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YEP, G. A. (2007). THE POLITICS OF LOSS AND ITS

REMAINS IN COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM THE

QUILT. RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS, 10(4), 681-

700.

THE Pouncs [if loss AND lTS REMA!~JS IN

CorvlMON THREADS: SroRiES FROM THE Qu1Lr GUSTA. YEP

Usi;zg Judith Butler's notion of the ''ungrievable life," this project examines the politics of loss and its remains in Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, an award-winning documentary feat'.,/,.ringf:Zve diverse lives, re-presented by pan.els in the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and their subsequent loss. The essay is divided into jour sections. The first discusses the notion o.,floss and its remains. The second pro­vides a brief overview of the film and situates it in the political and historical con­text in which it was produced and circulated. Using the concepts of bodily, spatia~ and ideal remains, the third section analyzes the politics of loss in the film. The essay concludes by examining these politics two decades after the AIDS Memorial Quilt was originally displayed.

\A Tith panels corrcspondin.g to the size of a body, co.ffi.11, or grave, the PJDS 1' V Memorial Quilt evokes "for many an image of war dead strewn across

a now quiet battlefield:'1 With the Quilt operating as a surrogate for the bod­ies of people who have died of AIDS, viewers, whether they arc in a museum, church, school, city hall, or the Washington Mall, are invited to witness and experience the atrocity of the disease and the enormity of the human loss from the AIDS epidemic. First displayed in Washington, D.C., in October 1987 with 1,920 panels, and growing to more than 40,000 panels in recent years, 2 the Quilt was "a brilliant strategy for bringing AIDS not only to public attention but into the mainstream of American myth, for turning what was perceived to

Gust A Yep is Professor of Communication. Studies and Human Sexuality Studies at San

Francisco State Un:i:w.:rsity. I wish to thank Olga Zaytseva for her research assistance and Drs. John.P. Elia and EmmaL Negr6n for their ongoing friendship and unending support This essay is dedicated to the memory of my parents. Their untimely deaths prompted me to examine the meanings of"!oss and its remains. Finally, I thank Dr. Donald.Arquilla for his clarity and encour~ agement as I continue to engage with these fusses.

© 200i :Michigan State Univer~ity Rhetoric & Public Affairs VoL 16, No. 4, 2007, pp. 681-700

682 RHETORIC & PUBLIC MAIRS

be a 'gay disease> into a shared national tragedy:'.:i There is no prescription for vicv.ing a..'1.d expcrie::1cing this tragedy. ~/hen visiting a Quilt display, no one tells viewers where to start or finish, what panels to focus on, when to stop or leave, or ho-. ... ~ to respond to t..11.c collage of loss surroundir1g them.4 l\s of June 2006, more than 15 million people have visited the Quilt.'

With the easy accessibility and increased availability of mass media products t~day, anyone can experience the Quilt Without traveling to a display. Highly acclaimed and recommended by film critics in the United States and winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1990, Common Tnreads: Stories from the Quilt, narrated by Dustin Hoffman, tells the story of the NA.t\1ES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt by focusing on the lives of five very diverse individuals who are represented by panels in the Quilt.6 The docu­menta..7 is, in Cleve Jones1s words, ~a beautL."l.tl essay" that tells the stories of t<':iose five people "stcuggling wit.':! AIDS at a time when hope for survival was none·:dstent."7 In addition to being an important Quilt merchandise and car­ried by numerous libraries and video rental sites, this documentary has been shown extensively on public television. 3 In this essay, I examine the politics of loss and its remains in Common Threads. To accomplish this task, l first dis­cuss the notion of loss and its remains. Next, l provide a brief overview of the film and situate it in its appropriate political and historical contel>.'t. Third, using the concepts of bodily, spatial, and ideal remains, l analyze the politics of loss in the film. I conclude by examining these politics two decades after the AJDS Nlemorial Quilt was originally displayed.

Loss AND ITS REMAINS

Although the notion of loss has conventionally been relegated to the realm of the psychological or psychoanalytic, Judith Butler contends that loss should be conceived "as constituting social, political, and aesthetic relatio:µs."9 Loss> in this sense, cannot be confined as something that occurred in the past to be left there; on the contrary) loss creates and induces an active tension bet:v\Teen the pa::."! and the present, and in so doing, it constitutes and transforms the pre­sent. As such> the social> political, and aesthetic relations of thi: pri:sent are always already composed of, and haunted by, loss in its symbolic, ideal, and material forms. This new way of thinki..'1.g about loss, Butler continues, "seeks to bring theory to bear on the analysis of social and political life, in particular, to the temporality of social and political life." 10 Such a perspective is particu­larly sig..'1.ificant to individuals and social groups, such as gay men, injecting drug users, v.romen and men of color, commercial sex workers, a...rid transgen­ders, affected by the AIDS epidemic. Besides being the most impacted by H!Vi AIDS, these individuals and groups are already among the most disen-

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THE POLITICS OF Loss ANO ITS REMAINS IN COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM THE OuJLT 683

franchised in U.S. society.11 Tnese lives-and losses-a!'e, as Butler argues, u.Tlintelligible and "unrealn in the national imaginary, thus making them "ungrievable."12 An ungrievable life, Butler notes, "is not quite a life; it does not qualify as a life and is not worth a note" for <'it is already the unburied, if not the unburiable.1>13 A new perspective of loss engages in an anaiysis of sociai and political life, including those deemed unreal, ungrievable, unburied, and unburiable.

Loss cannot be cut off and detached from its remains. As David L Eng and David Kazanjian aptly observe, "VVe n1ight say that as soon as u~e question <V\'h.at is lost?' is posed, it invariably slips into t.lie questi~n 'VVhat remains?' That is, loss is inseparable from what remains, for what is lost is kno•'>'TI only by what remains of it, by how these remains are produced, read, and sus­tained."14 EngagiI1g loss from the perspective ·of rem.ains animates the past through. the creation of bodies, subjectivities, and subjects (bodily remains); spaces, representations, and new me---a.nings (spatial remains); ideals, potential­ities, and knowledges (ideal remains). 15 These three realms of remains might be seen as active rather than reactive, creative rather than insipid, prophetic rather than nostalgic, social rather than solipsistic, confrontational rather than reactionary. The panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, including the ones fea­tured in Common Threads, are powerful bodily, spatial, and. ideal remains­and riveting reminders-of the lives lost to AIDS.

READ:NG Cor,,:,rv:oN T.'-IREADS

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt is a significant cultural artifact associ­ated with Llie AIDS Memorial Quilt. This artifact was widely distributed by the NAJViES Project Foundation, the n~tional organization that provides funding and oversees the display of the Quilt. In the following sections, I first provide a brief overview of the film. Next, I locate the political and historical conte.;.1: in which the documentary was produced and circulated.

A Brief Overview

Based in part on the book The Quilt Stories from the NA."JES Project, 16 writ-' ten by Cindy Ruskin, photographed by Matt Herron, and designed by Deborah Zemke, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt is a feature-length documentary released in 1989, two years after the first display of the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C 17 The film focuses on the lives of five people who are memorialized by panels in the Quilt. They are: (a) Dr. Tom Waddell, an Olympian, founder of the Gay Games, and a white gay man, whose storv is told bv his friend ;".incl mothr>r rif

684 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

his child, Sara Lewinstei.n; (b) David 1v1andell Jr., a white you..TJ.g: boy with hemophilia, whose story is told by his parents, David and Suzi Mandell; ( c) Robert Perryman, ari h;.jecting drug user a...'ld heterosexual Africar1 fu-nerican man, whose story is told by his widow, Sallie Perryman, an African American vvomai."1.; ( d) Jeffrey Sevcik, a white gay man, whose story is told by his part~ ner Vito Russo, a film historian and a white gay man; and, (e) David ,...... , _,, , . . . . . - - . ,,.., ...... ·~~o::u, a ,,.,,c.rte gay m~"l, 71.r.ose stor; is tc1c. by rns partner .1..racy J.Orrey, a U.~Navy veteran and a white gay man, who then became his own story­teller as he succumbed to AIDS durir1g the course of filming. Interspersed with the life narratives of the five men from early child.11ood to death, the documentary presents a parallel history of the U.S. government's neglect and lack of political response to the growing epidemic and the emergence and creation of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Using statistics to detail the nun1ber of Am'!r}cans who were diagnosed with, and died from, AIDS, the film provides coverage of the early years of the epidemic (1981-89) and concludes with a powerful and solemn sequence of names read aloud on the Washington Mall.

Situating Common Threads in a Political and Historical Context

The film's (re)presentation of the early years of the AIDS epidemic is a chron­icle of, and reaction to, the social, cultural, and political climate of the United States at that moment in history .. A.JDS is actually an amalgamation of tv.ro parallel epidemics-biomedical and cultural-mutually influencing each other. 18 AIDS, the biomedical epidemic, is a narrative of an infectious disease and the search for a cure. AIDS, the cultural epidemic, is an ongoing social and political struggle over scientific, seA'Ual, and social processes of signification associated 'With the biomedical epidemic. 19

lndeed, cultural struggles over definitions and meanings started at the onset of the biomedical crisis. The definition of AIDS itself has evolved and changed over the years. In 1981, medical researchers called the newly identi­fied medical condition GRID (gay-related immunodeficiency).20 The process

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of coupling a medical condition .... rith a seX'..ral identity served to create, main- i tain, and perpetuate discursive dichotomies and social hierarchies in the ':······· ·. United States (for exan:iple, homosexual and the "general population"; us and . · them; guilty and iI1nocent; moral and immoral; perpetrator and victim; love and death; anus and vagina; normal and abnormal) .21 .A.$ disease and marginal groups in society (such as gays, injecting drug users, commercial sex workers) became endlessly and inei..1:ricably linked by the dominant biomedicai dis-course of AIDS, the notion of"high-risk" groups emerged. As the name sug-gests, "high-risk" groups focus on identity-on who people are, personally,

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THE Porn1cs Of Loss AND ITS REMAINS IN COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM TriE 0UJLT 685

socially, and cultu.raTiy, rather than on behavior-what people do that might put them at risk for HIV i..'1.fecticn.22 This focus maintains a safe distance between the mainstream (white heterosexuals) and the disenfranchised (white homosCA-uals and drug users of color) in w.lie United States. r:: is, therefore, hardly surprising that the U.S. government, dominated by the ultraconserva­tive politics of the Reagan era, remained silent about the exploding AIDS epi­demic in its eariy years. This point about Reagan's silence is made more poignantly by Jan Zita Grover: «Gary Bauer, president Reagan's assistant, told Face the Nation that the reason Reagan had not even uttered the words AIDS publicly before a press conference held late in 1985 was that the Administration did not until then perceive AIDS as a problem: 'Ir hadn't spread into the general population yet."'23 It is painfully clear that the lives of people ii.1 the "gc...-icral population" arc i.~finitely more valuable; as Butler reminds us, they are "highly protected, and the abrogation of their claims to sanctity will be sufficient to mobilize the forces of war" while the lives that are socially and culturally marked do "not even qualify as 'grievable:"24

It was during this grim and frigbtening (the lack of effective biomedical treatment to keep people living with HN/AIDS alive) and shameful and embarrassing (the government's silence and neglect of people living with HN and dying of AIDS) period of U.S. history that the AIDS Memorial Quilt was conceived and created and Common Threads was produced and distributed. 23

It ms a time of hopelessness) desperation, terror, and despair. Alt.liough C!eve Jones's}JDS Memorial Quilt draws on the U.S. tradition of

quilting, it is, as Christopher Capozzola accurately observes, «largely an invented tradition" designed to challenge the conservative discourse of the nation a.."'ld traditional defiilltions of the family prevalent duri.."'lg the Re:::.ga...'1 years. 26 Through this contestation, the Quilt demanded that marginalized groups in U.S. society, such as gays and injecting drug users, be included in what it means to be American.27 The Quilt, Peter Hawkins notes, "redescribes the entire nation in terms of the epidemic-it says, .America has AIDS" and in the process, it attempts to persuade the government to act with compassion toward its citizens.28 Ironically, to ensure the inclusion and sympathetic treat­ment of gay men in the discourse of"America has AIDS," Cleve Jones and the NAMES Project staff disavowed the Quilt's dose ties to the gay community.29

In fact, Jones adniitted that he and his staff"deliberately adopted a symbol and a vocabulary that would not be threatening to nongay people."30 Although the process of"de-gaying" the Quilt was not necessarily uncontroversial, 31 this was nevertheless the political and historical conte.xt in w!>ich Common Threads was produced and circulated.

