PART THREE: How A Tragedy Built LGBT into a Global Powerhouse

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This is Part 3 of a 7-part series introducing Stolen Rainbow: The Great Unmasking — a powerful new film exposing how the LGBT movement hijacked God’s covenant symbol and turned it into a political weapon. See Part 1, 2.

The film premieres September 25 at the Republican Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C.
To attend, visit christianaction.org/stolen-rainbow-rsvp-film-premiere/

RSVP today!

When AIDS first appeared in the early 1980s, it looked like it would devastate the LGBT movement.

Instead, it became its greatest political weapon.

It transformed a once-fringe sexual subculture into a well-funded, highly organized, globally protected empire — armed with public sympathy, government grants, and media insulation.

It became, in effect, America’s first politicized virus — and it was used masterfully.

This is the chapter of LGBT history the media won’t touch.
But we tell it in full in Stolen Rainbow: The Great Unmasking.

A Plague That Shocked the Nation

AIDS didn’t start as a political talking point.

It started as a death sentence.

The disease — spread largely through homosexual sex and intravenous drug use — was terrifying.
By 1986, over 45,000 Americans were dead. The CDC scrambled to reassure the public that it couldn’t be spread through handshakes, swimming pools, or restaurant meals.

But one thing the CDC couldn’t deny?

AIDS was overwhelmingly concentrated among gay men.

Hospitals turned patients away.
Funeral homes refused the bodies.
Gay men were evicted, fired, and shunned.

Public fear was intense — and not entirely irrational.
At the time, the disease was mysterious, incurable, and often fatal.

But something else was happening beneath the panic…

From Victims to Victors — Follow the Money

The tragedy of AIDS was very real. But so was the opportunity it presented.

LGBT activists and their allies used the crisis to shift the narrative.

Instead of being seen as fringe provocateurs or sexual radicals, they rebranded themselves as a persecuted minority, oppressed not only by disease but by society, religion, and the state.

They seized the moral high ground.
And then — they followed the money.

Federal dollars began to flow.

• In the 1990s, the Clinton administration poured nearly $5 billion into HIV/AIDS programs.

• Philanthropic giants like the Arcus Foundation contributed tens of millions more.

• By 2015, global spending on HIV/AIDS treatment and research topped $500 billion.

And while not all of that money went to LGBT groups directly, enough of it did to turn a poor, marginalized movement into one of the most powerful political machines in American history.

RSVP

ACT UP: Anger, Anarchy, and AIDS

If the rainbow flag was the symbol, and AIDS the catalyst, then ACT UP was the battering ram.

ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — wasn’t your typical advocacy group.

It was led by Larry Kramer, who called himself the “angriest gay man in the world.”
And he meant it.

ACT UP didn’t hold candlelight vigils. They held die-ins, kiss-ins, and full-scale disruptions.

• They stormed political offices and doused them in fake blood.

• They chained themselves to desks and blocked traffic with their bodies.

• They draped a 15-foot condom over Senator Jesse Helms’ house.

• They stormed St. Patrick’s Cathedral during mass, throwing themselves on the floor and shouting, “You’re killing us!”

They weren’t just considered offensive. They wanted to offend.

As one ACT UP member said: “We weren’t trying to win them over. We were trying to make them afraid of us.”

And it worked.

From Anger to Access: Power Consolidated

Despite internal tensions — between the moderates and the militants — ACT UP and its sister group, Queer Nation, succeeded in bullying their way into the halls of power.

The media, already sympathetic, gave them airtime.
Hollywood opened its doors.
Politicians backed down, one by one.

And with AIDS still raging, the LGBT movement positioned itself not just as a community in need — but as a civil rights cause, demanding laws, protections, and privileges.

Suddenly, the goal wasn’t just to legalize homosexual sex.

It was:

• Full normalization

• Government-funded programs

• Control of language, curriculum, and conscience

The Fruit of the Strategy

By the mid-1990s, the LGBT movement had moved from the shadows to the spotlight.

• Gay-themed sex education was introduced in public schools under the banner of HIV prevention.

• Media portrayals of LGBT characters shifted from fringe to heroic.

• Religious objections were labeled as hate speech.

And all of it — all of it — was made possible by the tragic momentum of AIDS.

The movement took grief, and turned it into grants.
It took death, and turned it into dominance.

And perhaps worst of all: it buried repentance beneath revenge.

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Why This Matters Now

Today, LGBT activists still use the ghost of AIDS to silence critics.

Disagree with Pride parades? You must want gay people to die.
Oppose drag queen story hour? You’re just like the people who “ignored AIDS.”
Question the agenda? You’re a hatemonger endangering lives.

But here’s the truth:

The LGBT movement didn’t just survive AIDS — it grew fat on the back of it.

It used that crisis to transform itself from a marginalized group into a political superpower.

And that power is now being used to attack everything that stands in its way — especially the Church.

Unmask the Empire — Before It’s Too Late

In Stolen Rainbow: The Great Unmasking, we don’t just talk about flags and parades.

We expose how tragedy became strategy — and how that strategy turned into tyranny.

The rainbow was never meant to represent revenge.
It was meant to represent mercy.

And it’s time we reclaimed it.

Join us for the film’s premiere on September 25 at the Republican Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C.

👉 Reserve your seat now: RSVP