Abstract:
Stigma, prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination have been present in the
history of humanity for centuries and end up serving as the basis for social
attitudes and omissions, be they individual or collective, up to our current days,
because they deal with themes considered tabus or subjects which many are
not able deal with or talk about, such as homosexuality, prostitution, successive
monogamies. They don t tackle the difficulty of dialoguing (prejudice) and use
their I think it s this way positions as the foundation to judge others. The
emergence of HIV/AIDS in the United States, affecting people considered at the
margin of society such as male homosexuals, Haitians, heroin addicts,
hemophiliacs and sex professionals, reinforced the initial prejudice relating to
the illness, which caused the victims of this new illness to suffer discrimination.
This attitude was reinforced by the media as they reported and reinforced by
exposing those afflicted with the new syndrome. However, the cases arising in
France were not evidenced, these cases being quite different from what was
preached as a predilection of the virus and became known as the risk group .
The religious institutions, more specifically the churches, initially in the decade
of 1980, propagated this thought that HIV/AIDS was a divine punishment, a type
of retribution for the sins of the first victims, therefore they were guilty for their
illness. However, some religious leaders did not agree with this view of theology
of retribution and went out to help the people who were suffering with the illness
or with the social death, be it with spiritual help or charity or simply granting
some of their time to help those in need of assistance.