The stories of the five lives memorialized in the AIDS Memorial Quilt and presented in Common Threads ~t-rvP tn "rn::ilnt<11ln rl'\n+<> ... + ~.,;+J.. .. i...~ A.-..~...l »32

686 RHETORIC & Pusuc AFFAIRS

thus enacting the active tension between the present and the past a..J.d between loss and :ts remains t..1-iat I discussed earlier. These are the lives that arc, in Butler's words, "unreai" and have "already suffered the violence of derealization" by the powerful and invisible dynamics of normativity in U.S. culture.33 Such lives, Butler adds, «have a strange v•ay of ren1a.ir..i."lg ani­mated"34 and by engaging with them in Common Threads, we can embark on ~,,a.1'alysis of their bodily, spatial. and ideal remains . . -~.'·-:..

ENGAGING THE POLITICS OF Loss AND !TS REMAINS iN

COMMON THREADS

Tne process of viewing attempts to create a sense of identification between the viewer and the subject, and viewing Common Threads enacts the relationship betvv~n the viev.·er and the remai.T'l.s of lives lest to AIDS. As Simon '"Watney suige'°sts, the process of identification works in two ways; "the transitive one of identifying the se!f in relation to t.i.l.e difference of the other, and the reflexive one of identifying the self in a relation of resemblance to the other.''35 Loss and its remains resulting from AlDS enter the realm of public visibility in the tran­sitive mode with the condition that any possibility of identification with AlDS is thoroughly refused. \\That arc the politics of this engagement wit.h loss and its remains? What are the potentials of this engagement? l/Vhat are the new possibilities suggested by this engagement? In the follovv·ing sections, I exam­ine the politics of loss presented in the documentary"by considering the ways in wh!ch ioss and its ren1air1s are insistently creative and deeply political.''36

Bodily Remains

Bodily remains activate the relationship between the past and the present through the creation of bodies and subjects_.37 This relationship attends to the ways unreal and ungrievable, abject and unlivable bodies are haunted by cre­ative possibilities whose meanings emerge from making sense of their mater­ial remains. Based upon a close reading of Common Threads, I focus on two bodily remains: the AlDS body and the sexuality of such bodies.

Moving away from abstract AIDS statistics to concrete images of people with AlDS during the early years of the epidemic, the media created, main­tained, and perpetuated a particular representation of the AlDS body. Such a representation has become so familiar in t.11e popular imagination that most people do not question its hegemonic status. The AlDS body, in this domi­nant and pervasive representation, is "ravaged, disfigured, and debilitated by the syndrome" and the subjects with the condition are "generally alone, des­perate, but resigned to their 'inevitable' deaths.''35 Pri:>~PntlrH'f f'h<> i;H,.,,. ~c .cv.-

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THE POUTICS OF Loss AND ITS REMAINS IN COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM TH£ 0UJLT 687

people 'vit..li AIDS, Common Threads complicates this hegemonic representa­tion of the AIDS body by reinforcing it at tin1es and cl1alienging it at ou1ier times.

At first glance, it appears that the images in the documentary reinforce ma.'1.y of the fa..T..iliar representations of the .A.IDS body. There arc pittwres of the "before and after" to provide evidence of the ways HN ravages the body and dcstroy·s t...11.c person. Tom \Afaddell is sho\'m as an athlete ,..,rho competed L"l t..1.c Olympic Ga..'!les in Mexico City in 1968. David Ma..11dell Jr. is described by his mother as a "life eater" while he is playing in a yard.39 Robert Perryman is seen with his wife, both healthy looking and dressed in formal attire. Jeffrey Sevcik is shown as a healthy young man in a black-and-white photograph. David Campbell and his partner Tracy Torrey are seen in pictures as profes­sional young men at work. The "after" pictures show Tom Waddell, alone and looking out a window, David Mandell Jr. looking emaciated i.r.-i a photo wit..i. his broth.er, Robert Perryman looking thin a.11d forlorn, Jeffrey Sevci.1< lying in bed, and a wasted Tracy Torrey speaking to the camera i..-i bed aione. Tnc dis­figurement is particularly noticeable in images of Mandell and Torrey, and bottles of medicine-another indication of disease and illness-are promi­nent visual elements of their narratives. The inescapability of death of the .i\IDS body is particularly poignant when Tracy Torrey makes his own Quilt panel and tells his deceased partner David, through the rolling camera, "Hang in there, buddy. It won't be long before we ar(! together agaii.1.."40

Common Threads also appears to reinforce hegemonic representations of the AIDS body through race, class, gender, and sexuality. The five lives presented in the do:;i;.me..'1tary are three white gay men, an African A..'!lerica..11 heterosexual male drug user, and a young white hemophiliac, representing the three major "risk groups"-homose.."Cllals, injecting drug users, and hemophiliacs-identi­fied by the medical establishment .. Such a selection reinforces the popular media image that gay men are "always presumed to be white and middle class" and injecting drug users are presumed to be straight "poor people of color:'" By keeping these "risk groups" separate and independent, gay men of color, white injecting drug users, white women, and women of color, among others, become unseen, obscured, and unintelligible in terms of funding, educational, medical, and social services, and in the popular imagination. Alt.1:tough Sallie Perryman tests positive for HIY, she remains a narrator of her late husband's life, and her own psychological and material realities oflivi.ng with the virus are ignored in the name of focusL."1.g on the life of her dying partner. The gay men in the fi1-n-Waddell, Sevcik, and Campbell along with Russo and Torrey-and the young hemophiliac and his parents-the Mandells--are signaled by their speech, self-presentation, profession, and surroundings as distinctively middle -1--~ fl--~-- +-h- A.t:..;.-,... ... A..,..,,...;,,.,... ... .,.....,,,... ;,, .,,,.+,...hl;.,i.,.,.,.t ...;,,.'\..+ ,,+ tl-..,. "'"•'"'"" ""'

688 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

a heterosex11al male and discussion of his struggle with drugs confirms his identity as a dr..ig user. VVhe.i.J l-Js ..v-ife, Sallie, says, "I-ie didn't take my furniture out of my house. He didn't rob me. He didn't rob anybody;'42 she appears to be c..1.allengi.."1g the ubiquitous image of the drug user with AIDS-the poor, inner city, criminal, heterosexual person of color. The statement, however, appears peculiar in this context-we do not typically imagine a husband robbing his wifs:;::-and by conjuring up this prevalent image, it ends up reactivating and affii'ining it in the popular imagination.

