Liz McDaniel

Disease and Discrimination

Prof. Edwards

January 25, 1999

AIDS: More than a Medical Affliction

Douglas Crimp and Adam Rolston provide a harrowing account of the political and social ramifications of AIDS. AIDS Demo Graphics chronicles the emergence of The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). The organization was founded in March 1987 to fight discriminations faced by people with AIDS (PWAs) and people with HIV (PWHs). Since it's establishment in New York City, ACT UP chapters have developed throughout the country. Crimp and Rolston focus only on the New York branch.

The group is open to all people interested in challenging negative stereotypes that have plagued PWAs and PWHs. The authors explain:

Though we are a direct-action AIDS activist group, not a gay organization, most of us are lesbian and gay, and all of us are dedicated to fighting homophobia. Indeed, we see ourselves both as direct heirs to the early radical tradition of gay liberation and as rejuvenators of the gay movement, which has in the intervening decades become an assimilationist civil rights lobby (98).

It is easy to forget that the perception of AIDS has evolved markedly over the past fifteen years. One of the great strengths of this book is its reminder that diseases are not merely medical afflictions, they often become a means of disenfranchising certain segments of our population. College aged men and women today do not think of the disease as a problem afflicting one segment of the population. I have been taught to think of AIDS as a threat and I am a heterosexual woman. My friends and I tend to forget that AIDS was once synonymous with gay hatred. The modern world cannot afford to ignore that AIDS was once a powerful tool used to undermine thousands of minorities. Testimonies provided by activists like Crimp and Rolston are fundamental in our continuing quest to ensure that future generations do not commit the same mistakes.

I was ten years old when ACT UP was established. I have few memories of AIDS from my childhood. When I was seven, my mother refused to let us swim in the pools at the hotels as we drove across country because she read there was a possibility AIDS could be transmitted through water. As I got older, I have a few vague recollections of Peter Jennings or Dan Rather introducing stories about 'this frightening new disease.' One report following a particularly melodramatic description of the disease showed graphic pictures of emaciated AIDS patients. I was traumatized by the report and asked my mother if I could have AIDS; she assured me that I was fine. My mother was not attempting to deceive me or simply pacify the overactive imagination of her little girl. The report made it clear that this was a gay man's disease, not a little girl's. There were no pictures of women and children dying. There were no representations of people with HIV who looked healthy. The choice to display only graphic depictions of AIDS patients led the viewer to believe that AIDS could be recognized by sight: you could protect yourself by not having sex with people who looked sick. The media and society taught me that I didn't need to worry. I was safe.

Crimp and Rolston's narrative reminded me of the danger of thinking of a disease as someone else's problem. Even if an affliction strikes one segment of the population, be it female, black, Hispanic, gay, or the elderly, everyone has a responsibility to acknowledge the disease's destruction and fight to help its victims. If we think only about ourselves and our personal relation to the disease, we discredit and hurt millions of people. When a disease hits a community, it effects far more people than those who suffer from it. We cannot be so naive as to think that our lives are independent from others in our community. The basic foundation of all strong societies is the ability for people to come together and solve problems collectively.

AIDS Demo Graphics provides a touching and empowering account of one community's ability to rally around this debilitating disease. ACT UP members did not allow the morbid and insidious nature of AIDS destroy them. They embraced and supported PWAs. The supportive environment fostered through their commitment to mutual respect, sacrifice, and love provided them with the courage to fight some of the most powerful political and moral forces in the world. They openly attacked the stances taken by the Catholic church and the American Government on AIDS, both institutions with far more power and prestige than ACT UP.

ACT UP turned these battles into personal confrontations. They targeted important individuals within the church and New York government. Gran Fury, an organization Crimp and Rolston refer to as " ACT UP's unofficial propaganda ministry and guerrilla graphic designers," posted thousands of sinister-looking photographs of Major Ed Koch with texts reading: "10,000 New York City AIDS Deaths. How'm I Doin?" or "What Does Koch plan to do about AIDS? Invest in marble and granite" (16, 87). This small grass roots organization managed to force Koch to respond to its allegations. He could no longer simply pass the blame to the New York State Government. ACT UP forced Koch to respond to and acknowledge the AIDS epidemic or suffer political defeats.

Koch was not the only high ranking political official on ACT UP's target list. Stephen C. Joseph, Commissioner of Health, NYC, faced similar attacks from ACT UP. After he proposed mandatory name reporting and tracing of sex partners of people testing HIV-positive, Gran Fury posted a photographs of Joseph with bold red print reading, "Deadlier than the Virus" (75). ACT UP's relentless pursuit of Joseph eventually forced him to resign from his office.

The country's most powerful moral institutions were not protected from denunciation by ACT UP. Cardinal O'Connor of New York become a primary enemy in the eye's of ACT UP members. In 1987, Catholic Bishops agreed to the limited use of contraception in light of the extraordinary danger posed by AIDS. The conservative O'Connor vehemently opposed the stance taken by the Bishops. O'Connor argued that the only type of safe sex education that should be taught is abstinence. Once again, Gran Fury retaliated by posting images of their nemesis around the city. One poster pictures the Cardinal next to a condom, the text read, "Know your scumbags," and under the condom, "this one prevents AIDS" (135).

Gran Fury responded with the same outrage to The New York Times' handling of the AIDS epidemic. The group created a four-page newspaper entitled The New York Crimes which resembled the Times. The newspaper carried articles created by ACT UP members protesting the city's refusal to help PWAs and The New York Times refusal to treat AIDS as a serious and pressing issue. Members of ACT UP prowled the city beginning at 4 A.M. searching for Times vending boxes and wrapped the original papers with copies of Crimes.

One of the major components of Crimp's and Rolston's book is the use of visual arts to help educate people about AIDS. ACT UP fought the misrepresentations promoted by the mass media by retaliating with blunt images of the pain associated with AIDS. New Yorkers from all backgrounds were forced on a daily basis to encounter these visual representations of the fight against the bigotry directed at PWAs. Like AIDS, no one was protected from them.

AIDS Demo Graphics is not merely a book for the reader uninformed about the political history of AIDS. Crimp's and Rolston's book provides not only an important reminder of the atrocities committed by the American Government and well regarded institutions, but also a guide for those interested in implementing social change. They summon their readers to join in the fight against discrimination of PWAs. All segments of the population stand to learn the invaluable lessons of tolerance, sacrifice, love and support from AIDS Demo Graphics.

Bibliography

Crimp, Douglas and Adam Rolston. AIDS Demo Graphics. Seattle: Bay Press, 1990. 141 pp.