Who the Vice President didn't mention in his World AIDS Day Address
by Eric Crow
Normally, New Horizons For Fifty serves as a sanctuary for people who need respite from the negative and deleterious effects of social media--in other words, for those who need to get away from "politics as usual" on Facebook or Twitter and get a dose of beauty or inspiration or even have an aha moment all their own.
But every once in a while, an issue will galvanize me (your content director) to overlook this rule and speak on something, especially when it's an issue that's very close to my heart, or that I am connected to.
This is one of those moments.
At the White House, Vice President Pence addressed an audience that was stocked with people who come from various (Western) faith walks about the wonders of "faith based initiatives," as relates to combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. He was emphatic about the role of the "faith based" in combating the global pandemic of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). He praised President George W. Bush's "PEPFAR" initiative to fight AIDS in Africa. Emphatically. Right down to each. and. every. single. syllable. Many times over.
Let me rephrase that. He seemed so impressed with the efforts that he and his (Republican) colleagues had put in place, while claiming to working "across the aisles" to create a bill that would (seemingly) guarantee future funding for this program. I kept wondering if he would actually pat himself on his own back in front of everybody after such an "important point." I digress.
About Pepfar, I say "rightfully so." Nobody, myself included, would criticize what Pepfar has done to combat the epidemic in Africa. It has done all that the Vice President said it has done. It's a great thing that millions of Africans have access to therapy that only 50,000 once had.
Though I dare say that many on the red side of the aisle would balk at the epidemic in terms of its (neocolonial) origins and even be offended by the notion of the notion that the AIDS pandemic is a direct result of Imperialist intervention. To the Vice President et al, they call it by a different name--"missionary work"--and they use every opportunity they can to pat themselves on the back for the work they do "in the name of the Lord." I digress.
What the Vice President and these faith-based groups don't do (and are incapable of doing, it seems) is recognize their own role in the pandemic. Pence et al posit themselves as the miracle workers of AIDS, ignoring the fact that the epidemic turned into a pandemic because of them. But how can you make an address on World AIDS Day without mentioning the population that was hardest hit first in this epidemic--gay men. He does make considerable mention of Ryan White, and nobody's mad about that, but this comes off as just another way of saying that we did what we could for the "innocent victims."
Basically, the Vice President chose to take the same route President Reagan took when dealing with the topic--specifically, mentioning the suffering but not the people who are suffering. For those who don't know, President Reagan didn't say the word "AIDS" in a public address until 25,000 people had died from complications due to AIDS. This is the reason why gay men revile President Reagan.
Similarly, by not speaking about the target populations and the "panic years" of the pandemic (gay men), he erases them. We know what happened to these gay men. We know how they were treated at hospitals. We know how they lived and died. It was common to hear men talk about how their group of friends was disappearing. They were not afforded the luxury of being "warmed and cooled by the same means," as Shakespeare said.
To hear VP Pence speak, however, we are just a minor footnote of the epidemic. They know who we are and they have always known, but they can't bring themselves to acknowledge us in their speeches. Except that when it was convenient, they sure brought us up enough--usually by evangelicals, who would then say things disgusting like "you reap what you sow"). And that's the fear that many marginalized groups still have 30 years later--that we will be stigmatized as long as it suits their agenda, and then forgotten as soon as they're done with using us for that part, that role.
I seroconverted in 1990, during the height of the "panic years." I remember VP Dan Quayle coming into AIDS wards and asking ignorant questions about medicines. I remember the scorn that people like Jesse Helms and Oral Roberts sought to heap on us for "living our sinful lifestyles." I remember the backwards hysteria and paranoia about someone seeing me with an abscess on my cheek and saying, "Ewwww, he's got AIDS." My high school's approach was one assembly during my senior year. I remember the epithets I would see on bathroom walls (GAY=Got AIDS Yet?).
Specifically, I remember going on a driving trip from Portland, Oregon to Butte, Montana in December and almost veering off the road a few times, either because it was too icy or because one of the drivers fell asleep. My partner and I were taking this trip with someone who needed people to go along with him for security purposes, who was going back to Montana to go into hospice. It would be the last time we would see him alive--we heard a few months later that we passed. Part of this trip included going to a World AIDS Day vigil. As you can imagine, there were a lot of candles and a lot of tears. We were all scared of this thing and we were terrified who in our midst would be taken next, as well as how many more would die. It was said that 100 million people would have HIV/AIDS by 2000 (not 2010, as the VP contends). This was three years before the first protease cocktails came out, but I remember that.
It would have been good of the President to share a memory just like the one I shared. He didn't.
Why didn't he?
I don't know how else to end this blog, except to say that I will not let another World AIDS Day go by without making sure that this "Administration" knows that just because they choose to ignore us and erase us in the 2020 census, but that doesn't mean we're going away. We're not going anywhere. We're going to keep reminding them that gay men were the first hit, and that we lost large parts of an entire generation because they didn't care enough about us to do something for us. We're going to keep showing up wherever they don't want us to. We're here and you're not getting rid of us. AT ALL
Normally, New Horizons For Fifty serves as a sanctuary for people who need respite from the negative and deleterious effects of social media--in other words, for those who need to get away from "politics as usual" on Facebook or Twitter and get a dose of beauty or inspiration or even have an aha moment all their own.
