I remember to the day when I first became aware of AIDS, though it wasn't yet called that, being referred to as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency, or 4-H for the people it seemed to affect - heroin users, homosexuals, Haitians, and hemophiliacs.
It was 1st June 1982. I was travelling back home from Glasgow and had bought Rolling Stone to read on the train. There was a ling excellent article on this frightening new mysterious disease. It talked of Kaposi's Sarcoma and psittacosis. It was a lovely June day, the sun streamed in the windows in contrast to the darkness of the article.
On the journey, I passed close to Bellahouston Park, a place I knew well but I wasn't going there that day, unlike many many thousands of people who were there to see Pipe John Paul II visit Glasgow - which is why the day is easy to identify. Again there seemed a contrast between the happy eager crowds, there to celebrate what for me was a backward superstition, and the suffering described. Suffering that was already being made worse by prejudice, some of which, but not all, was religious based.
The article was harrowing, powerful, hard hitting but even with thar it was impossible to imagine quite how horrific an effect it would have.