Although the film reinforces some of the hegemonic representations of the AIDS body, it also challenges them in important ways. During the Reagan era, dominant conceptions of nationhood and the family certainly did not include AIDS and the populations it affected. AlDS seemed "un-American," and many people and ·<orruuunities in the United States actively avoided it symbolically .,,d.materially.'3 These hegemonic <fucourses of nation and family are brought intO·crisis in Common Threads. Calling it «truly an All-America..11 fan-iity; Sa..ra lewinstein discusses how she, a lesbian, and Tom Waddell, a gay man, decided to become a family and have their daughter Jessica. Tom "was everything I would want for my child to grow up with," exclaims a smiling Lewinstein. When they decided to have a child, she recalls what she said to Waddell, "You are wonder­ful You are athletic. You are smart. You are a doctor. My mother would have no complaints."44 The idea that a lesbian and a gay man are so perfectly matched emotionally, intellectually, and psychologically to form a family and have a child confronts and resisT..s t.1-te traditional heteronormative model of family.

Defying popular stereotypes of drug users, the documentary shows Robert Perryman as a dedicated and responsible father. Sallie, his wife, recalls, "Rob vr.:.I1ted to be the best father t.1:lat he could aJ1d he ·v.as so nurturing and caring about his daughter. He bathed her, he washed her, he took her for walks, he rolled the stroller, he changed diapers."45 These images open up new discursive horizons for thinking about families and family life in the United States in the late 1980s.

Popular images of the AIDS body are of death and decay, certainly not of life and vitality.Although some of the images depicted in Common Threads are in hospital rooms1 a common site where AIDS bodies are located, one sequence involving Tom Waddell tampers with popuiar expectations. In the scene1 Waddell is in a hospital room> not as a patie..Tlt, but as a visitor and a proud and expecting father. Lewinstein has just delivered Jessica, their daugh­ter, and Waddell looks radiant and ecstatic. While the popular imagination expects AIDS bodies to be ravaged and waiting for death, Waddel!'s image is glowing from bringing life to the world.

The AIDS body is not conceived as se;.-ual in the popuiar imagination. With the exceptions of Waddell and Perryman, who produced children, Common

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THE PouTics OF Loss AND lrs RcMA1Ns '" CoMMON THREADS: ~TORJfS FROM fHt Ou1tl tiig

T.'1.reads depicts its subjcc+..s as essentially devoid of seX'.iality. The absence of discourse about t.lieir desires, fantasies. and activities literally 1::dits thcir sexual lives off the screen, or as Richard D. Mohr puts it, "sex is bleached right out."46 However, sex and sexuality are fundamental dimensions of human experience and subjectivity,47 and this seems to be pa..4:icuJ.arly tnie of gay men who are socially and culturally defined by their sexual identity.48 That Waddelrs and Perryman's sexuality rc:rnair..s on the screen while others were edited out is worth noting~ Perryman is a heterosex-1.Lal man and Waddell is a gay man who had a child with his best friend, a lesbian. The showcasing of procreative sexuality at the expense of silencing other forms of erotic engage­ment contlnues to reinforce a particttlar hlerarchy of human sexual expression that is damaging to gay men, lesbians, and other sexual minorities.49 However> the visual ~J.d discursive presence of two gay men and their partners-Jeffrey Sevcik and Vito Russo, David Campbell and Tracy Torrey-and t.1.eir discus­sion of the physical attraction between them at least suggest an unseen, yet palpable, non-procreative and non-heteronorrnative sexuality that is resistive, resilient, and undeniable.

Spatial Remains

Spatial remains animate the relationship between the past and the present through the creation of spaces and representations. 50 Such a relationship attends to th.e intersections between subjectivity and space and representation and the temporalization of loss. I focus on two spatial remains, based on my reading of Common Threads. The first is the association of AIDS with large gay meccas a...-1d i.."1..'1.er cities in the United States, which creates the connection between physical geography and AIDS. The second is the construction and institutionalization of the sequela "HN-positive=AIDS=Death;' which uses the chronological presentation of events in the film to create a discursive space to interpret the biomedical and cultural epidemic.

When the biomedical establishment and the government instituted and institutionalized the notion of "high-risk'' groups, they essentially attached AlDS to a social identity. AB AlDS became inextricably linked to gay men and i.-ijecting drug users, a spatialization of the disease was also cemented:· the association of AIDS with large gay meccas and inner cities in the United States. This spatialization of AIDS is largely supported and preserved in the film.

The connection between AIDS and large metropolitan centers with sub­stantial gay populations, such as San Francisco and New York City, is made in the documentary. Three of the gay men-Waddell, Sevcik, and Russo-lived and died in either San Francisco or New York City. Waddell lived, and died, in

690 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge, a familiar landmark of the city, is fea­tured when Tom and Sara decide to become a family and have a child. Sevcik was shown in a street interview during the Gay Parade in New York's Chelsea district. His partner, Vito Russo, originally lived in New York City. Living up to his commitment, "we are going to do this together;'51 Vito moved to San Fra.n4<co to take care of his partner after Jeffrey was dia,,crnosed with AIDS. In additiOn to these lifu stories, many of the news reports-interviews with physi­cians, s~eet reports, coverage of community events-were also set in Sa..'1.

" . ... ranc1sco. The inner city is a racially coded space to signify people of color with fun­

ited financial resources, opportunities, and life chances. That inner cities and drug users are associated i..'1 t.11.e larger f...IDS national L?Uagina..ry is not sUrpris­ing. l),lthough this connection is not explicitly made in the depiction of Robert Perryman in the film, there are subtle visual cues that point the viewer in that direction. \Vhen his vvife was iri.tervicvved, ;.vho was presumably in her home, the viewer sees a room with a refrigerator and a small table with a sewing machine on top. One is left to wonder if this is a small kitchen or very small living quarters. When Robert decides to die in the hospital, the camera shows his room and through his window the viewer can see roofs of poorly kept and poorly maintained buildings, the visual signifiers of a poor neighborhood.

