Early outrage over AIDS crisis reaches DC stage

WASHINGTON (AP) — Before there was a test, before it had a name and before there was any way to know if AIDS was spread through the air, touch or bodily fluids, there was confusion and denial.

Most politicians and policy makers in the 1980s didn’t want to talk about a killer disease that seemed to be affecting gay men. Now 30 years later, the nation’s capital is getting its first look at a story recalling those early days of the AIDS crisis and the outrage that turned a group of gay men into activists pushing for information and recognition of the disease.