aids AIDS gay gay gay gay gey obsolete medical term gay-related immune deficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay-related_immune_deficiency GRID The first name used for the disease now known as AIDS. GRID was first mentioned in a May 11, 1982 article in the New York Times. In this article, the initialism "A.I.D." (acquired immunodeficiency disease) is also mentioned. In the early days of the disease (i.e., 1982–1985), the term "gay plague" was also used, while similar terms were used for associated conditions later recognized as AIDS-defining clinical conditions, such as "gay cancer" for Kaposi's sarcoma and "gay pneumonia" for Pneumocystis pneumonia. The term GRID was never used in the scientific biomedical literature. In the popular press, it was only used for a very short period of time. On August 8, 1982, the acronym AIDS (for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) first appeared in the New York Times. It was initially styled as A.I.D.S. The reason for the GRID-to-AIDS change in nomenclature was the realization that the "gay" attribution did not fully encompass the demographics of the disease. gay cancer gay-related immunodeficiency The Ultimate LGBT Glossary: all your questions answered