In 1984, a major announcement was made about research into the cause of AIDS.
On this day in 1984, the USA’s Secretary for Health and Human Services, Margaret Heckler, called a press conference and made a brief but significant statement.
Heckler told the media: “The probable cause of AIDS has been found: a variant of a known human cancer virus.”
Unusually, the announcement came before the publication of the research in a scientific journal; the paper followed a few weeks later. At the time, scientists predicted a vaccine would be available within two years — a claim that would prove to be stunningly wrong.
The discovery of the virus, now known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), was credited to Dr Robert Gallo. The name HIV was not adopted until 1986.
A French team at the Pasteur Institute had published a study the previous year describing a virus they had isolated from a man at risk of AIDS.
It later emerged that they had sent a sample of their virus to Gallo’s institute, and the discoveries were not entirely independent.
After a protracted legal dispute, the two groups agreed to share credit for the discovery. The French team was led by Françoise Barré‑Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier.
Fashion designer Halston was born on this day in 1932
Roy Halston Frowick went from being born in Iowa during the Great Depression to designing hats for Hollywood’s most famous actresses in the 1950s, before launching his full fashion range and becoming an internationally famous designer in the 1970s.
One of his most famous designs was the pillbox hat worn by Jacqueline Kennedy at her husband’s presidential inauguration.
The designer is synonymous with the wild New York nightlife of the 1970s, where he was a regular at Studio 54 and socialised with Andy Warhol and Liza Minnelli.
He made millions of dollars as a designer and also created uniforms for Olympic teams and airline crews. By the late 1980s he had stopped designing and eventually lost control of the company that bore his name.
In 1988 he was diagnosed with HIV, and he passed away in 1990 from Kaposi sarcoma, an AIDS‑defining illness. He was 57 years old. The Halston company continues to produce designer clothing today.
His life was brought to the screen in the TV series Halston with Ewan McGregor playing the designer.
Charles Silverstein was born in 1935
Dr Charles Silverstein was a psychologist who delivered a landmark presentation that helped pave the way for homosexuality to be declassified as a mental illness.
He was known for challenging the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder and for his influential work in the field of human sexuality. In particular, he co‑wrote The Joy of Gay Sex, first published in 1977, which was considered groundbreaking for its frank and open discussion of gay sexuality.
Silverstein is recognised as a pioneer in the fight against anti‑gay discrimination and for his contributions to the advancement of LGBTQ rights from the 1970s onwards.
Silverstein is recognised as a pioneer in the fight against anti‑gay discrimination and for his contributions to the advancement of LGBTQ rights from the 1970s onwards.
As a young man, Silverstein felt the societal pressure to hide his sexuality, but in the wake of the Stonewall Riots in 1969 he became involved in the gay rights movement.
In 1973 he was one of several speakers invited to address the American Psychological Association (APA) on the topic of homosexuality. At the time, homosexuality was still officially diagnosed as a mental disorder.
“Psychoanalysts believed that gay men were doomed to lives of depression and, eventually, suicide because of their shame,” Dr Silverstein later told the Windy City Times, the well‑known Chicago‑based LGBTQ publication. “I argued that these men were not ashamed because they were homosexual but because of what these therapists were telling them.”
Just 10 months after Dr Silverstein’s presentation, the APA voted to remove homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders.
At the time, the organisation issued a statement saying the decision should not be taken to suggest that homosexuality was as desirable as heterosexuality, or that being homosexual was “normal”. The change is, however, widely regarded as a landmark moment in the fight for LGBTIQA+ rights.
Speaking to The Advocate’s LGBTQ&A podcast in 2021, Dr Silverstein explained that he had been chosen to present the technical component of the argument, outlining the research into homosexuality, while other speakers contributed perspectives from different backgrounds.
And then Jean O’Leary, who had been a nun but was no longer a nun — she left the church,” Dr Silverstein recalled. “She would make the presentation from the point of view of ordinary people, about discrimination in the city of New York. So it was a very well‑organised presentation. We knew what everybody was going to do.”
“I really do like to say these changes that occurred are not because of any one person at any one time, but it’s really the sum total of a number of people who fought, sometimes against the enemy, sometimes with each other, because we had lots of that,” he continued. “There is no one person that can claim responsibility for these changes. We worked together. I was chosen to make this presentation because I knew the research, I knew the data, and I could present it well.”
The Joys of Gay Sex, the book he wrote with author Edmund White, included clear descriptions and illustrations of sexual practices and positions that gay men can undertake, alongside essential health information. It is seen as a significant work in encouraging gay men to talk about sex and understand their own bodies.
Silverstein went on to write many books, including guides for parents of gay children, works for couples seeking therapy, and a memoir. His publications included A Family Matter: A Parents’ Guide to Homosexuality (1977), Man to Man: Gay Couples in America (1981), Gays, Lesbians and Their Therapists (1991), The Initial Psychotherapy Interview: A Gay Man Seeks Treatment (2011), and the memoir For the Ferryman: A Personal History (2011).
He lost his long‑term partner William Bory to AIDS in 1993. He later married historian Bill Bartelt in 2017, though the marriage ended in divorce.
Dr Charles Silverstein passed away on 30 January 2023, with his death attributed to lung cancer.
