

and this calls for
understanding, not ignorance.

[ Applause ]

I spent a lot of time
with his speech writer,

and so the first half,
he was saying the things

that I thought the President
should be saying.

President Reagan:
It's time we knew
exactly what we were facing,

and that's
why I support routine testing.

Dr. Silverman: Unfortunately,

the back half was really
about testing everybody,

and what came out
was the controversy.

I've also asked
to add the AIDS virus

to the list
of contagious diseases

for which immigrants and aliens
seeking permanent residence

in the United States
can be denied entry.

[ Spectators booing ]

This is an addition
to the testing

already under way
in our military

and foreign service.
[ Booing continues ]

Now, let me turn
to what the states can do.

Dr. Silverman: At that time,
a number of people

got up and turned their backs,

which probably had never
been done before.

I think
it was quite a statement,

and it was
an appropriate statement.

[ Applause ]

Gangel: The President
rarely addresses hostile crowds,

but testing is
a controversial issue.

This controversy
has become the centerpiece

of an international
AIDS conference in Washington.

Bazell:
When Surgeon General C. Everett
Koop addressed the conference

this morning,
he received a standing ovation

from many of the scientists
and healthcare workers.

-You're embarrassing me.
-Koop is popular,

because he has opposed
mandatory testing,

and he's advocated education
as the major tool to fight AIDS.

Frank: Koop was consistent.
Koop believed in life,

and he was against abortion,

but he was equally, firmly
determined to save people

from dying from AIDS.

AIDS education must start
at the lowest grade possible

as part of any health
or hygiene program.

We can no longer
afford to sidestep

frank, open discussions

about sexual practices,
heterosexual and homosexual.

Let's be honest with ourselves.

AIDS information can not be
what some call "value neutral."

After all, when it comes
to preventing AIDS,

don't medicine and morality
teach the same lessons?

Naftali: This was a nightmare
for the administration.

What they wanted was to say,
"Abstain!"

Not how to do it safely.

Just don't do it.

I think
that abstinence has been

lacking in much
of the education.

Naftali: But Koop said,

"Well, whatever you think
about homosexuality,

it is irresponsible
not to share with people

what we know about the way

to act on your sexual
desires safely."

We're talking about Everett
Koop,
the Surgeon General, Bob.

Where is he
in this administration now?

Where, you know, here he is --
-Isolated, I think.

I'm just saying,
here he is,

the Surgeon General,
the Chief Health Officer.

He's very outspoken,

and he goes off
and he does his own thing.

Koop, at one point, wanted
to send explanatory literature

to every household
in America,

and they stopped him fast
on that one.

France: Reagan's deputies
tried to shut him down.

He started working
out of his own home

to produce this thing in secret.

You should soon be receiving a
historic document in your mail.

It marks the first time

the government has tried
to reach every resident

regarding
a public health crisis.

Dr. Koop: This mailing
speaks in clear language

about oral, vaginal,

and anal intercourse,
as well as

the proper use of condoms.

It's gotten so much publicity,

and everyone's scared
to death about it.

Man: I definitely
would not have

a very short-term
let's-go-to-bed type

relationship,
because,

hey, I don't think
the risk is worth it.

The pendulum
that swung so wildly

in the '60s is swinging back
to a more conservative position.

Movies are now joining
the safe-sex bandwagon.

"Dragnet," with Tom Hanks,
was one of the first.

The message seemed to be,
no condoms, no sex.

AIDS patients breaking the law
in a desperate battle

to save their own lives.

Jarriel: Across the country
AIDS patients

are now treating themselves with
medications that seem hopeful.

Burrington:
Some drugs are available only
from so-called guerilla clinics.

Hill: Very important that people
like us have something

that we feel
that we can do rather

than just being told
to, "Sit still, wait

until we develop something
that can help you,

and of course, you may be dead
by the time we get there."

We were desperately trying
to find drugs and test drugs

that would be effective.

Because it takes a while
to develop a brand new drug,

one of the first things

you do when you find out
what the virus is,

is go screen drugs
that are already developed.

The people
from Burroughs Wellcome

screened a bunch of drugs,

and found out that this drug AZT
had activity against HIV.

The drug is not a cure for AIDS,

but tests indicate it may stop
the AIDS virus from reproducing.

Jarriel: It's the only
government-approved AIDS drug

in America.

But even this most
promising of drugs

is a source
of frustration and anger.

At $10,000-a-year costs
per patient,

it's prohibitively expensive
for most,

and not widely available.

France: At the time
it was more expensive

than any other drug
ever released in world history.

Kent:
The stock of Burroughs Wellcome,

the British company
which makes it,

more than doubled its value.

All:
AZT, 8 bucks a pill.

