AIDS: A SOCIAL MOVEMENT PERSPECTIVE

This lecture is written for use either in a class which focuses on AIDS directly, medical sociology classes where instructors link political economy and social movement issues with health care, or in a social movement class as part of a discussion of the gay and lesbian movement. In any of these cases, I recommend that instructors show their students the HBO film version of Randy Shilts' book, And the Band Played On. The film demonstrates the obstacles and structures of domination and stigma that constrained the actions of those affected by AIDS, as patients, scientists, doctors, gay people, public officials, and even one sociologist prior to the emergence of AIDS activism. For a time line of major events in the development of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, I would refer instructors to Kinsella (1989). For a comprehensive time line for ACT UP demonstrations, see Crimp and Rolston (1990).