The AIDS Crisis & American History:

Prior to Larry Kramer’s article, AIDS was a silent killer. It was rarely spoken of and it did not have a name. It was an illness being contracted throughout the gay community – a community that was not accepted and was seen as promiscuous. AIDS was a promiscuous disease – even though it only took one person, one time to contract HIV.

At the time of publication, AIDS was killing the gay community single handedly with no help from any form of government. The mayor of New York said nothing. He did nothing. And as Kramer said, “with his silence on AIDS, the Mayor of New York is helping to kill us.”

This article is widely significant to the ultimate course of LGBTQA rhetoric, it gives insight of American politics and the stance it held against the gay community and Kramer offers an astute look into the way the gay community was seen and how it differs from the stereotypes that surrounded them at the time.

By the end of 1983, months following Kramer’s essay,  changes and progress were made… slowly, but surely. Organizations and institutions began to assess the situation and the severity of the disease that was killing so many people, so quickly. It was not an officially recognized disease by the end of 1983, but big changes were to come in the coming years.

It wasn’t until mid-1985 that AIDS was mentioned publicly by President Reagan – where he vowed that congress would make AIDS a priority. And with that, things really began to change. Government institutions dedicated time, money and resources to learning and diminishing the immune disease.

At the time of Kramer’s article, he was one of very few people talking about the disease that was killing hundreds of Americans. In a way, it was a plague of the gay community and because no one was talking about it and no one was helping, Kramer truly believed the gay community would be extinct if it wasn’t helped soon. And it was. His insight, while it may not have officially provoked a number of changes, provided insight that no one else was giving. He demonstrated the urgency to save these people, who did not deserve to die.

With this article, and many others, in my eyes, Kramer became a pioneer in homosexual rhetoric. He gave a voice not only to the dead, but to the dying and to a silent community. While the New York Native was a gay newspaper, it has since been used in numerous publications and garnered the attention of millions.

 

Exigency: Kramer’s article and the AIDS crisis

The exigence, the urgent need for this article, may be the most clear concept portrayed throughout this artifact of queer rhetoric. By the end of 1981 – the year in which the immune deficiency disease was “discovered” – there were 270 reported cases of the disease among gay men and of those cases, 121 individuals died.

The term AIDS was not used by the Center for Disease Control until September 1982.

By 1983, the disease continued to take it’s toll – now, not only on gay men but on women and infants, too. Kramer published his article in March 1983 – when there were 1,112 reported cases of the disease – at a time when urgency was the driving force that caused people to understand and help combat the disease.

His article was equal parts informative and persuasive; he gives understanding to a disease that, to many, was unfamiliar and shows the importance of combatting a disease that was taking thousands of lives from something many see as a medical epidemic.

Exigency was the force that prompted the writing and publication of this article, and many more at the time. The exigency spread beyond other gay men in the New York metropolitan area, but throughout the entire country no matter one’s sexual orientation.

Following the publication of this article, though not a direct response, Congress passed a bill that provided $12 million targeted for AIDS treatment and research. This bill came after hundreds more died from the illness that no one really understood but was killing masses of people throughout the United States.