But every once in a while, an issue will galvanize me (your content director) to overlook this rule and speak on something, especially when it's an issue that's very close to my heart, or that I am connected to.
This is one of those moments.
At the White House, Vice President Pence addressed an audience that was stocked with people who come from various (Western) faith walks about the wonders of "faith based initiatives," as relates to combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. He was emphatic about the role of the "faith based" in combating the global pandemic of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). He praised President George W. Bush's "PEPFAR" initiative to fight AIDS in Africa. Emphatically. Right down to each. and. every. single. syllable. Many times over.
Let me rephrase that. He seemed so impressed with the efforts that he and his (Republican) colleagues had put in place, while claiming to working "across the aisles" to create a bill that would (seemingly) guarantee future funding for this program. I kept wondering if he would actually pat himself on his own back in front of everybody after such an "important point." I digress.
About Pepfar, I say "rightfully so." Nobody, myself included, would criticize what Pepfar has done to combat the epidemic in Africa. It has done all that the Vice President said it has done. It's a great thing that millions of Africans have access to therapy that only 50,000 once had.
Though I dare say that many on the red side of the aisle would balk at the epidemic in terms of its (neocolonial) origins and even be offended by the notion of the notion that the AIDS pandemic is a direct result of Imperialist intervention. To the Vice President et al, they call it by a different name--"missionary work"--and they use every opportunity they can to pat themselves on the back for the work they do "in the name of the Lord." I digress.
What the Vice President and these faith-based groups don't do (and are incapable of doing, it seems) is recognize their own role in the pandemic. Pence et al posit themselves as the miracle workers of AIDS, ignoring the fact that the epidemic turned into a pandemic because of them. But how can you make an address on World AIDS Day without mentioning the population that was hardest hit first in this epidemic--gay men. He does make considerable mention of Ryan White, and nobody's mad about that, but this comes off as just another way of saying that we did what we could for the "innocent victims."
Basically, the Vice President chose to take the same route President Reagan took when dealing with the topic--specifically, mentioning the suffering but not the people who are suffering. For those who don't know, President Reagan didn't say the word "AIDS" in a public address until 25,000 people had died from complications due to AIDS. This is the reason why gay men revile President Reagan.
Similarly, by not speaking about the target populations and the "panic years" of the pandemic (gay men), he erases them. We know what happened to these gay men. We know how they were treated at hospitals. We know how they lived and died. It was common to hear men talk about how their group of friends was disappearing. They were not afforded the luxury of being "warmed and cooled by the same means," as Shakespeare said.
To hear VP Pence speak, however, we are just a minor footnote of the epidemic. They know who we are and they have always known, but they can't bring themselves to acknowledge us in their speeches. Except that when it was convenient, they sure brought us up enough--usually by evangelicals, who would then say things disgusting like "you reap what you sow"). And that's the fear that many marginalized groups still have 30 years later--that we will be stigmatized as long as it suits their agenda, and then forgotten as soon as they're done with using us for that part, that role.
I seroconverted in 1990, during the height of the "panic years." I remember VP Dan Quayle coming into AIDS wards and asking ignorant questions about medicines. I remember the scorn that people like Jesse Helms and Oral Roberts sought to heap on us for "living our sinful lifestyles." I remember the backwards hysteria and paranoia about someone seeing me with an abscess on my cheek and saying, "Ewwww, he's got AIDS." My high school's approach was one assembly during my senior year. I remember the epithets I would see on bathroom walls (GAY=Got AIDS Yet?).
Specifically, I remember going on a driving trip from Portland, Oregon to Butte, Montana in December and almost veering off the road a few times, either because it was too icy or because one of the drivers fell asleep. My partner and I were taking this trip with someone who needed people to go along with him for security purposes, who was going back to Montana to go into hospice. It would be the last time we would see him alive--we heard a few months later that we passed. Part of this trip included going to a World AIDS Day vigil. As you can imagine, there were a lot of candles and a lot of tears. We were all scared of this thing and we were terrified who in our midst would be taken next, as well as how many more would die. It was said that 100 million people would have HIV/AIDS by 2000 (not 2010, as the VP contends). This was three years before the first protease cocktails came out, but I remember that.
It would have been good of the President to share a memory just like the one I shared. He didn't.
Why didn't he?
I don't know how else to end this blog, except to say that I will not let another World AIDS Day go by without making sure that this "Administration" knows that just because they choose to ignore us and erase us in the 2020 census, but that doesn't mean we're going away. We're not going anywhere. We're going to keep reminding them that gay men were the first hit, and that we lost large parts of an entire generation because they didn't care enough about us to do something for us. We're going to keep showing up wherever they don't want us to. We're here and you're not getting rid of us. AT ALL
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