Adrian Apollo’s Queer Current Blog

           The AIDS crisis was a period of great loss and destruction that affected the lives of many. The disease itself was brutal, but what was more brutal was the lack of government engagement or involvement in the treatment of this ravaging illness. Thousands fell ill and died, and instead of research being done and drug trials being exercised by government agencies, politicians spoke of a "change in behavior" being the true cure for AIDs. Victims were neglected and left to die without proper care or treatment simply because queer people were demonized, discriminated against, and cast out by general society. This was one of the largest American death tolls that was a direct result of government negligence.      The Names Quilt Project gave a voice to those who lost their battle to AIDS. It visually displayed to the world just how immense the death rate of AIDS truly was, and how many people died at the hands of those in power. The docume...

  Watching this documentary really helped me conceptualize how I wish to structure my final project for this class. The Name Project Quilt was briefly discussed, and while I think the endeavor of producing the quilt is interesting, I found that I was largely neglecting a moment to reflect upon the AIDS crisis itself. This documentary gave me a first hand and intimate perspective of both the AIDS crisis and how it affected the lives of patients and those they loved.      I think that the true strength of this film was portrayed in the moments where secondary footage is utilized. We discussed how David France was able to contact those involved in the AIDS activist movement and receive footage they had personally taken. The footage shows us crucial moments of ACT UP meetings along with other opportunities where change was advocated for and achieved, but it also displayed to us the lives of those involved with the movement. Individual lives were lost as a result of the g...

  Queer health care has developed tremendously over the years. What we have access to now could only be dreamed of by some queer folks back in the past. It's obvious that the AIDS crisis did numbers to affect the state of queer healthcare. It was evident that a lack of resources, education, and support was present for this time period, and the public struggle of queer folks aided in organizations being formed to aid those in crisis. An increase in organizations to support the healthcare of lesbians was evident. The Lesbian Research Network was the first organization to conduct a survey relating to lesbian health in the 80's. This led to developments such as the Institute of Medicine releasing a report on lesbian health. Organizations such as the Mautner Project aided in accessing health care for lesbians during 1999. These are all incredibly important milestones, as well as challenges to the social design of American society. Without these resources, lesbians would not feel saf...

  This chapter had some good examples of art aiding queer people and giving them a platform to voice their own struggles. One individual who I think is a good example of this, is Del LaGrace Volcano. This individual was intersexual, and stated that,  "As a gender variant visual artist I access 'technologies of gender' in order to amplify rather than erase the hermaphroditic traces of my body...distinguish my journey from the thousands of intersex individuals who have had their 'ambiguous' bodies mutilated and disfigured in a misguided attempt at 'normalization'..." Visual arts was a means of liberation and expression for Volcano. Art not only gave a platform to voice their struggle, but to gain awareness from generalized society. Queer artists exist to reach and educate large audiences of people. Exposure is the best education sometimes, and by exposing the art world to their true self, Volcano was able to challenge the norms of the general public. Alo...

  I think that Eaklor's book has provided multiple opportunities to see how art aided queer folks who were in times of struggle, in need of community and understanding, and a general outlet to engage in. This is something that is of great interest to me, as I am writing my own thesis on this topic partially. I think that the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt demonstrates this perfectly. It was one of the largest community art projects, and it brought awareness to those who lost their battle to AIDS. I take a lot of interest in how this quilt was made, organized and produced, and it would be really nice to have an opportunity to explore these aspects of the piece itself. By doing this, it would allow me to analyze the impacts that this project had as a whole, and we could see the ways in which this artistic endeavor aided those within the LGBT community. I could also have the opportunity to highlight some of those that lost their battle to AIDS, and what impact these people had on the commun...

