To the Editor:
The bringing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Oberlin was a hugely important event. I am thankful for all involved for undertaking this project and for seeing it through to its completion. Yet as I was hanging up signs in my dorm to help out in some small way, while I was listening to the speakers at the opening ceremony, and while I walked through the Quilt, I was struck by something unsettling which would not leave my mind.
The posted signs for the Quilt listed many pertinent reasons. Nine, in fact, ranging from the reported number of AIDS cases reported in America, to the results of a 1995 Nickelodeon survey. Not even mentioned on the list of reasons for the bringing of the Quilt, however, was its effect upon the Queer community, specifically among Queer men. In the context of the history of this virus in America, I find this absence disturbing. The disproportionate number of AIDS cases reported among Gay men, the disproportionate risk for Queer males becoming HIV positive, and the concurrent social and political response (or lack thereof) to the disease because of its demographics are vastly important in any discussion of AIDS/HIV. This is especially true for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Walking among the hundreds of panels of the Quilt, one cannot help but be struck by the number of Queer men who are represented, the number of pink triangles and rainbow flags. I by no means wish to invalidate the number of women, straight people of color, or any other group who has been affected by AIDS. But the exclusion of one of the hardest hit minority groups in America in the publicity of this event is disrespectful and irresponsible.
Some would argue that the marginalization of Queer men in these posters is unimportant, as people already assume that it is a "Gay disease." Whether or not this assumption exists, the absence of this group in this manner represents a continued invalidation of the lives of Queer people. As in Congress and the nation, there is a focus on the "innocent victims" (as though a victim can be guilty), and blame is placed on Queer men for "bringing it upon themselves." This continues to imply that the epidemic is more valid and more devastating if it is affecting "normal" people, as opposed to Queer men.
I do not think that anyone involved in bringing the Quilt to Oberlin specifically aimed for this invisibility. Indeed, their efforts to bring the Quilt are admirable. However, getting one line in that list of nine other reasons would not be too much to ask. Some acknowledgment of the horrific impact of this epidemic upon the Queer community would not be too much to ask. In fact, if anything, it is necessary.
Paul Monette said, "The story that endlessly eludes the decorum of the press is the death of a generation of gay men." Has this central part of the creation of the Quilt, of the spread of AIDS and the horror of its effects also eluded Oberlin?
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 12; December 13, 1996
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