paperless society? and do we really want one. these are the kinds of social problems that scientists say society should answer. mysterious newly discovered disease. >> the most frightening medical mystery of our time. >> acquired immune deficiency syndrome. >> incidents double every six months. >> how many must die for this administration to wake up. >> when it comes to preventing aids don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons? >> aids victims are becoming increasingly impatient. >> this is the first case in history the afflicted people are taking charge of the epidemic. >> gone straightors tried to break into the government's biomedical research agency. >> hopefully i will be around long enough for a cure.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> it used to be it was something to hide. last october, the homosexuals of themselves to be the newest im legitimate minority. >> how many of you have heard from behind hey, faggot, hey dike.

that's why we are here tonight and we will not be stopped! >> the right of homosexuals to organize like any other minority seeking to further its own interests is no longer in question. the question is what will those interests be? >> the estimates of gays in san francisco range from 12% in the city to 25%. >> san francisco attracted a lot of gay men, different ethnicity and racial background. very young. and highly sexualized, to walk down castro street, my street, in 1980, it could sometimes take me a half an hour to walk a block, because i knew everybody. >> the average gay man had sexual encounters with at least 500 different men, 28% with more than a thousand.

>> early the last time we talked 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's probably true. i don't think there's any question. that's true. >> and what's the consequence of that? >> i can't answer that. >> a rare, deadly form of cancer has shown up in 41 homosexual men and it created concern among public health officials. >> the disease isn't considered contagious, officials at the national centers for disease control want homosexual men and their physicians to be the aware of it. >> i was working at centers for

disease control in the sexually transmitted diseases division. in the early 1980s, physicians started calling to say we have seen gay men who are dying and we don't have any idea what's wrong with them. is this some new disease going around? >> young, sexually active gay men coming down with bizarre diseases that one didn't associate with that age group. pcb familiaria, a rare form of skin cancer, and capozi sarcoma. >> finally michael gottlieb from ucla had seen a number of these patients and he was the first one that noted that their immune system seemed to be compromised. >> it was a striking epidemiologic phenomena. i was pretty sure this was something new and i wanted to get it into print. i was quite struck by it, i clipped it out, put it on my bulletin board and wrote over it, just when things were looking up. >> so far doctors only documented 60 known cases among gay men. it is by no means an epidemic.

>> little did we know it was the tip of the iceberg, there was a lot of ice below the surface to come up shortly. >> scientists at the centers for disease control in atlanta released results of a study which shows that the life-style of some male homosexuals has triggered an epidemic. >> reporter: bobby campell of san francisco and billy walker of new york both suffer from a newly discovered disease which effects homosexual men. >> our best guest is it is somehow related to the gay life-style. >> i was in the fast lane at one time in terms of the way i lived my life, now i am not. >> reporter: researchers know of 413 people that contracted it, in the past year. one-third have died and none of them cured. >> all of us who saw patients in those days shared a sense of desperation as we saw more and more people become affected and there would simply

be no hope once they became ill. >> what is killing these people? >> what's killing them is severe, perhaps profound, maybe permanent breakdown of the immune system. caused by either some transmissible infection or combination of environmental exposure. >> right now you gentlemen in atlanta are frantically searching for this agent, if there is one, causing this disease, we certainly wish you luck finding it. >> number one was to figure out what it is. in epidemiology it is who, what, where, why. we have teams of cdc folks to go out, interview the people, find out why they would have gotten it, what was the risk factors. >> it appeared a year ago in new york's gay community. then in san francisco and los angeles. now it has been detected in haitian refugees, no one knows why. and in heavy drug users, especially in new york city. no one knows why. in some people with hemophilia,

a disease that prevents clotting so the patient needs frequent transfusions. >> why certain geographic areas and groups, and most frighteningly, it can be transmitted person to person, virtually a contagious form of cancer. specialists argue millions should be spent for research now. >> reporter: but there's almost no money being spent so far. >> on after 8 this morning, a puzzling disease that's spreading, it is called aids. it breaks down the body's immune system and 400 people are dead from it. with me in new york is larry kramer, co-founder of the gay men health crisis taskforce. how many friends have you lost to the disease? >> 20. >> 20? >> yes. >> and do you have more friends that are sick? >> very ill, jane, can you imagine what it is like if you lost 20 of your friends in the last 18 months. >> and you don't know why. >> nobody knows. three years later as little is

known as three years ago when it all started. >> do you know if you have it? >> there might be a time bomb inside me, we may have all been exposed and have some immunity to it. again, no one knows. >> dr. jaffe, what happens if years pass and you don't know what it is, what causes it, much less, how to cure it? >> we hope that doesn't happen. >> but if it does? >> we're going to be in for a big problem. >> who is we? >> all of us. r a fancy juice st? ready, go! hi, juice universe? one large rutabaga, with eggplant... done! that's not fair. glad i had a v8. the original way to fuel your day.

