Aspects of the Cultural History of Aids Volume 1

NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AIDS IN CULTURE ASPECTS OF THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF AIDS VOLUME 1 Mexico, 2010 First edition: October, 2010 ISBN: 978-607-7888-46-8 D. R. © National Commission for Human Rights Mexico Periférico Sur 3469, col. San Jerónimo Lídice, C. P. 10200, México, D. F. Title page design Flavio López Alcocer Printed in Mexico TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. About Aids in Culture. 7 Lars Ivar Owesen, Lein Borge CHAPTER 1. The Marginalization Of Minority Gay Men in AIDS Imagery: Living on the Periphery of the Unhealthy Other. 11 Gerald White CHAPTER 2. Enabling “Equipped”: An Army of Lovers Expanding the Activist Body. 21 Debra Levine CHAPTER 3. AIDS and San Francisco’s Bathhouses: Public Health, Civil Liberties and Policy Changes in the Mid-1980s. 43 Christopher Disman CHAPTER 4. Being Gay Post-HAART: Young HIV-Negative Gay Men Negotiating Desire, Heteronormativity, and Fear of HIV. 55 Trevor Alexander Hoppe CHAPTER 5. Contemporary Art and Contentious Narrations: Photographic Representations of Life with HIV/AIDS. 81 Royce W. Smith [] TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 6. Queer Crime and Gay Globalization. 97 Ferd Eggan CHAPTER 7. Entering a World of Play: An Oral Life History. 125 Martin J. Downing Jr. CHAPTER 8. Creating University/High School/Community Agency Partnerships Focused on Hiv/Aids: A New York City Example, and a Call For International Participation. 133 Helen Rodnite Lemay CHAPTER 9. Isolation and Exile: AIDS and the Solitary Body . 143 Jodie Parys CHAPTER 10. Getting the Word Out: Promoting Cures Through Social Marketing . 195 Ruth Massingill CHAPTER 11. Literary dimensions of AIDS: French and German autobiographical AIDS literature as resistance literature. 209 Anu Pande CHAPTER 12. “The Lure of the Body”: Rethinking Beauty, Health and Sex in an Era of ARVs among the Shona, Zimbabwe. 261 Pascah Mungwini INTRODUCTION ABOUT AIDS IN CULTURE Lars Ivar Owesen* Lein Borge** How can the Humanities and Social Sciences contribute in the Fight against HIV and AIDS? This question was on our minds since the very beginning of Enkidu Magazine. HIV and AIDS related topics were with us from the start, and soon we felt a need to organize the many articles on the topic that we had published to make them stand out from all the other articles on a considerable variety of topics and sections in Enkidu Magazine. By then, Enkidu Magazine had al- ready started growing into one of the leading internet news agen- cies on culture, society and human rights in the Hispanic world. We also received an increasing recognition as a space encouraging dialogue and exchange of information, coming in from a network of correspondents all over the planet across linguistic, cultural and academic frontiers. From the beginning, one of the many keystones of Enkidu Magazine, was the translation of scientific and non-scientific articles from different societies, cultures and languages to Casti- lian, making them accessible and available for new audiences. It was therefore a natural step to develop a separate news service within the Enkidu family, about AIDS and HIV related topics. In February 2004 AIDS in Culture was founded as a separate academic department in our interdisciplinary Study Center for the humanities and social sciences in Mexico City. In December 2004, * Academic Coordinator: ChiCS-International Society for Cultural History and Social Studies, Ciudad de México. ** Anthropologist: Institut für Historische Ethnologie Johann Wolfgang Goethe Uni- versität, Frankfurt am Main. [] NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS the first international Aids in Culture conference was also held. Since then, with the exception of 2009, the conference has taken place every year. This conference cycle AIDS in Culture has devel- oped into an annual, academic tradition, unique in the world. Our 4 academic departments, united under the umbrella of CHiCS (International Society for Cultural History and Cultural Studies) provide global forums for dialogue and debate, where diverse voic- es from all over the world can come together, make connections, discuss topics of mutual interest and develop new ideas and theories across linguistic, cultural and academic barriers; where scientists in the humanities and social sciences working with a variety of topics, can meet and communicate about their work. We hope that with the present volume about AIDS in a cultural context, generated in the annual AIDS in Culture conferences and in our manifold academic and cultural activities throughout the year, refreshing research and perspectives will be made available to a global academic community, through publication of the conference proceedings, and related articles. We aim to develop an extensive body of scientific literature on cultural responses to HIV/AIDS which can be used to develop strategies to fight HIV and AIDS that take the importance of cultural factors into consideration. ABOUT CNDH CNDH (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos), the Na- tional Commission for Human Rights of Mexico, has since the very beginning in 2004, acted as co-organizer of the annual conference AIDS in Culture: Explorations in the Cultural History of AIDS. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission is a public institu- tion that enjoys judicial, organizational and functional autonomy from the federal government. While not forming part of the Aca- demic Commitee, CNDH performs logistical and organizational tasks of the conference. In 2004 AIDS in Culture took place in the National Centre for Human Rights (CENADEH) in Mexico City and had artistic and aesthetic responses to AIDS/HIV as a special focus. The Artist of the AIDS IN CULTURE Conference was Rolando de la Rosa -Mexican sculptor and painter. In 2005 AIDS in Culture II was held in the Archivo Histórico Santa- maría in the city of Papantla in the Mexican State of Veracruz. The second edition of the conference cycle had indigenous knowledge and conceptions of AIDS in Latin America, Africa and New Guinea as its core theme. The Artist of the Conference was Morgan Alexan- der, American photo-ethnographer. In 2006 AIDS in Culture III returned to Mexico City. The conference was organized in a large number of special thematic sessions covering a diverse series of topics extending from “The History of AIDS Activism”, “Representations of AIDS in Literature”, “AIDS in Education” to “The Politics of AIDS and AIDS in Politics” and “Perceptions of AIDS in Lesbian Sub-Cultures in Mexico”. The artist of the conference was Arturo Ramírez Juárez, Mexican painter, who died of AIDS complications in 1987. In 2007, we to continued the tradition of organizing the conference every second year outside Mexico City, partly with the inten- sion of avoiding a concentration of activities in the capital, but also partly to connect and build partnerships with local organisations and institutions. The conference took place in the city of Puebla. In 2008 the conference had a special focus on AIDS and Otherness and AIDS in narratives of identities. Paper proposals addressing related issues as well as translations between cultures and re-nego- tiations and re-constructions of cultural identities in one way or an- other in relation to AIDS and HIV were given a particular attention by the selection process. In 2009 the conference did not take place. In 2010 the conference will take place again in Mexico City. CHAPTER 1 THE MARGINALIZATION OF MINORITY GAY MEN IN AIDS IMAGERY: LIVING ON THE PERIPHERY OF THE UNHEALTHY OTHER Gerald White* INTRODUCTION ca. 1980-1995, in the United States, visual representations of gay men featured in the mainstream media identified them as sinners whose illness resulted directly from their lifestyle. For example, newspaper and magazine coverage of the AIDS epidemic portrayed male homosexuals as a populace deserving quarantine, even exclusion. In response, the gay community created images emphasizing these same people as worthy of empathy and compassion. In AIDS I, 1985, (figure 1) Michael Colgan evokes collective burden generated by media discussion about AIDS. In the painting, Colgan locates a male figure in front of a wall covered with mainstream newspaper articles and magazine covers. The figure’s face consists of an up- side-down pink triangle, which indicates gayness. The down turned head suggests thought, perhaps melancholia. The dense text of media-generated hysteria engulfs the figure. Headlines on either side of him read “Avoiding AIDS” and “The Fear of AIDS”. Over his left shoulder, we see Rock Hudson, who died of AIDS-related causes in 1985. Hudson was the first major public figure to announce he had AIDS, and his declaration drew worldwide attention. Hudson’s add- ed revelations of homosexuality initiated a wave of fear because his illness disproved beliefs about was or was not at risk. * University of North Texas. [11] 12 NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Figure 1. Michael Colgan, AIDS I, 1985. Artists such as Michael Colgan worked to alter public opinion about people living with AIDS. Interestingly, however, their art, cou- pled with mainstream American society’s understanding of what gayness meant, resulted in most if not all of the imagery featuring gay white men. And, while challenging preconceived notions re- garding people living with AIDS, the images did not dispute wide- spread beliefs that gayness signified white male. In fact, the images reinforced gayness equaling white male as an unproblematic stan- dard. Colgan attempts to indicate collective oppression in AIDS I by leaving the figure abstracted, however the male figure in his painting is white. Similarly, newspaper and tabloid articles surrounding the figure feature white men. Other visual representations created by the gay community did not accurately represent who was affected. Thus, visual representations of the male body as AIDS victim performed an exclusion based on race. AIDS IN CULTURE 13 JUNCTURES OF UNHEALTHY OTHER, AIDS, AND RACE: MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF AIDS In the United States, AIDS encompasses multiple meanings.

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