#aids activist

[commiepinkofag]

Dr. Gao Yaojie: Dissident doctor who exposed China's AIDS epidemic, dies at 95

Her work uncovered how businesses selling blood led to the spread of HIV in the countryside.

She was at the forefront of AIDS activism in China and traveled across the country treating patients, often at her own expense.

A gynecologist by training, she encountered her first AIDS patient in the central province of Henan in 1996.

Whistle-Blowing AIDS Doctor Reflects on Roots of Epidemic in China (Published 2016)

Dr. Gao Yaojie, who has tied the epidemic to an unsanitary network of blood sales, discussed what she considers the still-untold truth about

While she was not the first Chinese doctor to expose the AIDS epidemic, it was her efforts that made the situation known to the country and beyond.

She told the Associated Press in a previous interview that she withstood government pressure and persisted in her work because “everyone has the responsibility to help their own people. As a doctor, that’s my job. So it’s worth it.”

[bitter69uk]

“The one thing I don't think I could live without would be the soundtracks to horror films,'' she said. ''I love to play them in my car as I drive down the freeway.'' Miss Galas sees no contradiction in that she is as fond of grade-B horror movies and of the heavy-metal rock of AC/DC as she is of Verdi and her vocal idol, Maria Callas.”

/ From a 1985 New York Times profile of Diamanda Galas /

Don’t let the resemblance to Morticia Addams fool you - Diamanda Galas has SOUL! The fierce Greek American avant-garde diva, pianist, performance artist and AIDS activist (who was born on 29 August 1955, turning 69 today) convincingly styles herself as an Angel of Death. Once memorably described by The New Yorker as “lounge singer in a world on fire”, she wields her remarkable bird-of-prey voice like a weapon and possesses the same kind of wraith-cheekboned, raven-haired beauty Walt Disney endowed his animated evil queen stepmothers with. Galas got her first break singing in front of insane asylum inmates, has paid tribute to Aileen Wuornos and in performance is apt to take the stage stripped to the waist and smeared in blood. Appropriately, director Francis Ford Coppola enlisted her to provide eerie shrieks and gasps for the sound effects in his 1992 version of Dracula. I haven’t seen Galas perform in years, but I vividly remember the last time: she was reinterpreting jazz standards like “All of Me” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is” in her own inimitable (blood-curdling) way, which lulled the uninitiated into a false sense of security. People were filing out in dismay all night! Keep doing what you’re doing, lady! (If you’ve never dipped a toe into Galas’ oeuvre, start with her spine-tingling interpretations of “I Put a Spell on You”, The Supremes' “My World is Empty Without You” or Johnny Cash’s “25 Minutes to Go").

[gwydionmisha]

Michael Seltzer, prominent LGBTQ+ activist and fundraiser in fight against AIDS, dead at 78

Seltzer spurred philanthropic organizations to take the AIDS crisis seriously.

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

Watch "Mix - Heroin by David Wojnarowicz" on YouTube

Heroin by David Wojnarowicz

David's unfinished film project "Heroin" was salvaged by Marion Scemama from Fales Library. I have only vague memories of filming this with

I found out about David through Olivia Laing's book The Lonely City.

This guy was abandoned by his mother and suffered absolutely horrific physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his father.

He finally ran away as a teenager becoming a male prostitute in order to have food to eat and a place to sleep. Later in life he became a well-known artist and was one of the foremost spokesmen on AIDS before he succumbed to the disease.

I looked at these videos on YouTube only to find that they had very few views. I want to change that I want more people to know him.

@vaspider

[lavitaliz]

[laliz9]

[nowthisnews]

Larry Kramer, the AIDS activist whose fiery rhetoric helped raise the alarm on the severity of the disease and its effect on gay men around the world, died at 84. According to Kramer’s husband, the cause of death was pneumonia. Kramer himself had also been living with HIV and had battled liver disease until undergoing a transplant. Through his plays, essays, and demonstrations, Kramer heightened the early conversation around the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s and ’90s, pressured government health officials for stronger action, and rallied for more funding and treatment options for patients. [NYT]

follow @nowthisnews for daily news videos & more

[harvardfineartslib]

An American artist, David Wojnarowicz (September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was “an abused child, a teen runaway, and a former Times Square hustler who used art to re-create himself. He never went to art school, barely finished high school, but emerged as one of the most important voices of his generation.” (from the book cover inside flap.)

Wojnarowicz’s artwork is fueled with emotions that reflect his life and identity as a gay and AIDS activist. He created works with painting, photography, film, text, and installation, and became well known in New York’s East Village art scene in the 80s. He quickly rose to a much larger stage, however, his life was cut short by AIDS at the age of thirty-seven in 1992. He spent the last years of his life as AIDS activist, advocating for people with AIDS/HIV virus.

The title of this book, A Fire in My Belly, refers to Wojnarowicz’ controversial short silent film of the same name.  In 2010, the film was removed from the exhibition "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., after complaints from the Catholic League, U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Representative Eric Cantor, which threatened a possible reduction of federal funding for the Smithsonian. Their complaints focused on a scene with a crucifix covered in fire ants, which they viewed as anti-religion. In his last years as AIDS activist, Wojnarowicz fought against the right-wing political and cultural figures who were trying to end federal funding for artists who openly identified as LGBTQ.

Stay tuned for the Part II of the life and work of David Wojnarowicz.

Fire in the belly : the life and times of David Wojnarowicz Cynthia Carr. New York : Bloomsbury, 2012. English HOLLIS number: 990133116200203941