In contrast, David Mandell Jr., the young white hemophiliac, is shown in what is his mother, Suzi Mandell, calls «our middle American home.''52 The house appears spacious and young David has many spaces in which to play. Some of the visual cues seem to confirm that they live in the suburbs. After David's death, Suzi recalls ·her response to an invitation to go to the local Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center to make a Quilt panel for her son. "I gulped. I said I have to ask my husband. We had not ventured very far from our middle American home into that area of the city:' But they decided to go. After arriving, Suzi recalls, ''It seems like five minutes later that David [her husband] was very, very busy helping them out with the mailing and I was very busy stitching letters into a person's panel." She then came to the powerful realization that "suddenly, for the first time since my son's death, it was OK to laugh, really laugh."53 In this scene, new promises for connection and com­mu.nJty and new possibilities for political engagement ca...11 be imagined when the spatialized boundaries of AIDS are crossed, and perhaps temporarily torn down.

l'hrough the narrative structure of the docwnenta.ry, another for1n of spa­tialization is produced. This one creates a temporalization of!oss (chronology) that establishes the discursive space for the formula "HIV-positive= AIDS= Death:' It is important, however, to situate it in a larger context: HN was not labeled a causal agent of AIDS until 1984, and an HIV-antibody test was

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not licensed until a year later.54 Although the chronology remains somewhat

uncleari it appears that some Qf the people in the. film wer~ either diagn9sed with AIDS before an HIV-antibody test was licensed or when the antibody test was meaningless in the presence of AIDS-related symptoms and illnesses. Sara Lewin.stein recalls Waddell's negative results for a number of medical tests he ordered. He was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after Sara noticed his weight loss and Tom discovered whit~ patches on his tongue. Both were "signs of AIDS" at that time. Vito Russo discovered a spot on his leg that later turned out to be a kaposi sarcoma lesion, a rare form of skin cancer that people with AIDS were developing during the early years of the epidemic. In these narratives HIV and AIDS become conflated, reflecting the limited biomedical knowledge about the condition at that time. Because the five lives depicted in the film end in death, the HIV=AIDS=Death sequela is established. The separation of HIV-the virus-from AIDS-the medical condition-becomes clearer when Sa...."'a Le>0.nstein and her daughter test negative for HN. In another scene, Sallie Perryman reveals that she had already been HIV-positive for more than two years at the time of tl1e ~ing. Seemi.."lgly hopeful and realistic, she says, «In my mind, I decided that I am not going to get sick. I don't have to get sick I am not goi.."1.g to let worrying about it make me sick. That's how I've been coping. Whether this works or not, time will tell. But I feel great."55 The documenta.7 does not conclude ""'1th a voiceover, such as most viewers became accustomed to hearing in those days, announcing Sallie's death. It is unknown whether this \\TaS because Sallie was alive or because the producers elected not to reveal Sallie's death at the time the documentary wa;; released, but the lack of a voiceover opens up a space to irriagine hope and to challenge t..1-te inevitability of the temporalization of loss based on the formula "HIV-positive= AIDS= Death."

Ideal Remains

Ideal remains activate the reiationship between th~ past and the present by invoking potentialities, knowiedges, and nc:::w ways of becoming. :;o Tnc lives lost to AIDS represent blocked potentials of ideals and meanings; the process, of engaging with ideal remains can "wJ.block their political and social poten­tials and ... create an openness to the world in the interest of imagining alter­native strategies of becoming."57 Based on my reading of Common Threads, I discuss two ideal remains: ti.1.c ideal of t.1.e u..'1iqueness cf the i.11dividual and the ideal of justice, activism, and affective life.

The documentary suggests that each of the five lives portrayed on the screen, and in each Quilt panel, are unique. Seeing the "Quilt as evidence" of this uniqueness, Cleve Jones observes, "For all the beauty and tenderness of

692 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

each panel, the hard fact was that someone of value had to die to make it happen."58 Their lives-the a.'11alga~ation of geneulogy, histor1i biography1

psychology, and geography-are like no other. The focus on the individual, Mohr reminds us, reflects the primary central claim of liberalism. He further notes "that it asserts the individual, not groups, classes, or society in toto, as the l,o.,<iJ.!s of human value and in tum interprets this prime value to be the permiSsion for a person to make plans of her own and to carry them out to a degree compatible "ith other people having a similar permission:"9 The process of naming names and remembering individual lives not only makes such lives irreplaceable, it also engages the viewer in a relationship between the past and the present to unblock the potentials of such lives. The opening sequence of the film, slowly showing photographs of several faces from chil­dren to ;>dults, against a backdrop of news reports on AJDS, invites t.J.ie viewer to wo~Jer about the trajectory of these lives if AIDS hadn't arrived. The scene continues with the camera moving to the AIDS Memorial Quilt display in Washington, where individual loss and national devastation, unrealized plans and blocked potentials, are witnessed en masse.

The uniqueness of the five lives featured in the documentary is captured and reported in some detail. Waddell is characterized as a high-achiever-an Olympian and an ultra-competitive athlete, a leader who founded the Gay Games, a respected activist, an intellectual with a doctorate degree-and a loving human b.eing-:a great friend, sensitive man, dedicated father. Perryman is presented as a thoughtful husbar1d, devoted father, givi_r:ig friend, and supportive counselor. Mandell Jr. is characterized as a strong and active child) a '~life cater;) and a courageous soul. Sevcik is described as innocent and childlike, gentle and sensitive, playful and theatrical, spiritual, passive, pes­simistic, and nervous in large gatherings. Campbell is described as a hand­some man and both Torrey and Campbell are presented as successful professionals-one in the navy and the other in landscape architecture. Dustin Hoffman, the narrator of the film, tells us, "these lives take very dif­ferent roads to the same fate)" their death with AIDS.60

The sense of "being different" is evident with some of the ·protagonists in the film. Sevcik and Campbell, both gay men, and Mandell Jr., a hemophiliac, ire aware of u1~ir difference in u~e social world. Russo described his partn~r, Sevcik, as "too gentle to live among wolves."61 These men express the ideal of, and wish for, equality in treatment in different ways. For example, Torrey tells us t11at Campbell, his partner, realized his ho;r!osexu.ality at an e--arty age) and "he would have become an interior designer if it weren't for the great stigma attached to that occupation, and therefore, decided to become a landscape architect instead."62 In an attempt to realize the ideal of equal treatment, Campbell did not pursue his professional dream. Mandell Jr:s father, aware of

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David to have as much freedom and abilities 11ithout us putting restrictions on him so that he could have a normal life:'63 The struggle for "normality;' which I read as an investment in the ideals of inherent personal value and equal and fair social treatment, is particularly salient for individuals whose lives are "disposable;'64 va_\ueless, and unreal.

