Abstract

When AIDS appeared in 1981, gay activism already existed in various parts of the world. In North American and Western European countries, and also in some South American or Asian countries, gay men were the first to react against the epidemic (Altman 1994: 19–24), immediately establishing a close link between gay and AIDS activism (Adam et al. 1999). In other countries in the global South, particularly in Africa, this link did not exist, but over time, men who have sex with men (MSM) were regarded as affected by the epidemic nearly everywhere in the world.