HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 6PM
DI LORETTO HALL
CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY
NEW BRITAIN, CT
***FREE ADMISSION***
Speaking of Health Care, the 1980's was a decade of health care challenges and health education challenges. If you are in or near New Britain, Connecticut on Monday, December 3rd at 6 PM be sure to catch the showing of the film, How To Survive A Plague. The documentary about AIDS and activism in the 1980's promises to be a powerful historical statement and hopefully will engender a renewed interest in fighting for Health Care Justice in America.
As a footnote: I am convinced that it was the AIDS epidemic that forced many gay men out of the closet to become activists that gave the LGBT equality movement new impetus and helped move it forward. It also slowly changed the direction of Gay Liberation away from the exciting and freeing experimentation of the 1970's and toward a more "conservative" position that would like to portray us gays as "the new normal" including permanent/long term (monogamous) marriages and families with children.
While this normalization is probably inevitable, we, as sexual minorities, must never let our guard down, because ultimately "they" - the so called "straight" world, the religious fundamentalists of all stripes and those who believe they are morally superior WILL NEVER GET IT. As Bob from I Should Be Laughing recently pointed out in a repost, even our closest friends can turn on us when faced with the prospect that our relationships are equal to theirs. Believe me THEY WILL NEVER GET IT.
2 comments:
First off, Thanks for the shout out.
Now, I completely agree with you about how AIDS forced many of us to come to terms with being open and out and honest and loud. We could not sit by while some of us got sick and died and stay silent.
We had to speak up and demand to be accepted.
We're still fighting that battle--with some big victories on election day and a minor defeat yesterday in Nevada--but there is still work to be done, and minds to be changed.
If they can't be changed, move on.
The greatest teachers and philosophers prophets in every tradition have always taught love, humility, and service - unfortunately, too many people cannot resist the innate urge to substitute tribalism for spirituality and brotherhood. This is true even among unchurched people, the tendency to divide the world into Us vs. Them. And of course We don't want anything to do with the nasty, smelly, wicked Thems.
Sigh. The long, sad, tragic story of mankind.
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