The CDC lost a lot of money that could have helped immensely in the research to counteract the spread of aids. Ronald Reagan’s policies were to cut government spending, which included the spending of the much needed CDC at the time. Even newly elected president Ronald Reagan would not talk about the issue publically for the fact that it might hurt his status as the president of the United States of America. The issue being that it was surrounded by the gay population making it a touchy subject for most. The politics surrounding the AIDS epidemic in And the Band Played On was a complicated issue. This was making it very difficult on the political side of the AIDS issue. This made the prejudice against gays much more prevalent just about everywhere. at first AIDS was being called gay cancer due to the fact that people were unaware of how it was actually spread. Because of the lack of knowledge of the nature of this virus it was not given a specific name. When AIDS started killing more and more people, the general public became aware of the outbreak.

This made the AIDS epidemic more prevalent in these areas due to the fact that it was being spread mainly through gays. The higher populations of gays in these areas made it easier for them to cope because they dealt with less criticism. San-Francisco and New York City became heavily populated with homosexuals. It was especially harder for gay men and women during this time because people who were homosexual were treated as outcasts and alienated. During the 1980’s being gay was much different than in today’s society. At first, it was only being published in articles mostly only read by the gay community. One of which is the fact that after this virus became better known by the public, but not by everyone. And the band played on had many cultural issues taking place all over heavily populated areas like San-Francisco.

And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts