ABSTRACT
The AIDS crisis has had a significant impact on gay and lesbian communities of the West. This crisis served as the overriding backdrop for Gay Games II, which took place in 1986 in one of its major epicentres – San Francisco. The significant effects of this crisis included; the transformation of gay and lesbian life and politics, and an increase in the visibility of gay and lesbian communities within society generally, as well as the re-pathologisation of homosexuality and an influential backlash against gays and lesbians. The resultant backlash was particularly marked within the US, and gay and lesbian communities adopted both radical and mainstreaming social and political perspectives and strategies in their ‘battle’ with the disease and its consequences.
