ABSTRACT
To many people some of the time and to some people most of the time, the emphasis placed by some activists on politically acceptable terminology must have seemed misplaced. The moves to replace 'AIDS victim' with PWA~ then with PWHIV ~ PLWA~ for example~ or the furore over the term 'risk group~ can appear to be the most fastidious irrelevance. Yet the refusal to accept demeaning terminology and the attempt to assert control over the language of AIDS is one of the most striking features of the history of the epidemic. A recognition of the power of words, an appreciation of the importance of discourse in understanding the problems of AIDS sprang from the history of gay liberation~ where, as we have noted in Chapter 2, much attention was focused on the creative power of language, not least in the creation of the term 'gay'.