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come to man's country, see what we're all about and what we have to offer. come to man's country, and develop your body or a friendship with somebody else's. visit us once and you'll come again and again. >> i honestly am not sure the public was as aware of the fact that bath houses existed or what went on there, i am talking about the straight population. >> gay bath houses are considered sex clubs, places where homosexual men share sex often with several partners who they may or may not know. >> there was a lot of sex going on, also a lot of socializing, going to baths was a weekly event that most of us enjoyed quite a bit. >> i was a closeted bond trader on wall street leading a double life. it was behind closed doors and felt regulated and safe, very

commercial. you walk around in towels and see hot men in towels. >> guys, until we know better, cool it. layoff the number of people you have sex with until we know better. if it is a virus and sexually transmitted, it is passing between us. let's cool it for awhile. >> there was rumors about defense -- >> there was an enormous amount of denial. >> larry kramer's most famous he is a, 1,112 and counting said if this article doesn't scare the hit out of you, it should. >> larry anticipated what was going to happen and he was shunned. these people who are just feeling the vigor of freedom were told everything you're doing is killing you, and bath houses where there's lots of sex with different partners who you don't know, that's the worst thing possible. >> i don't believe that this city has any business permitting businesses to operate whose sole source of being is the very

activity that communicates the disease. >> dianne feinstein wanted me to close the bath houses and basically said if you can save one life, it is worth closing them. >> there are still a number of people who refuse to believe that the problem exists. what we are talking about is playing russian roulette. >> i got a call from cleve, he said merv, if you close bath houses, i am going to man the barricades. >> i didn't want them shut down by the government, what's next, close the bars? i don't think it was unrealistic to be afraid of government action against us during a period when we had just recently been decriminalized. >> it is the most frightening mystery. it began in africa and spread to haiti and from haiti to the united states. >> scientists strongly suspect it is a virus. all of the evidence indicates it can be transmitted only by

sexual contact or mixing of blood. >> to every one of us that may need a blood transfusion because of an accident or operation, there's now a steadily growing fear the nation's entire blood supply may be threatened by aids. >> last year a baby received a blood transfusion from this bank and developed aids. records indicated the donor was a homosexual. some doctors believe the best precaution might be to restrict all homosexuals from donating blood until more is known about aids. >> we realized gay men had to got out of the blood collecting system. and we made the call. >> the red cross, the commercial blood companies and centers for disease control have joined in asking the groups who are at risk not to donate or sell their blood. with new aids cases being reported 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. >> once the epidemiologic

pattern was clear that this was caused by a virus, the race was on to find the virus. the two labs in paris and bob gallo's lab at the national cancer institute were trying to show not only do we have the virus but have absolute proof it is the virus causing the disease. >> i think healthy competition is very useful, it sparks you, it sparks creativity. >> we wanted to be able to say we cracked this, not the french. >> the probable cause of aids has been found, variant of a known human cancer virus. >> they called a press conference, we have done it. the americans have done it. we are proud of our american scientists. >> we now have a blood test for aids, we should be able to prevent transfusion related cases. >> this is what the virus looks like, magnified thousands of times, now labeled hiv or human immuno deficiency virus. it is particularly destructive

because it attacks t-4 cells. which direct body's immune system. >> made a serious scientific advance, developed a blood test. without the blood test, you don't know who is infected, there could never be therapy. >> what about french skoo scientists who say they found the real virus. >> because of the fight between the french and americans about who discovered the virus, the test was delayed by a year. >> federal health officials announced licensing of a new screening test for aids to protect the nation's blood supply. test kits are being sent to blood banks around the country. >> we want to identify everyone who is a carrier. we want to identify every possible way from spreading the disease. >> controversy is over whether those that test positive should be reported to the state. the reason we are generally opposed to that, it will discourage people from being tested for fear their names will become part of a master list. >> there are not civil rights guarantees to protect confidentiality, you may lose

medical insurance and employment. into the aids test is like an atomic bomb going off. it was what everyone wanted. but suddenly it was a way of focusing on discrimination. >> only way to stop it is working people, i don't think there's any way around it. i think they have to do it. >> they were saying people that tested positive should be quarantined, tattooed. we were frightened by it. also we had no treatment. so what do you do with that information?

