VIRAL

From the front lines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the front lawn of the White House, how the reaction to an epidemic evolved from mystery and ignorance to knowledge, bravery, and activism.

The 1969 Stonewall uprising lifted a shroud of secrecy from the marginalized LQBTQ community. Suddenly there was empowerment to live more freely, albeit within coastal, cosmopolitan microcosms. Liberation from centuries of closeted lives manifested in a revolution of sexual freedom. A decade later, an unknown malady swept through this liberated landscape, mystifying, terrifying, and baffling insiders and outsiders alike: AIDS. The LGBTQ community was fearful and angry, while a conservative collective was reassured that sexual deviants were deservedly being punished. However, research dissolved rumor, and boundaries clung to by the ignorant were pierced with fact. Bausum’s (The March Against Fear, 2017, etc.) journalized account is divided into three sections: 1969-1983, 1983-1992, and 1992-today. The objectivity of her research is colored by the kind of compassion that can only come from having lived through a dark era and fully recognizing the breadth of tragedy. As frustrating and frightening as this political and social timeline is, and susceptible though we all are to this disease, we’re also all able to do something that unites rather than separates in a time of tragedy: love. A critical account for today’s youth.

Read to remember, remember to fight, fight together.