Can confirm. My eldest brother died of it via a blood transfusion. This was during the early days when it was little understood and all treatment was experimental.
The "popular" assumption was that catching it proved you were gay and highly promiscuous, or sharing heroin needles, therefore deserved it. Some of my brother's friends never spoke to him again from the moment of finding out. I think he found other's reactions as hard to deal with as the death sentence.
Mother did her utmost to never mention, and made me promise to always say he had cancer.
That bigotry still exists, and is far too common, as seen in some of this thread's comments.
The "popular" assumption was that catching it proved you were gay and highly promiscuous, or sharing heroin needles, therefore deserved it. Some of my brother's friends never spoke to him again from the moment of finding out. I think he found other's reactions as hard to deal with as the death sentence.
Mother did her utmost to never mention, and made me promise to always say he had cancer.
That bigotry still exists, and is far too common, as seen in some of this thread's comments.