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aids is a frightening disease that's known to have struck at least 12,000 americans and probably more. tonight another case of aids has been confirmed affecting the most well known victim yet. >> mr. rock hudson has acquired immune deficiency syndrome. >> it was a huge news story and rock hudson had been one of the biggest movie stars of three decades prior to that. >> rock hudson made more than 60 movies, earning an oscar nomination for "giant" with elizabeth taylor in 1956. >> hudson came to paris to get treatment from the pasture

institute. >> immediately after finding the virus, started looking for treatments. 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 allies in this country are becoming increasingly impatient with what they see as lack of commitment to conquer the disease. >> everybody is saddened rock hudson has aids, people should be sad that almost 12,000 other americans also have aids. >> it was ironic when rock hudson was on the cover of "people" magazine. they say now we're all at risk. really? you pick this one closet case and focus on him? >> mr. hudson returned to los angeles in order to be in a familiar environment and to be cared for by his own physicians. >> you know the money that the media spent getting that helicopter shot getting him on the gurney from paris is probably more than the feds had spent on research to that point. >> he is in good spirits, happy to be home.

>> suddenly we all new somebody dying of aids. suddenly there was a different degree of compassion and attention paid to this thing we did not understand. it was a game changer. >> do you think the identity of the early victims, speaking now of the groups that it is supposed to be limited to, the whole group, did that have anything to do with the pace of government taking action? >> can there be any doubt about it, aids has more publicity since rock hudson was declared an aids victim than the previous two years in my opinion. there is no doubt in my mind that the response of the federal government was lethargic, apathetic, grudging. the president of the united states, god bless him, has not yet mentioned the word aids in public. >> in hollywood last night, a special den benefit raising money for the fight against aids. they turned up for the benefit called celebration of life, the goal to raise a million dollars for organizations that support aids victims. it was a glittery affair but it turned serious when burt lancaster had a message from

rock hudson. >> i am not happy i have aids, but if it is helping others, i can know my own misfortune had some positive worth. >> even though it was widely known rock hudson was suffering from aids, it was stunning news when word came of his death. >> sad news for his millions of fans. for the country, it threatens to fuel the fear about aids. in some places fear of the disease is itself becoming epidemic. >> even though we made some progress by then understanding the disease, there's huge amount of panic. people still believe that it was an airborne disease and there are things about mosquitos, just all of this misinformation going on. >> the misunderstanding and fear about aids are so widespread that even hospitals have difficulty getting proper medical and volunteer help to provide regular care for these sick children. doctor, the other day i put my

arms around a two-year-old baby who has aids and the baby was perspiring, later friends said to me how could you do that, what about the perspiration. should i have been scared? >> absolutely not. >> should one be worried about kissing? >> i don't think so. >> suppose someone sneezes on you or at you. >> no evidence it is transmissive by that kind of exposure. >> toilet seats, locker rooms, restrooms. >> no evidence that's been demonstrated. >> you say no evidence, but that kind of scares me. i mean, no evidence may mean it can happen, so you shouldn't kiss, you shouldn't use a glass and shouldn't do some of the things i talked about. >> we began to sense the fear, ignorance, the crew at my television show wouldn't change furniture that the hiv guests sat on. it did a lot to promote homophobia. >> god ordained us in a monogamous relationship.

it's causing all of these problems. even though it doesn't cause it, it is wrong. >> i point out, homosexuality. >> let's hear it for it is a sin. lots of people feel that way. >> blatant with their sex, that's what you say causing it, causing a lot of spreading around. i don't like it. >> if you spread aids around and stuff, it kills innocent people. >> complaints about gay discrimination and violence, gay bashing is the name for it, have risen dramatically. >> five inch dagger which he buried in my back about the shoulder blade, the two of them ran off screaming queer, queer. >> in atlanta police believe there may be as many as five unsolved murders of gay men. experts believe one reason for the increase in anti--gay violence is the public's fear and anger about aids. >> there were people on the right that said see what happens when people have unnatural sex. it serves them right. >> mayoral candidate will youy well,s has announced miss plan for dealing with aids in

houston. we will talk live with the candidate about his answer to combatting spread of the disease. >> four points, i can't remember but two of them. >> what's that? >> one was to shoot the queers. when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums i love that my shop is part of the morning ritual around here. people rely on that first cup and i wouldn't want to mess with that. but when (my) back pain got bad, i couldn't sleep. i had trouble getting there on time. then i found aleve pm. aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. for pain relief that can last into the morning. ♪ look up at a new day... hey guys! now i'm back. aleve pm for a better am.

