The cumulative global number of HIV infections among adults has more than doubled since the beginning of the decade, from about 10 million in 1990 to almost 27.9 million by mid-1996. Of these, 58 percent were men, and 42 percent were women.
68 percent of the global total of individuals ever infected with HIV were in sub-Saharan Africa, totaling 19 million. 18 percent of the global total, totaling 5 million, were in South and Southeast Asia. That means that the majority of HIV infections- 24 million (93 percent) -have occurred in the developing world.

More than 6 million adults have developed AIDS from the beginning of the pandemic to July 1996. By July 1996, 5.8 million people (4.5 million adults and 1.3 million children), 75 percent of all people with AIDS, are estimated to have died from AIDS worldwide. 4.5 million (close to 75 percent) were in sub-Saharan Africa; 0.4 million were in Latin America and the Caribbean (7 percent); and 0.75 million were in North America, Europe and North and South Pacific combined (12 percent). In South and Southeast Asia, where the pandemic gained intensity more recently, it is estimated that 330,000 adults have developed AIDS.

In summary, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is as powerful as ever. Reports show that the pandemic is now composed of distinct epidemics each with their own features and force, and disproportionately impacting on the developing world. As the HIV/AIDS epidemics within each region and country have become increasingly diverse and fragmented, they have created a multifaceted, devastating pandemic.

Since the start of the epidemic from 1 to 1.5 million cumulative HIV infections have occurred in North America, and HIV infection has been one of the major causes of death for individuals between the ages of 25 and 44. Among men in this age group, it was the leading cause of death in the U.S. and the second leading cause of death in Canada in 1994. In the same year, HIV infection was the third leading cause of death among 25- to 44-year-old women in the U.S.

North America has seen the HIV epidemic slow in recent years; new infections have started to level off. This has been largely due to the decline in sexual transmission between men as a result of behavior change.

Along with an overall slowing in AIDS incidence, there has been substantive shift in the populations affected. From one point of view there has been a certain “mainstreaming” of the illness; AIDS cases related to heterosexual contact represent an increasing proportion of newly diagnosed cases in North America. But there has also been a certain marginalization of the illness; in 1995 AIDS incidence was 6.5 times greater for blacks and 4 times greater for Hispanics than for whites, 20 percent of persons diagnosed with AIDS were women. 15 percent were infected heterosexually. AIDS among prisoners was 7 times the rate of the non-incarcerated population, and AIDS was the second leading cause of death among prisoners. In short, although male-to-male sexual contact remains a leading cause of infection, the shift has been toward women and people of color, and especially toward intravenous drug users of both sexes and any colors.

Piggybacking on the human rights struggles of the 50's and 60's, and in the wake of the sexual revolution of the 60's and 70's counterculture, tolerance was growing throughout society. The overall hostility of mainstream society towards gays had given way to pockets of tolerance and queer culture. Watershed's in gay history, such as the Stonewall Riot, had increased gay visibility.  From the moment when medical professionals first began to recognize the syndrome which we would later call AIDS, it was understood that this disease had a special affinity for gay men. Initially it was referred to as GRID -- Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. (Even though the percentage of gay persons with HIV/AIDS has been steadily decreasing, gay men still account for more than half of all cases.) It would be difficult to know what it means to say that AIDS has slowed the progress of this acceptance, but in some ways it surely has. At the very least, many of the gay community's most noteworthy spokesman have succumbed to the illness. Much of this has however found lasting voice in the historical chronicles and artistic reflections with which the community has responded.  The struggle continues. HIV/AIDS still affects the shape that struggle takes. Prejudice against gays, by and large the norm anyway, took on a renewed vigor as people could associate this awful disease with these "bad" people.

This plague struck in the early 1980's, when homosexuals in general, gay men in particular, had been making some gains toward social acceptance. However in many ways, and with many exceptions, the rising wave of gay culture followed the shorelines of other inequities. The gay culture acceded to the white and male focus of mainstream culture. So although this struggle for human rights continues, it has only begun to expand into the non-white and non-male communities.

Ironically, the devastation wrought by HIV/AIDS  highlights both gay and mainstream prejudice; but it also has provoked at least some positive developments in making the movement more inclusive. Not everywhere, but more than ever, the banner of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people flies as one.
But as the day dawns where gay and bisexual men will no longer make up the majority of new cases, the demographics of HIV/AIDS are flowing into other socially disenfranchised populations.

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