ABSTRACT
The year 2009 marked the fortieth anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, which inaugurated modern gay rights movement. The issue of gay rights no longer languished at the margins of the political agenda but became a major force that got attention of elected officials and that provoked countermo-bilization by their opponents. Opponents of gay rights portray homosexuals as immoral sinners, claim that societal disapproval of homosexuality is justified for the protection of both the traditional family unit and future generations, blame homosexuals for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS, and assert that homosexuals are disproportionately likely to be pedophiles. The presidential policy stream provides a partial explanation of presidential role in gay-rights policy making. The oldest and best-known gay organization focusing on AIDS is the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). The federal agencies involved with issues of homosexuality were the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
