And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

by Randy Shilts

In New York City, gay leaders remained flatly opposed to gay men taking the test for fear of civil liberties violations. Rather than enact laws protecting civil rights, a much more difficult task in New York than California, the strategy was simply to make it impossible for gay men to be tested. Without any public comment, Health Commissioner David Sencer filed a public order declaring that no laboratory in New York City would be permitted to conduct antibody tests except for scientific research. The order did not apply to blood banks. While the New York City testing ban eliminated the possibility of abuses, it also denied the test to people who might want to take it for a personal reason. A number of gay doctors were stunned. They had looked forward to the test for its possible use on ailing patients who appeared to have bizarre manifestations of ARC. An antibody test would steer them toward immune dysfunctions, while a negative result might guide them toward other non-AIDS diagnoses. There was also the question of women with a history of drug abuse considering having children. A child born to an infected woman would most likely be infected with the AIDS virus and suffer the fate of those lonely infants who were born to die. The value of the test was incalculable in such cases, but doctors were denied its use for their patients because a handful of gay AIDS activists and political leaders had persuaded the health commissioner to ban the test for political reasons.