gay plague

English

Etymology

From being an epidemic spreading through the gay community.

Noun

gay plague (uncountable)

1. (pathology, obsolete, slang, 1980s) Synonym of AIDS (“acquired immune deficiency syndrome”)
   • 1989, Marshall Kirk, Hunter Madsen, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s, Doubleday Books, page xiii:

     And it aims to launch upon this task in an era of superlative need and supreme difficulty, the frightening era of ‘the gay plague,’ AIDS.

Synonyms

• gay cancer
• GRID (gay-related immune deficiency or gay-related immunodeficiency)