that's it for us tonight, thanks for watching, i'll see you right back here tomorrow night. the '80s starts right now. a mysterious newly discovered disease. >> the most frightening medical mystery of our time. >> >> the misteruous new disease. >> how many much die before this administration will wake up. >> medicine and morality teach the same lessons. >> this is the first case in

history, the inflicted are taking charge of the epidemic. >> hopefully, iing i will aroun long enough to see it. ♪

it used to be it was something to hide. last october, the hom on sexuals of this country proclaimed themselves to be the newest legitimate minority. >> how many have you heard from behind, hey fagot, hey, dike. >> the question, what do the interesting mean? >> the estimates of gays in san francisco range from 12% to 25%. >> san francisco attracted a lot of gay men. very young, highly sexualized.

my street in 1980, it could take me half an hour to walk a block. i knew everybody. >> the average sga man here has had sex with 500, or more than a thousand. >> you said, never in the history of the world has there been so much sex available to men as there is for gay men in san francisco. >> i think that is probably true. that is true. >> what is the consequence of that? i can't answer that. >> a rare and deadly form of cancer has shown up in 41 homosexual men, and it has

created concern. >> the disease isn't considered contagious, the center for disee control wantomosexual men and their physicians to be aware of it. >> i was working in the sexually transmitted disease division. in the early 1980 says, they started calling us, saying, we have seen gay men that are dies, we don't know what is wrong with them. is there a new disease going around? >> young men were coming down with diseasing. a rare form of skin cancer. >> finally, michael gotlieb from ucla said there immune system seemed to be compromised. >> i was pretty sure it was something new. i wanted to get it into print.

>> i was struck by it i actually clipped it out and put it on my bulletin board when things were looking up. >> 61 cases, it is by no means an epidemic. >> we didn't know it was the tip of the iceberg. a lot of ice to come up shortly. >> scientists at the national sisters for disease control in atlanta released the result of of a study that the lifestyle of male homosexuals has triggered an epidimmic. >> a newly discovered disease that affects mostly homosexual men. >> our best guess is that it is somehow related to the gay lifestyle. >> in terms of the way i lived my life. now i am not.

all of us who saw patients saw desperation as more and more were affected. >> what is killing the people? >> what is killing them, a breakdown of the immune system, caused by either some transmissible infection or a combination of other environmental exposures. >> you are searching for this agent, if there is one, causing this disease. we wish you luck in finding it. >> number one, figure out what it is. >> it is always the who, what, when, why. we got teams of folks to go out and interview these people. and find out the risk factors.

>> then in san francisco, and los angeles, now, it has been detected in haitian refugees, nobody knows why. in heavy drug users in new york city, nobody knows why. and some people with hemo feelia. persons who need frequent transfusions. the possibility that it can be transmitted from person to person, a conitageous form of cancer. millionings for research now. >> there is almost no money spent so far. >> a puzzling disease that is spreading it is called aids. it breaks down the besides's immune system, 400 people are dead from it with me in new york, is larry kra mer, co-founder of the gay men task

force. how many have you lost? >> 20. can you imagine what it is like if you lost 20 of your friends in the last 18 months. >> you don't know why? >> nobody knows, little as known as three years ago, when all this started. >> do you know if you have it? >> there may be a time bomb inside of me. we may have all been exposed to it have an immunity to it. nobody knows. >> what if you don't know what causes it? much less how to cure it? >> we will be north for a big problem. >> who is we? >> all of us.

i am rich. in my gentleman's quarters, we sip champagne and peruse my art collection, which consists of renaissance classics and more avant-garde pieces. yes, i am rich. that's why i drink the champagne of beers. you recommend synthetic and can yover cedar?to me why "super food"? is that a real thing? it's a great school, but is it the right the one for her? is this really any better than the one you got last year? if we consolidate suppliers what's the savings there? so should we go with the 467 horsepower? or is a 423 enough? good question. you ask a lot of good questions...

