One of the few journalists paying any attention was Lawrence D. Mass, a doctor who wrote about men’s health for the New York Native, a gay paper. “There were rumors of unexplained cases of pneumonia in New York and L.A. in gay men. The bottom line seemed to be some kind of immune problem,” Mass told me this past spring, when I was reporting our “AIDS at 25” cover. Mass wrote the very first newspaper piece about the epidemic: published on May 18, 1981, his story came out before the June 5, 1981, CDC report that’s routinely cited as the first official mention of AIDS.
Mass went on to help establish Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York and kept reporting on AIDS for the Native, landing the first interview with a patient suffering from the disease. “If it’s seen as the scourge of God, it’s certain to set back, to dismantle the many gains that have been achieved,” the anonymous patient told Mass in 1981. But “if we act like adults–if the attitude is that these diseases have hit our community and we must do something about them–then I think the wonderful progress we’ve made in recent years will continue to evolve.” Mass and other gay men rose to the challenge, showing America the dangers of staying silent.
