When Sex Turns Lethal | Original Sin: Sex

In modern day Monaco, if you want to get married, you need to post a written announcement on the town hall for 10 days. Across the globe, governments love to legislate who can and can't get married for reasons of control, paranoia, or fear. Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today released the results of a study which shows that the lifestyle of some male homosexuals has triggered an epidemic of a rare form of cancer.

In the 1980s, the world faced a new crisis: HIV/AIDS. I lost a lot of people that I loved. They would be very healthy, very strong, and then they would seem a little weaker, and then you wouldn't see them again. Within about 5 years, a community that had been totally bustling, totally busy, totally vibrant completely disappeared.

The epidemic forges a bond within the gay community, a strength in numbers that will become critically useful. AIDS brought more gay people out of the closet than Gay Liberation was ever able to do. It made them join organizations; it made them engage in demonstrations.

Gay marriage really becomes a very important issue for the gay community when the AIDS crisis hit. We couldn't determine our own immediate next of kin. Families blew into hospital rooms of sick and dying men and had their partners, at 30 years, thrown out of their hospital rooms. Families disappeared with the bodies of deceased men and refused to tell their partners, their husbands, and all but name where they buried their relative.

What we needed were the protections of marriage that kick in at the worst moments of your life. We saw firsthand the consequences of not having those protections.