early as 1979. Several physicians in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, began noticing symptoms of pneumocystis pneumonia and Kaposi's sarcoma in otherwise healthy young men (Altman, 1986 p. 3). After additional cases were reported, doctors and health-care officials ascertained that most of the young men who had taken ill, were homosexuals. By 1981, several other cases were declared in the France, Haiti, Zaire and Zambia. AIDS had officially become an epidemic, with thousands becoming infected every two to three months (Sabatier, 1988, p. 35). Dr. Jonathan Mann, of the United Nations World Health Organization, has written that the AIDS epidemic actually occurred in three separate epidemics. The first epidemic transpired as a silent infection, in which practicing homosexuals and drug-users unknowingly distributed the disease amongst each other. The second epidemic occurred when AIDS became a known phenomena to the public. The third and most devastating aspect of the AIDS crisis was the overall reaction of the public (Sabatier, 1988, p. 3-4). The medical community and public alike, much less the gay community, had never before comprehended such a disease, or anything like unto it. The late Randy Shilts, a well-known social commentator and a casualty himself of AIDS, had documented that in the beginning, many gay men experienced a "denial factor." Initially, most of the gay community was in denial of any such problem. After seeing that such a "cancer" was taking the lives of more and more their friends, many gay males consequently recognized a need for action and thus mobilized their resources in order to
             educate themselves and their communities. One such consequence of their efforts, was the creation of the Gay Men's Health Crisis Center based in New York City. Most importantly, many began to take responsibility for their sexual behavior by reducing the number of sexual partners (Sabati...