ABSTRACT
People with AIDS faced severe housing and job discrimination as the press fueled new unfounded fears and paranoia on a daily basis. In the midst of this cold-hearted panic, Mario Cuomo, the governor of New York, handed down "guidelines" designed to shut down the gay bathhouses and sex clubs. City Hall reporter for the New York Native covered a number of different aspects of the bathhouse closings. The most historically revealing was this survey of prominent gay leaders and city officials. Some of these organizations are no longer in existence. Many of these people are out of the spotlight of gay politics. Their fear that the state could and would use AIDS to outlaw homosexual sex is accurately revealing of the vulnerability and isolation that gay people felt at that moment. Despite the high degree of panic exhibited by the leadership, not a single person called for street activism or a grass-roots movement to respond to the government's action.
