30 Years into the AIDS Epidemic, I’m taking a moment to remember how things have changed. I’m a member of Generation X. I always thought that was kind of cool sounding, but like the Baby Boomers before me, and the Generation Ys and Zs that follow, we carry distinct yet overlapping burdens.
I went to art school. It was what we did. We wore Converse All-Stars, rode skateboards, and then got scholarships to go be the next great American painter, writer, musician etc. It was the height of Post Modernism, so there was plenty of pretense around.
What was also around The Cooper Union, The Art Institute of Chicago and other centers of creative learning, was AIDS. Some people ask me how I went from being a fine-arts painting major to an HIV prevention guy, and I tell them a simple truth—one that isn’t embellished with pretense or a false sense of self-sacrifice.
I got into HIV prevention because of art school. You see, there was a collection of great minds who helped me pursue a path towards creative freedom. And then most of them died.
Read about how Fenway staff are facing AIDS through their work and what we're doing for World AIDS Day.
These artists and teachers were gay men whose lives had been stifled by homophobia and the closet until very recently. Stonewall was followed a cultural shift that allowed some gay people to come into the light. I imagine for many it was a wonderful time of adventure—liberties both basic and sexual at hand. But before all the confetti came to rest, a mysterious disease that seemed deliberately targeted and cruel appeared. The first acronym for what we call Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the infection that causes AIDS, was GRID. Gay Related Immune Disorder. Gay disorder. Even the name carried with it implications that pulled gay men out of a limelight and into the spotlight. And these men deserved so much more.
Having one’s community identified as the axis of “The Gay Plague” was certainly marginalizing; but it was also a battle cry and call to action. Because HIV/AIDS is and was, among other things, a gay problem. Within our ranks and with the help of our allies we have done something unprecedented. We have changed the course of a seemingly unstoppable deluge.
In the last 10 years, we have pioneered biomedical, behavioral and cultural countermeasures that have reduced new HIV infections by 50% in our state. For many, gay culture has become a healthy part of a larger community. Being gay doesn’t make you an eccentric outsider anymore. As John Waters said, “Being gay isn’t enough. It’s a good start, but it doesn’t make you interesting…” And most of us don’t want to feel like a misfit—a target, a contagion—but a part of something larger.
I hope for a day when I don’t do HIV prevention work because HIV has been permanently…well, prevented. In the meantime, I think it’s important to understand where we’ve been, but also to understand where we’re headed and how we are going to disassemble this epidemic piece by piece. World AIDS Day is about not only commemorating how the disease has changed the world; but also looking forward to how we will end the disease.
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