There have been many books written, lots of television documentaries and increasing numbers of films about the history of HIV/AIDS*. They are all important, not least because it’s crucial that we never forget what our communities went through in the years following the disease’s first appearance.

And that is one why reason why I was so pleased to receive this recording of the 1983 radio programme ‘I Will Survive’. Made by Pacifica Radio and broadcast on station KPFK Los Angeles as part of Gay Pride Month celebrations on June 19th 1983, it really is the voice of our communities at the time when AIDS was really beginning to impact. As such it conveys the anger, the fear, the frustration – and even the widespread ignorance – as the firestorm unfolds.

For anyone researching the social or political history of AIDS this is an essential resource. I know that for me, listening to the various interviewees and hearing the issues they discussed really brought back exactly what it was like to be a gay man at that time.

There is, for example, one AIDS activist who describes how the medical world played a key role in creating the notion of AIDS as ‘the gay plague’. Then there’s the story of a doctor who was asked by a journalist, “Is AIDS a problem now or is it still just affecting gays?”.

There’s widespread condemnation of the bathhouses that refused to display AIDS information, let alone make condoms available. One bathhouse owner refusing to take action on the grounds that ‘none of his customers had gotten the disease’.

There is, understandably, huge condemnation of the government for its lack of response: at the time this programme was broadcast it was widely believed that Reagan was about to veto the increased spending that had been approved by Congress.

But ‘gay community leaders’ also come in for some bitter criticism. Randy Shilts, for example, argues that they were afraid to make an issue of AIDS because ‘they feared that the world won’t like us if they find out about our lifestyle.’

And then there was the ignorance out in the communities. One gay man, for example, asks ‘why have we created this disease for ourselves?’. His view is far from uncommon: AIDS activist Bobbi Campbell says there are many people with AIDS who believe they got it because of their promiscuity.

This is an extraordinary insight into ‘the way we were’ as the AIDS crisis was breaking. I am extremely grateful to David Hunt, one of the programmes producers (pictured below in 1983), for sending me this. His own post on this programme, which I cannot commend heartily enough, can be found here.

• I have now written a detailed study of the response to HIV/AIDS – from both governments and our communities – in my eBook Gay in the 80s. Full details are available here.