When AIDS was first revealed to be a major health crisis in 1981, the public was gripped by fear, much of it fed by erroneous and anti-gay media coverage. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was born in 1985 to protest this defamatory and sensational coverage. [watch]

Fair, accurate and inclusive media representation is essential to achieve the goal of ending the stigma faced by those with HIV and AIDS both within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and without. This resource is not intended to be a comprehensive look at the history of HIV and AIDS, but is an overview of how the media has discussed and depicted HIV and AIDS in the LGBT community since 1981.

Timeline

A look at important media-related events in the history of AIDS

AIDS in the Media

A comprehensive database of how television and film have dealt with HIV and AIDS

25-Year Retrospectives

Articles and multimedia clips on the pandemic's first quarter-century

Journalists' Media Reference Guide

GLAAD's guide to covering HIV, AIDS and the LGBT community

Glossary of Terms

Additional Resources

Media Requests

Gay Men's Health Crisis Lynn Schulman 212/367-1210

Black AIDS Institute Phill Wilson 213/353-3610

Contact Us: This is an evolving and open-ended resource. Please send media-related content additions and suggestions to feedback@glaad.org.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) draws its information from respected scientific organizations such as AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). As a media-based organization, GLAAD does not conduct scientific research; instead, GLAAD has made every possible attempt to select the most accurate findings and provide a simple, broad overview of media coverage of HIV and AIDS in the LGBT community.