REMEMBER CRUISE MAKES US

This wasn’t the case in the 80’s, when people infected with HIV would deteriorate rapidly, with, in some cases, people dying within days. I knew 6 flight attendants who shared a house in Johannesburg ... within six months all of them had passed away. Another friend was diagnosed on a Friday, he passed away the following Friday - a week later! Others would show no symptoms for years and yet carried the virus and not knowing how the virus was passed and safe sex wasn’t thought of, many more were infected.

Cruise is produced by Colin Law (pictured above), who says in the programme leaflet for the show, “I was in my twenties in 1982 and as a gay man, lived the absolute terror of what was described as “the gay cancer”. Cruise awakens my memory of that time.”

And it was terrifying, the illness, initially named GRID (Gay related Immune Deficiency) was a death sentence ... there was no cure, doctors didn’t even know how it was acquired, passed or even that it was a virus in those early days. When in 1981, the New York Times published an article “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals,” the reality of AIDS became known.

The news and the infection was to spread rapidly worldwide. Today, 40 years later over 84.2 million (64.0–113.0 million) people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 40.1 million (33.6–48.6 million) people have died of HIV. There is still no cure but the illness is controlled by drugs and one can live a full life.

In Randy Shilts’ book, “And The Band Played On” one person, an Air Canada flight attendant, Gaetan Dugas, was thought to have infected over 2500 people. Shilts referred to Dugas as “Patient Zero” (incorrectly - in a study he was known as “patient-0” and vilified him by portraying him as having almost sociopathic behaviour - allegedly intentionally infecting, or at least recklessly endangering, others with the virus. Dugas is described as being a charming, handsome sexual athlete who, according to his own estimation, averaged hundreds of sex partners per year. He claimed to have had over 2,500 sexual partners across North America since becoming sexually active in 1972.

The book was an international bestseller, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts’ exposé revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80’s while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. It is one of the few true modern classics, changing and framing how AIDS was discussed in the following years. “And the Band Played On” remains one of the essential books of our time.

In the early days of the pandemic so little was known of the disease that it spread unchecked. Governments, especially the Reagan administration in the United States turned a blind eye to the AIDS despite action groups constantly campaigning and demanding government intervention - there was the belief that this was extreme homophobia, had the disease been killing straight people the response (as with Covid-19) would’ve been swift.

Cruise takes us back to that scary time, a time that must not be forgotten nor brushed aside. The HIV pandemic has taken the lives of thousands of truly talented, gifted individuals, of sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, lovers, wives and husbands - today it affects us all but we must never forget the struggles and torments of those who died and those who lived through the early days.