Witnessing some of the injustices resulting from an oppressive social body, an inhumane and unresponsive government, a homophobic and sex­negative medical establishment, and a sensationalistic and invasive media, the documentary provokes and stirs powerful affective responses including anger and rage, sadness and grief, empathy and compassion. The last scene, set at an AIDS Memorial Quilt display in Washington, has the camera scan­ning thousands of panels as names of the deceased-men and women, sons and fathers, daughters and mothers, brothers and sisters, adults and children, relatives and friends from all walks of life--are read aloud by different peo­ple and in different sections of the display. A..'i:cr rcad.Lig a list of names aloud, including her own son's, Suzi Mandell walks through the massive dis­play and reminds us,

Too many people ... too many people ... too much love gone ... too much

tragedy. I took David's story ... and multiply that by the number of panels and

it was all so horrendous. Every one of those persons that is repre-.ented by a

panel is a person who was loved by somebody and that loss, the tremendous loss .•. and I kept w.\in.lcing of t}1c possibilities for D<:.vid, v.·hat he could h~ve been, what his promise was, and how cut short it was, and again multiply that by the number of panels.65

If the number of lives lost appears impossible, unbearable, and unfathomable, the viewer is brought in to witness the enormity of the loss one final time with a panoramic view of the Quilt.

The process of witnessing the ""naming l of) the <lead"66 and e1uoting over these losses does not necessarily constitute progressive political action alu.1.ough it might give u1.e ""icv.·cr u1.e fa..."1ta.sy of participation a..."i.d concern. Elaborating on this point, Michael Musto suggests that there should be a warning sticker on the Quilt that reads "Don't feel that by crying over this, you've really done something for fJDS."67 1.A/hiJe viewing the lives-and their loss-in Comraon Threads might provide the viewer 'With the personal and collective conte."rt to experience grief and mourning, some .A.IDS activists, such as Douglas Crimp, argue that it is not enough:

694 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The fact that our militancy may be a means of dangerous denial in no way sug­gests that activism is unwarranted. There is no question but that we mi.:st fight

the unspeakable violt:nce we incur from the society in which we find ourselves.

But if we understand that violence is able to reap its horrible rewards th.rough the very psychic mechanisms that make us part of this society, then we may also be able to recognize-along with our rage--our terror, our guilt, and our pro­fo~sadness. Militancy, of course, then, but mourning too: mourning and militancy. 68 •

In this sense, mourning and activism are more intertwined than opposed. Just as mourning takes on many forms-individual and collective, public and pri­vate-so does activism-social, cultural, political, and academic, to name a few.69 To_gether they can generate energy for continuing political work.

POSTSCR!!'T

Common Threads was rel..::ased in tl1e midst of a period of hopelessness, des­peration, terror, and despair. The AIDS epidemic was-and still is-advancing at an alar1ning rate in some of the most disenfranchised communities. in the United States, leaving few lives untouched and killing many. The slow govern­ment response and the homophobia apparent in biomedical research and AIDS-related services fueled and maintained a potent social stigma imposed on people with AIDS. With a focus on loss, I examined the creative and polit­ical potentials of bodily, spatial, and ideal remains of the lives depicted in the documentary. 'While it reinforced and maLritained some disempov:ering notions of the AIDS body, it also opened up new possibilities for thinking about more inclusive, less heteronormative, and more queer conceptions of the family.70 With the exception of procreative sexuality, the AIDS body was desexualized but always haunted by its unseen possibilities. The film also maintained the spatialization of AIDS, particulariy the association ofiarge gay meccas and inner cities 'Yvith AIDS. Altboug.iti at times it preserved the forn1ula "'Hrv·-pcsitive:;;;,_o\iDS=Deatll," there '"·ere also moments of disruption of such inevitability. The documentary depicted the five lives living with AIDS as unique arid valuable, ·.vhie:.'1 challenges t}1e "u..11reality" and "u.~grievability" of such lives, to invoke Butler's terms again.71 1n addition, by showing the enor­

mity of loss due to AiDS, Common Tnreads opens up possibilities for the viewer to mourn and to engage in progressive political action.

In spite of the declaration of its "non-political" nature by its creator Cleve Jones,72 the AIDS Memorial Quilt is a political project engaged in the naming of the unnameable-the lives lost to AIDS-in an era of public silence, social discrimination, and government complicity. Similar to the Quilt's conversion

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of"bodies of people with AIDS, coded as frightening, untouchable, and cont­

arnin.ali.r1g" intu «en1b1·ac~.:i.bl~ and b.<::til~ for1n.:. tl1at evoke war1nth an.d atirac­

tion;' Common Threads transforms the lives with AIDS from a statistical abstraction to embodied multidimensional human beings with ail their fragility, character, and potential 73

What are the creative and political potentials of the documentary in the third decade of the AIDS epidemic? With the introduction of highly active anti­retroviral therapies (HAART) in the mid- I 990s, AIDS has changed from a fre­quently fatal disease to a "manageable chronic health condition," at least in wealthy nations in the Western hemisphere.74 People are still dying of AIDS but many individuals with HN/AIDS are living longer and healthier lives. Although the epidemic continues to profoundly·affect gay communities in tli.e United States, it is rapidly spreading in communities of color and the poor, and killing many of their constituents.75 Given the simultaneous systems of oppres­sion based on race, class, gender, a...-rid se..xua!ity i..TJ. tliis counLry, women, people of color who are also gay, men-who-have-sex-with-men but do not identify as gay, trans-identLfied individuals, commercial sex workers, and prisoners, among others, continue to be acutely affected by the epidemic. 76 B.ut AIDS is not simply an epidemic affecting disenfranchised groups L., wealthy nations. AIDS is, and has always been, a devastating disease with a global reach.77

In the current biomedical, political, social, and cultural landscape of AIDS, some of the radical images in Common Threads are quite simply not that rad­ical anymorc.78 For example, the radical notion of family depicted by Tom Waddell and Sara Lewinstein-a gay man and a lesbian having a child together-is more visible and commonplace today, at least in large metropol­

. itan centers in the United States. At the same time, the emaciated and ravaged AIDS body has less cultural resonance today. On the other hand, the disrup­tion of the sequela "HIV-positive=AlDS=Death" has gained greater streng'"Ji, a product of the combination of medical treatment advances and aggressive pharmaceutical advertising. Finally, the sexuality of AIDS bodies remains highly controversial in the current U.S. cultural landscape. It invokes powerful images of fear and terror.i9 As evidenced by the emergence of topics such as "barebacking;•so "bug chasing,"81 and "the down low;'82 these images are also endlessly fascinating in the popular imagination. The se.,"<uality of AiDS bod­ies also reactivates the homophobic fantasy that Simon Watney compellingly describes: "the spectacle of AIDS calmly and constantly entertains the possible prospect of t.~e death of all western European a."ld 1'..merican gay rnen fro1n AIDS-a total, let us say, of some twenty million lives-without the slightest flicker of concern, regret, or grief."53

Reading Common Threads at this moment of history is a journey to the early years of the AIDS epidemic, the quiet activism of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the

696 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

a."'!lbivalence of witnessing the remains of AIDS that remind viewers of their

ovm personal \.Wnerabilities and. losses,84 ai1d t.tl.e "archive of C.LT1otions"85.of u1c fight against AIDS-both the biomedical and the culturai epidemics. It is also a journey of continuing reanimation of past losses in terms of what remains­bodily, spatial, and ideal-to engage their creative and political potential.

NOTES

1. Marita Sturke:n, Tangkd Memories: The Vietnam Wat, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1997), 196.

2. Cleve Jones, with Jeff Damon, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist (San Francisco: Harper, 2000), 251-66. Current figures can be found at NA.'VfES Project ~ounda.tion, "Quilt Facts,'' http://www.aidsquilt.org.

3. Pcter S. Hawkins, "Naming Names: The Art of Memory and the NAMES Project A.JDS Quilt," Critical Inquiry 19 (1993): 757.

4. Hawkins, "Nrunir..g N:unes," 764.

5. Figures arc from the NAMES Project Foundation, "Quilt facts."

6. C>mmon Threads: Stories from the Quilt, DVD, Prod. Bill Couturie, Rob Epstien, and Jeffrey Friedman; Dir. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (San Francisco: Tclling Pictures. Inc. and the NAMES Project Foundation, 2004).

7. Jones, Stitching a Revolution, 143.

S. Sturkcn, Tangled Memories, 212.

9. Judith Butler, "Aftcnvord: After Loss, What Then?" in loss: The Politics of Mourning. (.'<i. David L. Eng and David Kazanjian (Berkeley: University of Califomfa. Pre.5S, 2003), 467.

l 0. Butler, ''Afterword,~ 467.

11. Vlalter .Sockting and Eric AYery, eds., Trar..sgendcr Health and HN Prevention: ~'!\feeds

Assessment Studies from Trans gender Communities across the United States (Binghamton, ~'Y: Haworth Press, 2005); Douglas Crimp, Melancholia and Moralism: Essays on AIDS and Qu;:cr Politics (Cambridge, NLA.: MIT Press, 2002); William N. Elwood, ed., Power in the Blood: A. Handbook on AIDS, Politics, and Communication (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrenci: Erlbaum, 1999); Nancy L. Roth and Linda K. Fuller, eds., Vlomen and AIDS: NegoC:.ating Safer Pra.cticcs, Care, and Represe:ntation (New York: Harrington Park Press, 1998); Nancy E. Stoller, Lessor.s from the Damned: Qu.l!er:;, Vv'hores, and ]u.nkie.s R~pond to AIDS {Nev; York: Routledge, 1998).

12. Judith Butlo;:r, Precarious Life: The Powers of1\1ourn.in.g and Violence (London: Verso, 2004), 35-36.

13. Butler, PrecarioUs Life, 34.

14. David L. Eng md David Kaza.•jian, "Introduction: Mou..--ning Remains," in Loss: The Politics of ivlourn.ing, 2.

15. Eng and Kazanjian, "Introduction: ~..1ourning Rema:ics," 1-25.

16. Cindy Ruskin, The Quilt: Stories from the Names Project. (New York: Pocket Books, 1988).

li. Jones, Stitching a Revolution, 251-55.

18. Gust A. Yep, ''AIDS/HIV," in. Encyclopedia of Sex. Lave and Culture, vol. 6 Twentieth and Twenfr·First Centuries, ed. James T. Sears (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, in press).

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THE POLITICS Of Loss AND ITS REMAINS IN COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM THE OUJLT 697

19. Paula A. Treichler, How to Have Theory in an Epidemic Cultural Chronicles of AIDS (Durham. NC: Duke University Press, 1999).

20. Yep, "AIDS/HIV.''

21. Jan Zita Grover, "AIDS: Keyv.rords," in .4.1DS: Cultural Aruzlysis, Cultural Activism, ed. Douglas Crimp {Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988), 17-30; Tr'cichler, How to Have Theory; Yep, "A!DS/HTY.'

22. Grover, "AIDS: Keywords"; Cindy Patton, Fatal Advice: How Safe Sex Education Went Wrong (Durham. NC: Duke uni .. rsity P<ess, 1996); Yep, ':AIDSIHN."

23. Grover, "AIDS: Keyo.vords," 23.

24. Butler, Precarious Li.fe, 32.

25. For a historical overview of the Quilt, see, among others, Christopher Capozzola, "A Very American Epidemic: Memory Politics and Identity Politics in the AIDS Memorial Quilt, 1985-1993~" Radical History Review $2 {2002): 91-109; Hawkins, "Namfr1g Names"; Jones,

Stitching a Revolu.tion; Sturken, Tangled Memories.

26. Ci.pozzola, "A Very .America..."l Epidemic,"' 96; Thomas E. Y:.."lgling, AIDS ar.d the National Body. ed. Robyn Wiegman (Durham, NC: Du..1'e University Press. 1997).

27. Capozzoia, "A Very American Epidemic," 96-100; Hawkins, "Naming Names; 765.

28. Hawkins, «Na."lling Names:' 777.

29. Sturken, Tangled Memories, 207-8.

30. Cleve Jones, quoted m C2-pozzol::i., "..<\Very A..'Ilerica.."l Epidemic,"' 99.

31. Sturken, Tangled Memories, 208.

32. Hawkins, «Naming Names," 766.

33. Butler, Precarious Life, 33.

34. Butler, Prec.arious Life, 33.

35. Simon Watney. Practices of Freedom: Selected Writings on HW/AfDS (Durham. NC: Duke University Press, 1994), 52.

36. Eng and Kazanjian, "Introduction: Mourning Remains;' 23.

37. Eng and Kazanjian, "'Introduction: Mourning Remains," 7-12.

38. Crimp, Melancholia and Morali5m, 86; Simon W<1tney, Policing D6ire: Pornography, AIDS and the Media, 3rd ed. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, i996).

39. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

40. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

4!. Crimp, Melancholia and Moral.ism, 103.

42. Common Threads: Stories from ihe Quilt.

43. Capozzola, "'A Very .American Epidemic," 97.

44. Corr.mar: Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

45. Common Threads: Stcni.es from the Quilt.

46. RichJ:d D.11oh:, Ga'/ !dais: Outing ar.d Other ContrC"'.'ers'.es (Bo~ton: B~con, 1992), 121.

47. 11.Uchd Foucault, .. Power and Sex," in lviichd Foucault: Politics, Philosophy, Culture.: Intervii:ws and Otha Writings, 1977-1984, ed. Lawrence D. Krit7..man, tr::ms. David J. Parent (New York: Routledge, 1988), 110-11.

48. Mohr, Gay Ideas, 121.

688 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

49. It could be argued that perhaps the producers of Common Threa~ were concerned about the production of what Dougla.s Crimp calls "phobic images,"' that is, pictures "of the terror

at imagining the person with AIDS as still sexual." The power of this terror might indeed turn presumably heterosexual viewers away from the documentary and confirm .and uphold their homophobic and sex-negative attitudes and prejudices toward non-hcteronormativc erotic fantasies and pro.ctices. See Crimp, Melancholia and Moralism, 106.

s.o.:~g and Kazanjian, ""Introduction: Mourning Remains," l 7-23. s 1.--common Threads:.Stories from the Quilt.

52. Common Threads: Stor..es from the Quilt.

53. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

54. Cindy Patton, Inventing .".lDS (Ne-w Yorlc Routledge, 1990); Yep, "AIDS/HIV."

55. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

56. Eng and J<a:..anjian, ""Introduction: Mourning Remains." 12-17.

57. ~~ a.1d Kazanjian, .. Introduction: Mourlling Remains," 14.

58. Jones, Stitching a Revolution, xiv-xv, 133.

59. Mohr, Ga.y Ideas, 107.

60. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

61 Common l'hread.s: Stories from the Quiit.

62. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

63. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

64. Watney, Practices of Freedom, 58.

65. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

66. Sturken, Tangled lvf.emories, 186.

67. Michael Musto, quoted in Sturker:., Ta:ng!::d Mcmarics, 213.

68. Crimp, Melancholia and M(!Talism, 149.

69. Gust A. Yep, "Tne Dial-."Ctics of Intervention: Toward a Reconceptualization of the Theory/Activism DivLde in Communication Scholarship and Beyond." in Transformative Communication Studies: Culture. Hierarchy, and the Human ConditWn, ed. Omar Swartz (London: Troubador, in pr~~).

70. Joh..'l P. Eiia, "Queering Relationships: Toward a Paradigmatic Sh.ifr," in Quecr Theory and Communication: From DiscipCinf.ng Queers to QuP.ering the Discipline(s), ed. Gus.t A. Yep. Karen E. Lovaas, and John P. Elia (Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press, 2003)., 61-86.

71. Butler. Precarious Life. 19--49.

72. Capozzola, "A Very American Epidemic," 91.

73. Sturken, Tangled Merrwries, 197-98.

74. Y.::p, ''.A.IDS/Hrv."

75. See, for e."'ClD'lplc. Cathy J. Cohen, The Boundaries of Blad..71ess: AIDS and the Breakdown. of Black Politics (Chic<i.go: University of Chica.go Press, 1999); Brett C. Stockdill, Activism .4gaimt AIDS: Ar the [nter&ctions of Sexua!itj; Rae.;, Gender, o;nd Clas:; (Boulder, CO: Lyn~e

Rienncr, 2003); Stoller, Lessons from the Damned; Yep. "AIDSrxfl\t."

76. Stoc..l.::dill, Activism Agafrtst AIDS; Stoller, Lessons from the Damned.

77. Cindy Patton, Globalizing AIDS (Minneapolis: University of Min..1.esota Press, 2002).

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i8. VVhen I write about change, I am. not suggesting a progress narrative presuming: that "things are gen.ins better" in a seemin5ly linear and unidirectional fashion, f{(re: \ ~n~s the imr0r­tmce oflocating change in the dense particularities of ill ronto.t

79. Crimp, Mclancholio. and Moralism, 106.

SO. Perry N. Halkitis, Leo WJ.lton. and Jack Drescher, eds., Barebacking: Psychosocial and Public 1-fcclth Apy.oadu:~ (Bing.~:nton, :r:-..1Y: H:::.·Nort.11, 2005); Gust A. Yep, Yw.rcn E. Lo'raas, and Alex V. Pagonis, 'Tue Case of 'Riding Bareback': Sexual Pmcticcs and the Paradoxes of Identity in the Era of AIDS," Journal ofHorrwsexuality42, no. 2 (2002): 1-14.

81. Michael Shcrnoff, MthoutCoru:Wms: Unprotected Sex, Gay Men and Barcbacki.ng (N"-=wYork: Routledge, 2006).

82. Keith Boykin, Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America (New York:

Carroll and Graf, 2005).

83. Watncy, Practices of Freedom, SS.

84. See, for rzample, David B. Feinberg, Queer and Loathing: Rants and Rave$ of a Raging AIDS Clone (New York: Viking, 1~4), 37-38.

85. Ann Cvetkovich, "'Legacies of Trauma, Legacies of Activism: ACT UP's Lesbians;' in Engo.nd Kazanjian~ Los$: The Politics of lv1ouming, 437.