Guess who's economy
that's gonna kill?

I found out that I have HIV,

but I was still trying
to keep my job on Wall Street.

One day, I walk to work,

and somebody hands me
a flyer about AIDS.

We're fighting
for your lives, too!

And everybody

who was going into the office
was being given the same flyer,

so the discussion that happened
on the trading floor

in front of me became homophobic
very quickly.

My mentor said that,
"These people,

they all deserve to die,"

and I just
burned with fury all day.

When I got home that night,

there was the demonstration

on almost all the nightly
news shows.

And I said, "Wow --
That's power.

I have got to find

who these people are
who did this demonstration."

Kramer:
You saw 17 people get arrested.

That is just the beginning.

Next week it is going to be 50
getting arrested,

and after that it's going
to be 100 arrested.

Wilson:
ACT UP was started

by Larry Kramer
in New York City,

and soon after, chapters

began to spring up
around the country.

Bazell: The militant group
ACT UP

has gained increasing influence
on AIDS policy.

The weekly meetings
of the New York chapter

attract hundreds,
mostly young, mostly gay.

I realized
that I only had a year

or two more to live, probably,

so why not go out
with a bang?

So I quit my job on Wall Street,

and I became
a full-time AIDS activist.

Let's do a big demonstration
there and keep it there.

-Yeah!
-Whoo!

We had so many angry young men

who had lost friends

and were terrified
they were going to die.

Man: I'm pretty scared,

but being HIV positive, I don't
have much choice in the matter.

The fuse was ready to be lit

for us to explode.

All:
ACT UP, fight back, fight AIDS.

Jarriel: The gay community,

which has suffered the most
from the disease,

is exploding with rage.

It really turned the tide

from perceiving ourselves
simply as victims,

and helping us to understand

that we had the power
to change policy.

Garrett: There is a warehouse
near Washington

filled with experimental drugs.

Its location is secret
to keep demonstrators

and the desperate away.

Only one drug
in this warehouse

has the full approval

of the FDA for treatment
of the AIDS virus, AZT.

It was very toxic for me.

I became anemic.

Garrett:
Peter Staley cannot tolerate
large doses of AZT,

so he's taking
a variety of drugs,

not all of them legal.

The illegal drug here

in the bag
is Dextran Sulfate from Japan.

I get this
on the underground market

for about $100 a month.

All: AZT is not enough!

Give us all the other stuff!

Spencer:
Ronald Reagan was hoisted
in effigy this morning

as hundreds
of AIDS activists

descended on the Food
and Drug Administration,

determined to shut it down.

France: So many people
in ACT UP

came from the dramatic arts,
they came from marketing.

You know,
they sold AIDS activism the way

you would sell
the newest Madonna album,

and they knew
how to do that

because they sold
the newest Madonna album.

They knew how to make the drama

that was necessary

to promulgate it
in the minds of America.

Naftali: They figured out
that the best way

to get the government
to do the right thing

was to become smarter
than the government,

to learn more
about the drugs

than the doctors

who were advising
the public health officials,

and then to shame
the federal government

into doing the right thing.

Bazell: ACT UP's strategy
has been enormously successful

in getting the Food
and Drug administration

to loosen the regulation
of new drugs for AIDS.

Now the activists
are trying to force scientists

to work faster to develop
and test new treatments.

In the past,
scientists

have strongly resisted
such pressure.

Brokaw:
This was a major day of protest

by AIDS activists
in this country.

1,000 of them converging
on the National Institutes

of Health demanding
more research on the disease.

Dr. Fauci: They started
to become confrontative,

you know, signs up,
"Fauci, you're killing us."

And I'm saying,
"Why are they saying 'Fauci,

you're killing us?'
I'm a physician.

I'm trying to save your lives."

It was that kind

of confrontation

that had me say,
"Time out."

Norville:
Demonstrators rocked police cars
and tried to break in

to the government's lead
biomedical research agency.

Dr. Fauci:
The police were about to arrest
the whole bunch of them,

and I said,
"Don't arrest anybody.

Just bring them up to my office,
and let's start a dialogue."

We were able to prove
to Dr. Fauci

that everything they were doing
was wrong.

And Tony,
to his credit,

saw that we were right.

Shilts: ACT UP does more
than demonstrate.

They've become part
of the establishment

they continue to attack.

France: They changed the way
new drugs are identified,

the way drugs are researched,

the way human trials
are conducted.

It was a really revolutionary
change that they brought.

Kramer:
It is one the most successful
grassroots organizations ever.

It was also the greatest thing

that the gay population
ever achieved,

finding our own medicine.

All: We are everywhere!

