{"id":45,"date":"2020-11-05T09:24:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T14:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/?page_id=45"},"modified":"2020-12-13T15:09:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T20:09:21","slug":"primary-source-analysis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/primary-source-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary Source Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By 1983, the AIDS discourse had expanded from queer circles and the margins of the medical field to the forefront of American society; a front-page article in the New York Times had been published in May declaring the AIDS battle had become <\/span>”\u2019the No. 1 priority’\u2019 of the United States Public Health Service,\u201d and over 1,500 cases had been reported in the US (Pear).<\/span> In June, the New York Times released a second article on the disease titled \u201cAIDS Spreads Pain and Fear Among Ill and Healthy Alike.\u201d This article attempted to convey the various emotional responses to the AIDS crisis at a time when misinformation and paranoia surrounding the disease were rampant; close examination of the article reveals the thoughts and actions of various groups of American society during this harrowing period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The structure of the article is revealing both of its ideological alignment and the severity of the AIDS crisis. That the first anecdote in the piece relates to a gay man is significant; it describes a restaurant owner in New York reflecting on how his lover died from AIDS after being \u201cshunned by hospitals and airlines and then by undertakers\u201d (Clendinen). In opening with this piece, the article establishes its solidarity with the queer community and <\/span>acknowledgement<\/span> of both the destructive impact and prejudice faced by gay men at this time. The other prominent and revealing structural choice the article makes is in not revealing the names behind a majority of the anecdotes which make most of the piece; this both reveals the extent to which association with AIDS could result in social belittlement and prejudice and creates a tone of omnipresence: the sentiments expressed here were being felt, thought, spoken, and experienced by everyone, everywhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anecdotes from gay men in the piece provide insights on the behavioral changes within American queer communities <\/span>necessitated<\/span> by the AIDS crisis. One man remarks how despite having \u201cmade love with other men since high school,\u201d he had never \u201cthought that something from his sex life might kill him\u201d (Clendinen). Another man remarked how he <\/span>viewed<\/span> the AIDS crisis as \u201cthe end of the sexual revolution, suggesting, in reference to gay sex life, the AIDS crisis \u201cmay lead to is a more responsible way of handling that part of our lives\u201d (Clendinen). This idea of gay men\u2019s promiscuity being partially to blame for the disease is emphasized throughout the piece; the safe-sex movement within AIDS discourse didn\u2019t begin until the late 1980\u2019s in the United States, and abstinence seems to take its place within this piece as the advisable course of action for gay men aiming to prevent infection and further transmission (National Library of Medicine).<\/span> This is evident in the few lines of non-anecdotal writing in the piece, one of which claims AIDS was torturing \u201cthe whole ethic of \u2018the gay lifestyle\u2019\u201d which is characterized by \u201ccasual, anonymous sex\u201d (Clendinen).<\/span><\/p>\n

The piece also gives voice to the sentiments from non-affected heterosexuals through similar quotes and anecdotes. Paranoia was clearly rampant at this time; described is a woman who called asking \u201chow she should fumigate an apartment she bought from a homosexual\u201d to prevent infections (Clendinen). Another straight man, <\/span>prefacing<\/span> his comment with an assertion that he feels \u201cthe deepest sympathy for AIDS victims,\u201d said he was \u201cupset that the Government is not spending more money to protect the general public from the gay plague\u201d (Clendinen).’ It is clear through these anecdotes that the prevalence of AIDS within the gay community combined with existing homophobic sentiments lead to extensive prejudice and ostracization by many outside the gay community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the piece gives anecdotes both from and about the medical and political establishments’ responses to AIDS which are incredibly revealing of the sentiments driving decisions in these fields. Conservative, homophobic groups saw AIDS as an opportunity to further their agenda; the article describes Fundamentalist preachers in Houston who rallied in support of health authorities closing \u201chomosexual bars and to declare homosexual conduct a health hazard\u201d (Clendinen). These sentiments weren\u2019t ignored; the homophobia within the medical establishment is glaringly evident through the anecdote in which \u201ca doctor wonders to a colleague if this is God’s punishment, saying that if it is, it is not harsh enough\u201d (Clendinen). That members of the industry whose job it was to treat the disease viewed it as something positive for society is part of what made the AIDS crisis so damaging in its effects and so despicable in recollection. The effects of the homophobia within the medical world were brutal; one anecdote describes an already-deceased gay man who, upon arriving at the hospital he would never leave, was met by doctors who were \u201cvery afraid to handle him\u201d and would not wash him (Clendinen).<\/span><\/p>\n

The piece also explores the sentiments dominating the political discourse around AIDS. Pieces of information such as the then-mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein\u2019s heading of a group which worked with the \u201cUnited States Conference of Mayors to alert the nation to the growing danger of AIDS\u201d and the house approval of \u201c$12 million in additional research money for AIDS\u201d are contrasted with the Reagan administration\u2019s silence and inaction (Clendinen). The wording of such anecdotes is particularly revealing in these cases; the piece labels Congress as \u201csympathetic\u201d a mere sentence away from depicting the Reagan Administration\u2019s suggestion \u201cthat money be taken from other health projects\u201d for AIDS research (Clendinen).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the piece highlights the extent to which the shortcomings of both the political and medical establishments had been levied onto gay communities. In one of the few anecdotes with a name attributed in the piece, the article relays executive director of the National Gay Task Force Virginia Apuzzo\u2019s charge that the \u201cFederal Government, under a conservative Administration, is unsympathetic and that research is underfinanced\u201d (Clendinen). The result, highlighted the non-anecdotal final paragraph of the piece, was that \u201cthe effort to organize in support of the victims has come from those most affected: homosexuals themselves,\u201d and that this resulted in \u201cforging homosexuals into a community as nothing has before, even bringing bankers, doctors and others out of the closet\u201d (Clendinen). This ending is revealing of the class-based logic surrounding coming out at the time; white color homosexuals were, prior to AIDS, expected to remain in the closet to preserve their professional standing, while those in \u201cgayer,\u201d less prestigious professions were less likely to face social sanctions for coming-out. But the class-blind impact from AIDS meant such class division was no longer possible; homosexuals of all walks of life, abandoned by the establishment, had to band together to battle AIDS.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By 1983, the AIDS discourse had expanded from queer circles and the margins of the medical field to the forefront of American society; a front-page article in the New York Times had been published in May declaring the AIDS battle had become ”\u2019the No. 1 priority’\u2019 of the United States Public Health Service,\u201d and over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-45","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-lweitzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}