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Gay Life in America:

Gay Life in America:. The Impact of AIDS The Impact on AIDS David Jolly, DrPH Dept. of Health Education, NCCU . The Caveats. One hour? You’ve got to be kidding! No historian am I My qualifications Gay MALE life I speak for myself No one gay community. The Credits.

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Gay Life in America:

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  1. Gay Life in America: The Impact of AIDS The Impact on AIDS David Jolly, DrPH Dept. of Health Education, NCCU

  2. The Caveats • One hour? You’ve got to be kidding! • No historian am I • My qualifications • Gay MALE life • I speak for myself • No one gay community

  3. The Credits • Martin Duberman - About Time: Exploring the Gay Past • John D’Emilio - Making Trouble: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and the University • John-Manuel Andriote - Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America

  4. The Making of a Homosexual Identity • Homosexual behavior vs. homosexual identity • Capitalism and the development of single life in the city • Changes in sexual beliefs and sexual morality • World War II • Cold War politics and oppression of homosexuals • Medical model of homosexuality • Development of a gay urban subculture

  5. The Making of a Homosexual Identity • How sexual identity takes shape has influenced the gay movement • The gay movement = the creation of a self-conscious identity, community and culture • The choice issue • Nature vs. nurture

  6. Stonewall Inn June 1969

  7. Gay Liberation and Then Some • The significance of Stonewall • The Gay Liberation Front • Transforming the meaning of “Coming Out”

  8. The New Visibility: The Castro

  9. A Sister of Perpetual Indulgence

  10. Harvey Milk, The Mayor of Castro Street and gay martyr

  11. The inspiration of other movements

  12. Gay Liberation and Then Some • Politics of identity both unified and pulled apart • Too radical and risky for many white gays • Offered too little to others: • Lesbians • Gay people of color • GLF a short-lived phenomenon

  13. Significant Achievements of the 70’s • 73 - APA: no longer a mental disorder • 75 - Civil Service drops ban • 75 - Federal gay rights bill • By 76, 17 states repealed sodomy laws • By 76, 36 cities banned discrimination • Council of Churches condemns discrimination

  14. AIDS DENIAL It’s a plot. It’s no big deal. They’ll have a cure in no time.

  15. The Onset of AIDS • AIDS work: bridging the gap between the subculture and the movement • A reinvigoration of grass-roots local activism • Why was this necessary? • Reagan: Mum’s the word till 1989

  16. The Onset of AIDS Why should the taxpayers have to spend money to cure diseases that don’t have to start in the first place? Let’s help the drug users who want to be helped and the Haitian people. But let’s let the homosexual community do its own research. Why should the American taxpayer have to bail out these perverted people? Rev. Jerry Falwell, Director Moral Majority

  17. Ashes on the White House lawn

  18. Doing It For Themselves: Prevention • Safer sex/risk reduction guidelines • The Helms amendment • The disparity in government funding

  19. Taking On The Big Boys: Treatment Research • ACT-UP • Revision of FDA drug approval process • Lowering of drug prices • Model of direct action for other illnesses • Project Inform & AIDS Treatment News: dissemination of treatment information • Community research initiatives in NY& SF

  20. An Army of Lovers: Care • Cobbling together a parallel system • More passion than managerial acumen • Models for better health care delivery • Wounded healers

  21. Persons Living With AIDS • Coming out with AIDS vs. coming out as gay • Nix on “victim” and even “patient” • PWA or PLWA • Birthing the true doctor/patient partnership

  22. Some Impacts of the Epidemic • Gay men of color • Lesbians in AIDS work • The gay movement

  23. AIDS and the Health and Social Welfare System • AIDS as a prism through which all the problems of the system are visible • Still no fundamental reforms • The canary analogy

  24. Some Experiences of the Epidemic • A death-saturated culture • Survivor guilt • Aging before our time

  25. A man who is ill visits his mother in her nursing home. You don’t look well, she says, Neither do you, he says. My friends are all dying, she says. My friends are dying too. I’m afraid that when I die there will be no one left to say prayers at my grave, she says. It’s my fear, too, he replies And they sit and weep, each dropping tears onto the hands of the other, waiting for the other, that follows hard the heels of time. “Pieta” by Michael Lassell

  26. Some Experiences of the Epidemic • Associating homosexuality with death • Downplaying the losses of gay men or • Celebrating the dignity and courage: Franny Peabody

  27. Conclusions • Fostering a sense of community and • An outlet for internalized homophobia • Unsafe sex in the 21st century

  28. HIV Outbreak Among College Students in North Carolina 157 college students diagnosed with new HIV infection Jan. 2000 - Apr. 2005. # diagnosed has increased each year, from 6 in 2000 to 49 in 2004. 85% were Black males. 93% of those were MSM or MSM/W. Case control study of + and - young, Black MSM: High risk behavior in both + and - men. College students less likely to gay identify and disclose identity. Hightow, Dec. 2005

  29. Homophobia: the greatest challenge • As with AIDS, (un)doing it for ourselves • A promising model: Gay/Straight High School Alliances

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