ABSTRACT

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) Project had just begun offering support services to persons living with AIDS. This support included financial assistance, a food bank, advocacy through the complicated County social services, legal advice, and mental health support. The persons living with AIDS were dying, and the people caring for them — the family and friends who survived — frequently found need for ongoing support, but none existed. One mourner in a mixed group was a mother whose son had died of AIDS-related illness. Caregivers from all walks of life attended the groups but the gay male population was the population most greatly affected by AIDS in the United States in the early 1980s. Gay men often lack acceptance in their home communities so they leave home estranged from their families. Cities with large gay populations accept and welcome them, and they will settle in these places.