i think we should move you into our new fund. ok. sure. but are you asking enough about how your wealth is managed? wealth management, at charles schwab. man, it's like pure power at your finger tips. like the power to earn allstate reward points, every time i drive. ...want my number? and cash back for driving safe. and the power to automatically find your car... i see you car! and i got the power to know who's coming and when if i break down. ...you must be gerry. hey... in means getting more from your car insurance with the all-powerful drivewise app. it's good to be in, good hands. (mamost of the show. we missed (woman) and there's no way to restart it. (jon bon jovi) with directv there is. ♪ you see, we've got the power to turn back time ♪ ♪ so let's restart the show that started at nine ♪ ♪ and while we're at it, let's give you back your 'do ♪

♪ and give her back the guy she liked before you ♪ ♪ hey, that's the power to turn back time. ♪ (vo) get the ultimate all-included bundle. call 1-800-directv.

>> come to man's country. see what we are all about. what we have to offer. visit us once, you will come again and again. >> i am honestly not sure that the public was as aware, the fact that bath houses exited. or what went on there. i am talking about the straight population. >> they are considered sex clubs, places where homosexual men share sex with partners who they may or may not know. >> socializing, going to the baths was a weekly event, most of us enjoy a built. >> i was a bond trader, leading

a double of l it felt regulated, commercial, where you walk around in towels and see hot men in towels. >> guys, until we know better, cool it lay off with the number you are having sex with. the virus is passing between us. cool it for a while. >> there it was an enormous amount of denial. >> larry crammer's most famous essay, if this article doesn't scare the hit out of you, then it should. >> he was shunned. these people, who were just feeling the vigor of freedom were told, everything that you are doing is killing you. these bath houses, where there is a lot of sex with different partners who you don't know. that is the worst thing possible. >> i don't believe the city has any business permitting businesses to operate whose sole

source of being is the very activity that communicates the disease. >> diane finestein wanted me to close the bath houses. if you can save one life, it is worth closing them. >> there are a number of people who refuse to believe that problem exits, what we are talking about is playing russian roulette. >> i got a call, he said to me, if you close the bath houses, i will man the barricades. >> i did not want them to be shut down by the government. what is next? close the bars? we had recently been decriminalized. >> it is the most frightening of our time. >> it fred sfr haiti to the united states. >> strongly suspected as a

virus, all indicates that can be contracted by contact. >> there is a steady growing fear that nation's blood supply may be with aids. >> a baby received a transfusion. some sfbl enemy. >> homosexuals refused from donating blood. >> the centers for disease control asking the groups at risk, not to donate or sell blood. with new aids cases at the rate of four to six every day. the purity of the nation's blood

supply has become a matter of life and death. >> the race was on to find the virus. the two labs were both trying to show that not only do we have the virus, we have proof that it is the virus that is causing the disease. >> i think healthy competition is very useful. it sparks you, sparks creativity. >> we wanted to say we cracked this. not the french. >> the probable cause of aids has been found. >> they call a press conference, we are done it. we are proud of our american scientists. >> we have a bloods test for aids, able to prevent transfusion related cases. >> this is what the virus lks like, now labelled hiv, it is

particularly destructive because it atacts the body's immune system. >> without the blood test, there could never be therapy. >> because of this fight between the french and the americans, about who discovered the virus, the test was delayed by a year. >> federal health officials announce a new screening test for aids, to protect the nation's bly supply. >> we want to identify every person who say carrier it will discourage people from it master list. >> you may lose your medical

insurance, and your employment. >> it was like ran atomic bomb going off. suddenly, there was a way to focusing that discrimination. >> people testing positive should be tattooed. we were frightened by it

man 1: you're new.

man 2: i am. woman: ex-military? man 2: four tours. woman: you worked with computers? man 2: that's classified, ma'am. man 1: but you're job was network security? man 2: that's classified, sir. woman: let's cut to the chase, here... man 1: what's you're assessment of our security? man 2: [ gasps ] porous. woman: porous? man 2: the old solutions aren't working. man 2: the world has changed. man 1: meaning? man 2: it's not just security. it's defense. it's not just security. it's defense. bae systems.

