human nature to either fear or judge what we do not completely understand. In the early 1980s when the HIV/AIDS epidemic broke out it raised an overall stigma within the United States. It was originally believed that only those who were homosexual or participated in homosexual activities could acquire this disease. “In the summer of 1981, the world at large did not yet seem to be very much affected by what would soon become known as AIDS. A couple of reports had just appeared …, but this seemed merely to be a further elaboration on what had been derisively referred to as "gay bowel syndrome" or "gayrelated immunodeficiency syndrome. (12)” As the years progressed this notion soon became a misconception. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers,
