AIDS Activist

Ann Silversides

• Publisher: Between the Lines
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781771130431
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Advocacy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Michael Lynch, the central figure of this book, was a long-time gay activist and a dynamic force in organizing an early response to the AIDS epidemic. Lynch's prescient articles in The Body Politic spoke to the gay communities of Toronto, New York, and San Francisco. His organizing efforts meant change and hope. AIDS Activist is a crisp and passionate introduction to a wide range of issues. Focusing on personal stories Silversides furnishes a snap-shot history of how the AIDS crisis unfolded and some of the heroic responses to it. Her emphasis on the politics of the gay community response makes this book unique.

INDEX

Abbreviations

BL — Bill Lewis

KS — Kaposi’s sarcoma

ML — Michael Lynch

PCP — pneumocystis carinii pneumonia

PWA — People with AIDS

SL — Stefan Lynch

TBP — The Body Politic

AAN! See AIDS Action Now!

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. See AIDS

ACT. See AIDS Committee of Toronto

ACT UP (N.Y.), 126–27, 128, 130; proposal for “parallel track” for AIDS drugs, 180; at international AIDS conference (Montreal, 1989), 192–98; Montreal Manifesto, 193

Advocate, The, 14; attacking “gay lifestyle,” 19

aerosolized pentamidine, 120, 185, 206; organizing around use of, 128–30; taken by ML 140; government okays trial of, 147; available in Buffalo, 149; demand for trials of, 150; target of AAN! protest and first demo, 156–58, 160; taken at Parliament Hill protest (1988), 168; AAN! calls for end to trial using placebos, 177; made available through EDRP, 186–87; problems with availability, 187–88; breakthrough discussed at international AIDS conference, 192

“Age of Adhesiveness” (ML paper and book project), as a book project, 95, 96, 109; delivered as paper, 101, 161; plans to publish, 116; afraid of not finishing, 117; making plans with Hansen to finish, 232

AIDS, beginning of epidemic, 1, 2–3, 14–15; cases (early 1982), 17; first Canadian case, 17; named, 17; seen as “gay plague,” 19, 50, 55; statistical probability and moral judgement, 21; number of cases (fall 1982), 20; thought of as geographically specific, 23–24; hysteria about spreads, 25–26; first public forum in Toronto on, 30; and gay sexual activity, 30–31; focus on blood donations and screening, 33; number of cases in Canada (February 1983), 34; U.S. cases (March 1983), 31–32; epidemic gathers force in U.S., 41; lack of attention/action noted, 40–41; diagnosing, 47; dubbed “emerging epidemic” in Toronto (August 1983), 53; need to “normalize” as disease, 61; number of cases (1983, 1984), 71; reported cases (February ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Foreword, by Ed Jackson
• Preface
• one: A Political Body
• two: Blood and Stigma
• three: Against Hysteria
• four: Swansong to Activism?
• five: These Waves of Dying Friends
• six: The Yellow Glove
• seven: From Elegy to Action
• eight: The Charm of Politics
• nine: Community Strategies
• ten: To Make Dying Gay
• Notes
• Index