  Chapter 8 of Eaklor's Queer America, gave a lot more insight on the plight of trans people than we have read thus far. I feel that it was very appropriate to start the chapter off by reflecting on the work and life of Sylvia Rivera. Rivera was a very important person when it comes to trans history and the history of transgender activism. Rivera is a perfect example of how queer people affected the social design of American culture. Her and another trans activist, Marsha P Johnson, launched the STAR organization (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) in order to provide resources and support to homeless trans youth and gender nonconforming people. Along with fighting against homophobia and transphobia, they championed issues involving race and class distinctions. This was something very crucial, as not all trans people felt adequately represented within other organizations based upon their race or class. Trans people of color did not feel as if they were accounted for in spa...

  Question 7: What innovations in American life did Bayard Rustin engage in or create?  When Bayard Rustin was convicted in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for sitting next to a white man on a public bus, he was sentenced to thirty days in a road gang or "chain gang" as the convicted men were tied together by chains and forced to do ten hours of manual labor a day. After this experience, he returned to New York and wrote about his degrading encounter in the New York post. Due to the acclaim and popularity of his article displaying the treatment of convicted peoples, the chain gang was discontinued in North Carolina. This is just one of the innovations in American life that Rustin engaged in. He did away with an archaic and demeaning form of criminal punishment by partaking in it directly. His experience was what brought about change in a state in which he did not even live in.  Question 1: Make notes about Bayard Rustin's relationship to Queer Identity  Rustin always see...

  After watching the documentary on Warhol, I can understand how he affected not only the art world but the worlds of mainstream culture and design as well. Warhol's relation to the world of commercial art and advertising shaped the majority of his career, and him doing this directly affected the manner in which art is defined. While art critics did not receive his work well as fine art-claiming that his drawings were meant for advertisements and more commercial works-Warhol continued to gear the subject matter of his work towards just that. By painting easily recognizable products and comics, Warhol fell into a new movement of young artists who wished to create works that were based on pop culture iconography and items within the United States and the culture that was created out of this. Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg to name a few artists were part of the young new artists that clashed with the world of abstract expressionism that was already flourishing in New York a...

  The Daughters of Bilitis, Lesbian Support, and opposition between gay men and lesbians  Many postwar organizations for queer people created aid and assistance for them, a community space, and pioneered legislations, legal actions, and publications to protect and support them. However, as we can observe within chapters 4 and 5 of Queer America, there is a rather significant difference in groups faceted towards gay men and then groups faceted towards lesbians.  In addition, within these chapters, we can examine the ways in which lesbians and gay men disputed amongst one another, and why lesbians felt the overarching need to create their own organizations.      The Daughters of Bilitis was America's first national lesbian group created in 1955. Their purpose was to create a group for strictly lesbians that was not only pro homosexuality but also pro feminism.  "That is, maintaining DOB as strictly a lesbian organization reflected the conviction that the...

  The Inclusion/Education of Trans Folks within GLBT efforts and the erasure of trans activism      I found it interesting that the first explicit mention of trans folks within this book was Chapter 4. I think it is safe to say that while the persecution and discrimination against gay and lesbian people was very much alive and in practice, it was also present and very much alive in a different way for trans folk. We saw how performers in prohibition and underground bars and spaces would participate in "cross dressing", and how over time this evolved into vaudeville acts and other forms of entertainment within not only queer society, but straight society as well. There was limited education on transgender folks for people from the 20's and on. There were things such as the CBS documentary on homosexuals, but there was not an equal attempt at this for the time period that I know of. I would be very interested in seeing anything of this time period being published for t...

  Medical and Scientific studies that contributed to removing homosexuality from the DSM      Chapters 4 and 5 of Eaklor's Queer America, continues to discuss the advances in sexual studies that were introduced to us earlier in chapter 3.  Chapter 4 begins with the story of Martin Duberman, who was a significant leader in GLBT academics and activism. Duberman was a respected and renowned historian and playwright, he obtained his Ph.D. in history at Harvard University and continued on to teach at esteemed institutions such as Yale and Princeton. While teaching at these institutions and working to further his own education, he struggled to come to terms with his own homosexuality. He declared that he had been seeking a cure for his homosexuality for an extended amount of time. It is disheartening to hear how negative societal views and pressure to be perceived as straight clouded the judgement of someone with as esteemed of an education as Duberman. The 50's were ...