Abby Dow Intro Draft

On April 21, 1987 Surgeon General Dr. Everett Koop stepped up to the podium at the American Medical Association’s Conference on AIDS and Public Policy to deliver his address on his recent report of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the need for education to change the epidemic’s course. The stakes of the speech were incredibly high. In 1981, the first cases of what the Center for Disease Control (CDC) initially called “GRID,” or gay-related immune deficiency emerged in the United States and began to spread. The Reagan administration ignored the issue until 1985, when political pressure became too great, and Reagan asked Koop to issue a report on AIDS, which turned out to be a sort of turning point in the push for AIDS awareness. One of the central pillars of Koop’s report was AIDS education, and after releasing the report, he went on a tour to promote AIDS education, of which this speech was a part.

AIDS education was a highly politicized issue, and there were strong reactions to his announcement on both sides. On the right, critics argued that the majority of cases stemmed from “immoral victims,” including homosexuals, prostitutes, and intravenous drug users, and these critics vehemently opposed the teaching of anything related to sexual contact to children. On the other side, LGBTQ interest groups as well as minority groups who were being disproportionately affected by AIDS saw the report as a positive step forward in what would be a long journey to adequately cope with the epidemic. There is still a great deal of debate today about whether the results of the push for AIDS related sex education, shaped by these voices on both sides, were a step in the right direction. In looking at the historical impact of Koop’s push for AIDS education, this paper explores how the voices from the far right, fear about the epidemic, and the need to address issues facing minority groups shaped the resulting sex education curriculum. It also seeks to explore the legacy sex education initiatives that resulted from the push.