Love, Lust, and Loss in the Early Age of AIDS: The Discourse in the Body Politic From 1981 to 1987

ABSTRACT

This article explores the idea that the AIDS epidemic constituted a defining moment for the Canadian gay rights movement and illuminates the intricate power dynamics of the development of a community identity. Using grounded theory inductive and deductive content analysis, and interviews with activists from the Body Politic magazine, this article considers notions of health “from above” and “from below” by examining relations between the community and government and their confrontation with medicalization and the medical profession. I also examine how the magazine reported and negotiated issues related to the community’s self-policing and “self-managed oppression” through efforts to promote safer sex and risk reduction.

KEYWORDS:

• Bio-citizenship
• gay rights/liberation
• HIV/AIDS
• safer sex
• Body Politic

Acknowledgment

I dedicate this article with gratitude to the activists of The Body Politic, and to the memory of those who have since died, for their devotion to social justice and gay liberation. Your work is woven into the fabric of our lives as we continue to build on your work. I would also like to acknowledge the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives for their invaluable assistance.

Notes

1. I will be using the term gay and lesbian or simply gay liberation movement to reflect the language of the period as it was used in TBP, although I recognize that the recent term queer and trans is more inclusive.

2. Kaposi’s sarcoma is a type of cancer common among immunocompromised gay men.

3. All subtitles that appear in quotation marks are taken from headlines in TBP