In the 1980s, as the Aids epidemic spread among American homosexuals, Pat Buchanan, the political commentator and sometime presidential candidate, called the disease "nature's revenge". Last week, as pairs of men and pairs of women walked down the marriage aisle with the blessing of the state of Massachusetts, it appeared that nature has a funny way of showing her feelings.

In gaining full legal marriage rights in an important state, American gays have effected the quickest transition from pariah status to protected status in the history of civil rights movements. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won a record landslide after a campaign in which his party ridiculed the gays who that year had attended the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. In 1985, a majority of Americans polled (51 per cent, according to the Los Angeles Times) favoured quarantining those suffering from Aids, the great majority of whom were homosexual. That Aids would further marginalise homosexuals seemed clear to virtually everyone.