The people who called AIDS God’s punishment for gays are helping measles make a comeback

MAGA, MAHA, or whatever we're calling a cult of people determined to drag America back to 1830, is having another banner year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last Friday that the U.S. currently has the largest number of measles cases we’ve seen in 35 years, and it comes amid a dramatic slide in childhood vaccination rates. Maybe it’s time to bring back the covered wagons and live in simpler times when 40 percent of all children failed to reach adulthood. We’re well on our way.Growing up in the '80s and '90s, it was impossible to escape the hatred and hostility hurled at the gay community. AIDS was our fault. It was God’s punishment, and we were simply being killed off by some divine and righteous act brought in by millions of prayer warriors hellbent on never minding their own business. Outside of living in constant fear of HIV itself, kids like me were constantly hearing the same thing from basically everyone. Ship gay people to an island and let them all die together. How Christian of them. My personal favorite saying from the time was, “AIDS kills fags dead." I got so tired of wiping that off my locker in junior high that I eventually just let it stay.Fast forward to 2020. During COVID, those same political and religious movements rejected vaccines, masks, and basic public health because “Don’t Tread On Me,” or some other dumb tagline co-opted from another time with no historical context. Whatever works, I guess. And now in 2026, as our summer of preventable diarrhea and other vintage diseases spread across our great land like wildfire plumes, let’s take a closer look at where these measles outbreaks are occurring.In a map published by NBC, the largest circle sits over West Texas, where the current epidemic exploded through a close-knit Mennonite community with low vaccination rates. Another large cluster appears over South Carolina. Another over Utah. Another area around parts of Virginia. Smaller outbreaks dot Idaho, K