Jarriel:
200,000 gay rights activists,

including busses filled
with victims of AIDS,

brought their campaign
for equal rights

to the nation's capital today.

Apuzzo: How many must die

for this administration
to wake up?

This huge march
on Washington that happened,

ACT UP went there in force.

We had a huge impact
in the march,

but then we were hearing
about this project,

this quilt project.

Matson: This huge quilt
that today

is being spread out
on the Capitol Mall

in Washington
has 2,000 panels,

every one crafted
by the friends

and relatives
of an AIDS victim.

This memorial is the brainchild
of San Franciscan Cleve Jones.

We want to show the President
and the Congress

and the rest of the country
the enormity of this epidemic.

Why do you think
when you say the word "quilt?"

I think of my grandma.

I saw it as a very
middle-American,

traditional family-value symbol

that could tap

into all that is good
about the American people

and create a place
to grieve together.

Staley: To an ACT UP'er,

it sounded like this touchy

feel-good...

bullshit.

But when each
of us walked onto that mall

and this unfolding started,

it was overwhelming.

Man: Bruce Harris.

David Hicks.

France: The quilt was really
a tremendous response to a need

that we didn't realize
that we had,

which was some central place,

some graveyard

that brought those
that we lost together.

Peterson: I'm tired of going
to funerals.

[ Voice breaking ]
I can't --

I can't keep doing it,

so this is for everybody.

This is all of us.

I don't think anybody knew,
maybe not even Cleve,

how powerful it was going to be.

Woman: Dr. Ron Schwartz.

John Mallhurn.

Jones: The message said
all of these people

who are gone are missed.

They had families,
they had friends,

they had lovers,
they had children.

These were not people
you can just pretend

didn't exist anymore.

They're part of your community.

And it revealed the true
enormity of the pandemic

by showing the individual lives

that had been taken from us.

You've been taking AZT,

and apparently it has been
helping you.

At one point they were giving
you three to six months,

and that was
three years ago.

What's the prognosis now?

Well,
it's been three years,

and I'm still going strong,

so hopefully I can be around
long enough for a cure.

You're real brave
about this whole thing.

Do you ever really go off
to yourself and cry

or feel really upset?

Not really.
I figure, you know,

since this is the way
the hand was dealt,

I got to live this way,

and I'm gonna try
and help anybody I can.

The last thing Ryan wanted
to be was the boy with AIDS.

But he became very famous,

and he picked up the banner

and championed the rights
of people afflicted,

and he carried it off
very bravely.

[ Coughs ]

White-Ginder:
[ Voice breaking ] Ryan said,
"Maybe it happened to us

so it wouldn't happen
to somebody else."

And -- And I think
that's probably true.

The flags
over the Indiana State House

have been ordered
flown at half-staff today

in tribute
to 18-year-old Ryan White.

Donahue: I'll never forget him,
and I'm proud to have known him.

For the short life,
he left a huge footprint.

In Washington early today,

the House of Representatives
approved a bill

authorizing more than $4 billion
over five years.

That's nearly
$900 million a year

for communities hardest hit
by the AIDS epidemic.

Man: The bill
was named for Ryan White,

the Indiana teenager
who died of AIDS this year.

This legislation
converts the millions

of dollars of federal research

into treatments that are
available to the public.

Waxman: The Ryan White Act
is the law on the books today

that is our essential answer

to dealing
with the AIDS epidemic.

It's the lifeline
for people getting the drugs.

Naftali: For Americans
who still were too prejudiced,

too homophobic to confront AIDS

as a national crisis,

Ryan White gave them an avenue

to do the right thing
for AIDS research.

That boy did not die in vain.

This is the first time
Congress has voted

such a huge sum of money
to fight a single disease.

Healthcare providers
say it proves finally

that AIDS in America
is a federal disaster.

Dr. Fauci: When the decade
of the '80s ended,

we did not see

and could not see the light
at the end of the tunnel

because we still
did not have an effective

therapeutic regimen.

Doctors say for every AIDS
patient treated in the 1980s,

there will be eight more
treated in the 1990s.

It was the worse epidemic
in human history by the numbers,

but even more so by
the emotional content.

Jones:
By the end of the decade,

I could hardly walk down
Castro Street without weeping.

So many people
were gone by then,

and you would even see people
really dying in front of you.

I knew that we would have
to keep fighting to stay alive.

Man:
This has been the AIDS decade.

Man #2:
Fighting for our lives,

too little
is being done too late.

Man:
At the beginning of the decade,
the first diagnosis of AIDS.

At the end, there is concern

that maybe the nation
is complacent again.

More than a million people

infected with the virus
in America alone,

five million in the world.

Perhaps there'll be a cure
or a vaccine in the next decade,

or maybe in the next century.