The shift was ironic, considering that New York City was the epicenter for the epidemic, both biologically and, at first, psychologically. Because of the extraordinary reporting of the New York Native, the city’s gay community had been exposed to far more information about AIDS than San Francisco’s in 1981 and 1982. All the ingredients for a successful battle against the epidemic existed in New York City, except for one: leadership. In San Francisco, the plethora of gay leaders created an environment in which questions of AIDS policy were debated, albeit brutally.