>> aids is a frightening disease known to have struck at least 12,000 americans, probably more, tonight, another case affecting the most well known victim yet. >> rock hud dllt son has acquired hiv. rock hudson had been one of the biggest movie stars three decades prior to that. >> earning an oscar nomination with elizabeth taylor. >> he came to get treatment for aids under one of the experim t

experimental constitute. >> the rock hudson went there. many other people went there. the united states of america, didn't have anything. >> the disclosure comes as aids victims and their victims are becoming impatient with a lack of commitment to conquering the disease. >> everyone is saddened that rock hudson has aids, and 12,000 others also have aids. >> it is ironic that rock hudson got on the cover, you pick this one case and focus on him. >> rock hud son returned to los angeles, to be in a familiar environment. >> getting that helicopter shot on the gurney from paris. >> doctors say hudson is in good spirits and happy to be home. >> suddenly, we knew someone

dying of aids. suddenly, there it was a different degree of compassion and attention paid to the thing we didn't understand. it was a game changer. >> do you think that the identity of the early victims and now, the groups that are supposed to be limited to, did that have anything to do with the base of government taking action? >> can there be any doubt about it.

>> i am not happy that i have aids, but if it is helping others, i can at least know that my own misfortune has had some positive work. >> it was widely known that rock hudson was suffering from aids, it was stunning news of his death. >> it fuelled the fear of aids. fear itself is becoming epidemic. >> we had made some progress is understanding the disease, there is a huge amount of panic. people believed it was an airborne disease, things about moto x, and all this misunderstanding going on. >> the fear of aids, so wide spread, even hospitals have been

having a hard time to get care for these children. >> you i put my arms around this two-year-old. should i have been scared? >> should one be worried about kissing? >> no. i don't think so. >> there is no proof it is evidence that it has been demonstrated. >> rest rooms? >> no evidence. that scares me. it can happen. therefore, you shouldn't kiss, you shouldn't use a glass, you shouldn't do some of the things we talked about. >> we sensed the fear and the ignorance.

>> that is what is causing a lot. >> i don't like it. >> if they spread aids around, it killings innocent people. >> complaints about discrimination. risen dramatically. >> a five inch dagger he buried in my back, and the two of them ran off screaming, queer, queer. >> in atlanta, police believe there may be five unsolved murders of gay men. many people the violence is a result of fear of aids. >> there were people on the right who say, see what happens when people have unnatural sex? it serves them right. >> he announced his plan for

dealing with aids in houston. his four-part answer to -- >> i can't remember two of them. >> one of them was to shoot the queers. show me movies with romance.

show me more like this. show me "previously watched." what's recommended for me. x1 makes it easy to find what you love. call or go online and switch to x1. only with xfinity. >> there are new warnings tonight that aids virus may have

already affected one million americans. >> here. >> the first day of school was more disappointing than ryan white expected. he wanted to go with the other children, the western middle school wouldn't let him. >> i will get ready to give my notes. >> the phone worked so poorly, it left ryan feeling frustrated and angry. >> you can't hear anything. all muffled. >> not that life has ever been easy for ryan. a hemo feeliac since birth, he had to be careful of the usual bumps and bruising. >> since each blood contains 26 donors, hemo feeliacs are using

blood from scores of people. >> he was trying to go to school hiv positive. you know, you got hiv in an acceptable way, we are so sorry. we are not going to let you go near our children. >> it was his 30th press conference since the epidemic began. >> a reporter asked regan about aids. >> this cannot be communicated, which would not involved a child in school. yet, medicine has not come forth unequivically and said, this we know for a fact, that it is

safe. >> regan seemed to be throwing that little doubt as a sign to the right wingers, he didn't want to anning toinize. when a presidents of the united states makes a statement like that you can imagine what people think he must know, and maybe they should worry about their kids going to school. >> you guarantee that my daughter will not get aids by helping him. if you can't, he shouldn't be in school. >> today, a long, legal battle shifted. >> dozens of parents pull their children out of school, when word came that ryan returned to class. >> they flap themselves up against the locker. look out, there he is. >> wrote tag on his folder, inside his locker. put a lot of obscenities. >> people were cruel. we would be grocery shopping.

