Striking Posers: History's Hottest 100 Male Models

From:  Boy Culture

The face of many campaigns, and for many, the face of AIDS

Joe Macdonald
(?, 19?—1983/AIDS)

A gorgeous model with work to burn in the late '70s and early '80s, Macdonald became a very early and high-profile face of AIDS in the industry when he passed away from the then-new and terrifyingly unpredictable disease. New York Magazine ran a story about how straight female models were becoming too paranoid about infection to work with gay male models; the article is as direct a link as is possible today to the moment when the industry decided it was career suicide for any male model to be openly gay. It's still mostly that way today, 30 years later, when the mystique of AIDS transmission has faded.