Gay plague

"Gay plague" was an early term that was used to refer to AIDS in the late 1970s, before there was a reasonable level of medical understanding of the syndrome[?]. It was then seen primarily as a syndrome affecting gay people, rather than a syndrome that can be passed on in both sexual and non-sexual ways (e.g., blood transfusions) to any person, but particularly to any sexually active person not practising safe sex, irrespective of sexual orientation.

When used in references not contemporaneous to this period, it is more often seen as a form of homophobic hate speech.