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there are new warnings tonight that the aids virus may have already infected one million americans. >> the first day of school was

even more disappointing than ryan white had expected. he wanted to go with the other children but the western middle school wouldn't let him. the school set up a speaker phone. but the phone worked so poorly, it left ryan feeling frustrated and angry. >> it stinks. you can't hear anything. it is all muffled. >> not that everything has been easy for him, hemophiliac since birth, he has to be careful from bumps and bruises leading to uncontrolled bleeding. the greatest shock is when he was diagnosed with aids. the source was the same blood product that helped control his hemophilia. >> since each bottle contains the blood of 26 different donors, each and every month, hemophiliacs are using blood from scores of different people. >> ryan white was the first kid trying to go to school when he was hiv positive, and many, many

people in america are saying no, you have hiv in an acceptable way, and we are so, so sorry, but we're not letting you go near our children. >> the whites asked a federal court to force the school to let ryan in. >> ryan said they're trying to prolong it in the courts, they think i am going to die. they better not hold their breath, i am going back to school. it gave him something to live for. >> mr. president, if you had young children, would you send them to school with a child that had aids? >> it was his 30th press conference since the epidemic began. a reporter finally asked reagan about aids. >> it is true that some medical sources have said this cannot be communicated in any way from ones we already know and which would not involve a child being in a school, yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said this we know for a fact, that it is safe. >> reagan seemed to be throwing that little doubt as a sock to

the red wingers he didn't want to antagonize. when the president of the united states makes a statement like that, you can imagine how people think he must know, maybe they should worry about their kids going to school. this was a disservice by the president of the united states. >> do you guarantee my daughter will not get aids by helping? if you can't, he shouldn't be in school. >> today a long legal battle shifted in ryan's favor. >> dozens of parents pulled their children out of school when word spread through the small town that ryan returned to class. >> some kids, if i am in the hall flatten themselves up against the locker and they say look out, look out, there he is. >> they wrote fag on his folder, inside his locker, put a lot of obscenities. >> people were being cruel. we would be out grocery

shopping, calling him homo. he knew how they were being treated. >> ryan whoit's school is already face iing the issue so y other schools are going to be facing. >> the stories of mistreatment of persons with aids are unbelievable and always unconscionable, and it so angered me that i finally thought to myself bitch, do something yourself. >> elizabeth taylor was about passion and about love. her personal force brought people to the table. she partnered with a doctor, and the two of them created ab far. at that point there was no turning back. aids wasn't going back in the closet. >> 1987 in washington, d.c. they had an event and ronald reagan agreed to speak. elizabeth taylor says to him

whatever you feel about this, do this for me. i was master of ceremony, standing next to the president when he was giving his speech. into america faces a disease that is fatal and spreading and this calls for understanding, not ignorance. >> i spent a lot of time with his speech writer. so 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 and that's why i support routine testing. >> unfortunately the back half was really about testing everybody and what came out was the controversy. >> i've also asked to add the aids virus to the list of contagious diseases for which immigrants and aliens seeking permanent residence in the united states can be denied entry. this is in addition to the testing already under way 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 and turned their backs, probably had never been done before. it was quite a statement. it was an appropriate statement. >> the president rarely addresses hostile crowds but testing is a controversial issue. >> this controversy has become the centerpiece of an international aids conference in washington. >> c edward coop received a standing ovation from scientists and health workers. >> you're embarrassing me. >> he is popular because he opposed mandatory testing and advocated education as the major tool to fight aids. >> koop believed in life, against abortion, but firmly determined to save people dying from aids. >> aids education must start as -- at the lowest grade possible as part of any health or hygiene program. we can't afford to side step discussions about sexual practices, heterosexual and homosexual. >> let's be honest with

ourselves, aids information cannot be what some call value neutral. 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 was to say abstain, not how to do it safely, just don't do it. >> i think abstinence has been lacking in much of the education. >> coop said whatever you think of homosexuality, it is irresponsible not to share what we know about the way to act on your sexual desires safely. >> we are talking about the surgeon general, bob, where is he in this administration now where here he is -- >> isolated i think. >> here he is the surgeon general, chief health officer. >> he is very outspoken, goes off, does his own thing. he at one point wanted to send explanatory literature to every household in america. they stopped him fast on that.

>> reagan's deputies tried to shut him down. he started working out of his own home to produce this thing in secret. >> you should soon be receiving a historic document in your mail. it marks the first time the government tried to reach every resident regarding a public health crisis. >> this mailing speaks in clear language about oral, vaginal and anal intercourse as well as proper use of condoms. >> it's gotten so much publicity and everyone is scared to death about it. >> i wouldn't have a short term let's go to bed type relationship because of it. i don't think the risk is worth it. >> the pendulum that swung wildly in the '60s is swinging back to a more conservative position. movies are joining the safe sex bandwagon. drag net with tom hanks was one of the first. message seemed to be no condom, no sex. ♪ santa? ♪ (flourish spray noise) ho, ho, ho!

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aids patients breaking the law, in a desperate battle to save their own lives. >> across the country aids patients are now treating themselves with medications that seem hopeful. some drugs are available only

from so-called gorilla clinics. >> have something you think you can do, rather than be told to sit still, wait until we find something to help you, you may be dead by the time we get there. >> we were desperately trying to find drugs, test drugs that would be effective because it takes awhile to develop a brand new drug, one of the first things you do when you find out what the virus is is go screen drugs that are already developed. they screened a bunch of drugs, found out that azt had activity against hiv. >> they found it may stop the virus reproducing. >> the only approved drug in america. the most promising of drugs is a source of frustration and anger at $10,000 a year cost for patients, it's prohibitively expensive for most and not widely available. >> at the time it was more expensive than any other drug ever released in world history.

>> the stock of borrow's wellcome, the company that makes it, more than doubled value. >> azt, 8 bucks a pill. >> i found out that i had hiv but i was still trying to keep my job on wall street. one day i walked to work and somebody hands me a flyer on aids. everybody going into the office was given the same flyer. the discussion that happened on the trading floor in front of me became homophobic quickly. my mentor said these people, they all deserve to die. i just burned with fury all day. when i got home that night, there was the demonstration on almost all nightly news shows. i thought wow, that's power. i have got to find who these people are that did this demonstration. >> you saw 17 people get arrested. that's just the beginning. next week it is going to be 50 getting arrested. after that 100 arrested. >> that was started by larry

kramer in new york city, and soon after chapters began to spring up around the country. >> the militant group act up gained increasing influence on aids policy. weekly meetings of the new york chapter attract hundreds, mostly young, mostly gay. >> i realized i only had a year or two more to live probably so why not go out with a bang. so i quit my job on wall street and became a full time activist. let's do a big demonstration there and keep it there. >> we had so many angry young men who had lost friends and were terrified they were going to die. >> pretty scared. but being hiv positive, i don't have much choice. >> the fuse wrasse ready to be lit for us to explode. >> act up, fight back. >> the gay community which has

suffered the most from the disease is exploding with rage. >> it really turned the tide from perceiving ourselves simply as victims and helping us to understand that we had the power to change policy. >> there's a warehouse near washington filled with experimental drugs. its location is secret to keep demonstrators and desperate away. only one drug in this warehouse has full approval of the fda for treatment of the aids virus, azt. >> it was toxic for me, i became anemic. >> reporter: peter can't tolerate large doses, so he is taking a variety of drugs, not all legal. >> the illegal drug here in the bag is from japan. i get this on the underground market for about $100 a month. >> ronald reagan was hoisted in effigy as hundreds of aids activists descended on the food and drug administration, determined to shut it down.

>> so many people in act up, came from arts, marketing, they sold aids activism like you sell the newest madonna album and knew how to do it because they sold the newest madonna album, knew how to make the drama necessary to promulgate it in the minds of america. they figured out that the best way to get the government to do the right thing was to become smarter than the government. to learn more about drugs than the doctors who were advising the public health officials and then to shame the federal government into doing the right thing. >> act up strategy has been enormously successful getting the food and drug administration to loosen regulation of drugs for aids. they're trying to force scientists to work faster to develop and test new treatments. in the past, scientists have strongly resisted such pressure. >> this is a major day of

protest by aids activists in this country. 1,000 of them converging on national institutes of health, demanding more research on the disease. >> they started to become confrontational. signs up, you are killing us. why are you saying this, i am a physician, trying to save your lives. it was that kind of confrontation had me say time out. >> demonstrators blocked police cars, tried to break into the lead biomedical research agency. >> the police were about to arrest a whole bunch of them. i said don't arrest anybody, just bring them up to my office and let's start a dialogue. >> we were able to prove to dr. fauci that everything they were doing was wrong and tony, to his credit, saw we were right. >> act up does more than demonstrate, they've become part of the establishment they continue to attack. >> changed the way new drugs are