>> homo. ryan knew how the gay community was being treated. >> more and more schools will be facing. >> the stories, the mistreatment of persons with aids are often unbelievable and always unconscionable. it angered me. i thought to myself, do something yourself. >> elizabeth taylor was about passion and love. it brought powerful people to the tachblt she partnered, and the two of them created amfar. aids was not going to go back in the closet. >> in 1987, in washington, d.c., amfar had an event and ronald reagan agreed to speak.

elizabeth taylor said, whatever you feel about this do this for me. >> i was the master of ceremonies, and i was standing there, next to the president, when he was giving his speech. >> america faces a disease fatal in spreading this calls for understanding, not ignorance. >> i spent a lot of time with the speech writer, the first half, he was saying the things i thought the president should be saying. it is time we knew exactly what we were facing. that is why i support routine testing. >> unfortunately, the back half was about testing, what came out was the controversy. >> i asked to add the aids virus, as a test for those entering the united states can be denied entry. this is in addition to the testing already underway in our

military and foreign service. now, let me turn to what the states can do. >> at that time, a number of people got up, turn their backs, which probably had never been done before. i think it was a statement. it was an appropriate statement. >> the president rarely addresses hostile crowds. >> the controversial. >> i are embarrassing me. >> coop is popular, he opposed mandatory testing, and education as the tool to fight aids. >> he believed in life. against abortion, but determined to save people from diving from aids. >> aids education must start at the health and hygiene program. we can no longer avoid open,

frank discussions about sexual practices, sexual and homosexual. >> after all, when it comes to preventing aids, don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons. >> this was a nightmare for the administration, what they wanted to say is abstain. not how to do it safely, don't do it. >> abstinnance is lacking in the education. >> whatever you think of homo sexuality, it is -- how to act on your desires safely. >> here he is. >> isolated, i think. the chief health officer, he goes off, and does his own thing. >> coop wanted to send

literature to every household in america. >> they tried to shut him down. >> he started working out of his own home. >> you should be receiving a historic document, the first time the government has tried to reach every resident regarding a public health crisis. >> oral, vaginal and anal intercourse, and the proper use of condoms. >> i would not have a short time, let's go to bed time relationship. i don't think it is worth it. >> swinging back to a conservative position. >> movies, drag net with tom hanks, one of the first. the message seemed to be, no condoms, no sex.

>> aids patients, breaking the law in a desperate battle to save their own lives. >> across the country, aids patients are treats themselves with drug that is seem hopeful.

>> very important that people like us have something that we feel we can do, instead of sit still, wait until we find something to help you. you may be dead by the time we get there. >> it takes a while to develop a brand new drug. one of the first things you do, when you find out what virus is, screen drugs that are developed. screened a bunch of drugs, this drug. a.z.t. had activity against aids. >> it may stop the aids virus from reproducing. >> it is the only approved drug in america. the most promising the drugs is a source of frustration at anger, at $10,000 a year per patient, it is not widely available. >> it was more expensive than

any drug released in history. >> the british company that makes it doubled it value. >> tifound out i have hiv, i was trying to keep my job on wall street. i walked to work and somebody hands me a flyer about aids. and everybody who was going into the office was being given the same flyer, the discussion on the trading floor became homo fobbic quickly, my mentor said they all deserved to die. i burned with fury. when i got home, there was the demonstration on all the news shows that is power. i have to find who the people are who did this demonstration. >> you saw 17 people get arrested. that is just the beginning. next week, it will be 50 getting

arrested. after that, a hundred. >> the militant group, act up," the weekly meetings of the new york chapter attract hundreds, mostly young, mostly gay. >> i had a year or two more to live, why not go out with a bang. i quit my job on wall street and became a full-time aids activist. >> keep it there. >> we had so many angry, young men. who lost friends and were terrified they were going to die. >> being hiv positive -- >> a fuse was ready to be lit for us to explode.

>> the gay community is explode wg rage. >> simply as victims, and helping us to understand that we had the power to change policy. >> there is a warehouse near washington, filled with sprmtal drugs, the location is secret to keep demonstrators and desperate away. a.z.t. >> it was to beingic for me. >> he is taking a variety of drugs, not all of them legal. >> the illegal drug here in the bag, is from japan. i get this on the underground market for $100 a month. >> ronald reagan was hoisted in

efgh efghee. >> from the marketing, they sold aids activism the way you sell the late madonna album. they know, because they sold the newest modonna album. >> they figured out, the best way to get the government to do the right thing was to become smarter than the government. >> now the act vifrts are trying to force scientists to work and test new treatments, in the

past, they have resisted such pressure. >> a major day of protests, a thousand of them converging on the institute of health, demanding more research on the disease. >> signs up, you are killing us. why are they sawing that? i am a physician, i am trying to save your lives. it was that kind of confrontation that had me say, time-out. >> trying to break into the research agent. >> the police were about to arrest them. i said, don't arrest anybody, bring them up to my office, let's start a dialogue. >> we were able to prove to the doctor, that everything that they were doing was wrong. and tony, to his credit, saw that we were right. >> act up does more than

demonstrate, they have become part of the establishment they continue to attack. >> they change the way human trials are conducted.

♪ you're not gonna watch it! ♪ ♪ no, you're not gonna watch it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download on the goooooo! ♪ ♪ you'll just have to miss it! ♪ yeah, you'll just have to miss it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download... uh, no thanks. i have x1 from xfinity so... don't fall for directv. xfinity lets you download your shows from anywhere. i used to like that song.

200,000 gay rights activists, including buses filled with victims of aids, brought their fight for equal rights to the capitol today. >> how many must die for this administration to wake up. >> they went there in force, a huge impact in the march. then, we were hearing about this project, this quilt project. >> the huge quilt spread out on the mall in washington, 200 panels, by the friends and relatives of an aids victim. >> we want to show the president, and the rest of the country the enormity of this epidemic. >> when you say the word quilt,

i think of my grand match. >> a traditional family value symbol, that can tap in to all that is good about the american people and create the place to grieve together. to an act upper, it sounds like a touchy, feel good bull [ bleep ] when each of us walked on to that mall and this unfolding started, it was overwhelming. >> bruce harris. >> the quilt was a tremendous response to a need that we didn't realize that we had. some central place, a grave yard that brought those that we lost together. >> i am tired of going to funerals. i can't. i can't keep doing it.

so, this is for everybody. this is all of us. >> i don't think anybody knew. how powerful it was going to be. >> john mullhern. >> all the people who are gone are missed. they had family, they had friends, they had lovers, they had children. these are not people you can pretend didn't exist. they are part of your communicate. showing individual lives taken from us. >> you have been taking a.z.t., it has been helping, at one point, giving you three to six months, that was three years ago. what is the prognosis? >> hopefully, i will be around for a cure. >> do you go off to yourself and

cry and feel upset? >> not really. i figure, you know, since this is the way the hand was dealt, i have to live this way, i will try to help anybody i can. >> the last thing ryan wanted to be was the boy with aids. he became very famous, he picked up the banner, championed the rights of people afflicted and carried it off very bravely. >> ryan said, maybe it happened to us, so it wouldn't happen to somebody else. i think that is probably true. >> the flags over the indiana state house ordered flown at half staff in tribute to 18-year-old ryan white. >> i will never forget him. i am proud to have known him. for the short life he left a huge foot print. >> in washington, early today, the house of representatives approved a bill, authorizing $4

million. >> the bill was named for ryan white, the teenager who died of aids this year. >> this converts to millions in federal research into treatments available to the public. >> the ryan white act is the law on the books today that is our essential answer to dealing with the aids epidemic. it is the life line for people getting the drugs. >>. >> to confront aids as a national crisis, ryan white gave them the avenue to do the right thing. that boy did not die in vain. >> this is the first time they donated so much money for a disease. it is a federal disaster.

>> we didn't see and could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. >> by the emotional content. >> by the end of the decade, i could hardly walk down it street without weeping, so many were gone. you could see people dying in front of you. i knew we would have to keep fighting to stay alive. >> fighting for our lives, too little is being done too late. >> at the beginning of the decade, the first diagnosis of aids. at the end perhaps a cure in the

next decade or maybe in the next century. >> republicans are falling all over themselves, dealing with donald trump. some are trying to launch new plans to stop him at the convention in cleveland. we look at all of that tonight. as for the