Respectability Politics and the AIDS Crisis
8 February - 47 minsBy 1986, almost 40 percent of people diagnosed with AIDS in the United States were either Black or Latino. As the full contours of the crisis became apparent, a group of Black gay men began to organize in cities across the country, demanding attention and support for the people dying in their midst. This effort required them to confront big, important institutions in both the medical establishment and the government — and it meant they had to stare down racism in the broader LGBTQ+ community. But perhaps their most pressing and consequential challenge was the most difficult to name: the rejection of their own community.
As men, women and children within the Black community began falling ill...
Series Episodes
What If I Could Have Grown Old With My Brother?
How one woman refused to accept the status quo and helped save the lives of thousands of people in her neighborhood.
39 mins
15 February Finished
'Women Don’t Get AIDS, They Just Die From It'
The story of how a group of women changed the very definition of AIDS.
44 mins
1 February Finished
If I Didn't Have HIV, I Wouldn't Have Met You
Stories from Harlem Hospital’s pediatric AIDS ward.
39 mins
25 January Finished
