The brutality of that time feeds into a collective trauma among queer men that, for some, has led to a defensiveness over monkeypox. Speculation was rife: could it be, for example, the high use of amyl nitrite (or “poppers”) by gay and bi men on club floors and in bedrooms? Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, a searing play about that early period, explored the panic as gay and bi men watched their friends suddenly stricken by devastating illnesses and suffering often unbearable deaths, unsure about the cause and whether or when it would be their turn. For a significant period in the 1980s, no one knew what was causing rare illnesses such as Kaposi’s sarcoma among men who have sex with men. We know what monkeypox is, the symptoms are largely mild for most, and an effective vaccine – developed for smallpox – is available in the UK. ![]() This is, of course, quite unlike HIV, a virus that has taken the lives of tens of millions globally, and which ravaged gay and bi male communities in the west.
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