alexandra levine: at the beginning of the epidemic, it was almost unheard of for a woman to have this disease. at this point in the range of 25% of patients with aids are women and women are the fastest rising new group of hiv aids in the country and probably in the world as well. the first stories we all heard in this country about aids said that it was in white, gay males in california. it said it so often and so much that we believed it and because we believed it, it lulled the rest of us into this comfortable state of denial about our own risk. i had white, gay friends in atlanta who said, "oh yeah, girl, i meet all the other criterias, but i haven't done anybody in california." so even in the white, gay male community that was outside of california, we were led to believe we weren't at risk. what a joke. at the beginning of the epidemic, hiv was seen primarily in gay men and in injection drug users. i think that was a-- just a happenstance, an accident if you will. it's a disease that's spread by sexual roots in any direction, man to man, man to woman, woman to man, so it's a sex