By Scott Malia, Associate Professor of Theatre, College of the Holy Cross

First it was referred to as a “mysterious illness.” Later it was called “gay cancer,” “gay plague,” and “GRID,” an acronym for gay-related immune deficiency.

Most egregiously, some called it “4H disease,” shorthand for “homosexuals, heroin addicts, hemophiliacs, and Haitians,” the populations most afflicted in the early days.

While these names were ultimately replaced by AIDS – and later, after the virus was identified, by HIV – they reflected two key realities about AIDS at the time: a lack of understanding about the disease and its strong association with gay men.

Although the first report in the mainstream press about AIDS appeared in 1981, the first movies to explore the disease wouldn’t come for four more y

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