Pins, Needles & Paranoia: HIV Panics

We examine HIV-syringe scares since the 1980s including the ‘AIDS Mary’ legend where the victim awakens after a one-night stand to find the words: ‘Welcome to the world of AIDS’ scrawled in lipstick on the bedroom mirror. These accounts served as cautionary tales about the importance of monogamy and the physical and moral perils of casual sex. A kindred panic involving ‘AIDS Harry’ is also examined along with other scares involving the fear of contracting AIDS from syringes in recent decades. These panics flourished because people believed that gay men and drug users who were HIV positive were morally deprived, rendering it plausible that they were capable of deliberately infecting the innocent either through sexual seduction or sticking them with contaminated needles.