"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.