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200,000 gay rights activists, including buses filled with victims of aids, brought their campaign for equal rights brought their campaign to the nation's capitol today. >> how many must die for this administration to wake up? >> this huge march on washington, act up went there in force. we had a huge impact in the march. but then we were hearing about this project, this quilt project. >> this huge quilt that today is being spread out on the capitol mall in washington, as 2,000 panels, every one crafted by the friends and relatives of an aids victim. the memorial is the brain child of a san franciscan. >> we want to show the president and the congress and the rest of the country the enormity of this epidemic. >> what do you think when you say the word quilt? i think of my grandma. i saw it as a middle america traditional family values symbol

that could tap in to all that is good about the american people. and create a place to grieve together. >> to an act upper it sounded like a touchy, feel good bull. but when each of us walked on to that mall, and this unfolding started, it was overwhelming. >> bruce harris. david hicks. >> the quilt was really a tremendous response to a need that we didn't realize we had which was some central place, some graveyard that brought those that we lost together. >> i'm 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. maybe not even cleve, how powerful it was going to be. >> john mullhurn. >> the message said all of these people who are gone are missed. they had families. they had friends. they had lovers. they had children. these were not people you can just pretend didn't exist any more. they're part of your community. and it revealed the true enormity of the pandemic by showing the individual lives that had been taken from us. >> you've been taking azt and apparently it has been helping. at one point they were giving you three to six months and that was three years ago? what's the prognosis now? >> it's been three years and i'm still going strong. hopefully i'm going to be around long enough for a cure. >> you're brave about this whole thing. do you ever go off to yourself and cry or feel really upset? >> not really, i figure, since this is a way the hand was dealt

i've got to live this way, and i'm going to try to help anyone i can. >> the last thing ryan wanted to be was the boy with aids. but he became very famous and he picked up the banner and championed the rights of people afflicted and he carried it off very bravely. >> ryan said, maybe it happened to us, so it wouldn't happen to somebody else. and i think that's probably true. >> the flags over the indiana state house have been ordered flown at half staff today. in tribute to 18-year-old ryan white. >> i'll never forget him, and i'm proud to have known him for this short life he left a huge footprint. >> in washington early today, the house of representatives approved a bill authorizing more than $4 billion over five years. that's more than $900 million a

year for communities hardest hit for the aids epidemic. >> the bill was named for ryan white, the teen who died of aids this year. >> this legislation converts the millions of dollars in federal research into treatments that are 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's the lifeline for people getting drugs. >> for americans who were too prejudiced, too homophobic to confront aids as a national crisis. ryan white gave them an avenue to do the right thing for aids research. that boy did not die in vain. >> this is the first time congress has devoted a huge sum of money to help fight a single disease. health care providers say it proves finally that aids in america is a federal disaster. >> when the decade of the '80s ended we did not see and could not see the light at the end of

the tunnel because we still did not have an effective therapeutic regimen. >> for every aids patient treated in the 1980s, there will be 8 more treated in the 1990s. >> it was the worst epidemic in human history by the numbers, but even more so by the emotional content. >> by the end of the decade i could hardly walk down castro street without weeping. so many people were gone by they were, you would see people dying in front of you. i knew we would have to keep fighting to stay alive. >> this has been the aids decade. >> 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, there is concern that maybe the nation is complacent again. more than a million people infected with the virus in america alone. five million in the world.

perhaps there will be a cure or vaccine in the next decade. vaccine in the next decade. or maybe in the next century. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we'll be doing for tv what fm did for radio. >> there are some that have accused your videos of being soft porn. >> we like to call them tastefully smutty. >> they never had any problems saying how they feel. u2. >> what are your dreams? >> to rule the world. >> michael jackson is the man of the '80s. >> music that is all beat and talk. it is rap music. ♪ i'll speak my mind >> heavy metal. it glorifies sex and violence. it hates authorities. and adolescent boys love it. >> this weird beastly presentation that was birthed in the pit of hell. ♪