Phil Tiemeyer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520274761
- eISBN:
- 9780520955301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520274761.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chapter 7 traces the AIDS crisis into the 1990s. It begins with the 1987 release of Randy Shilts’s And the Band Played On and his portrayal of Dugas as the origin of the epidemic in America. My ...
More
Chapter 7 traces the AIDS crisis into the 1990s. It begins with the 1987 release of Randy Shilts’s And the Band Played On and his portrayal of Dugas as the origin of the epidemic in America. My analysis confirms long-standing assertions that Gäetan Dugas was not the first American with AIDS. Shilts’s editor has confirmed that Shilts manipulated the “Patient Zero” narrative to garner media publicity. Via this publicity, flight attendants were now implicated in the larger social and political battles over AIDS, gay sexual practices, and workplace rights. Over time, the airlines ultimately helped to defuse this hysteria. In 1988 United Airlines stopped grounding flight attendants with AIDS, and, by 1993, American Airlines had become the United States’ first self-proclaimed “gay-friendly” airline.Less
Chapter 7 traces the AIDS crisis into the 1990s. It begins with the 1987 release of Randy Shilts’s And the Band Played On and his portrayal of Dugas as the origin of the epidemic in America. My analysis confirms long-standing assertions that Gäetan Dugas was not the first American with AIDS. Shilts’s editor has confirmed that Shilts manipulated the “Patient Zero” narrative to garner media publicity. Via this publicity, flight attendants were now implicated in the larger social and political battles over AIDS, gay sexual practices, and workplace rights. Over time, the airlines ultimately helped to defuse this hysteria. In 1988 United Airlines stopped grounding flight attendants with AIDS, and, by 1993, American Airlines had become the United States’ first self-proclaimed “gay-friendly” airline.
Andrew E. Stoner
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042485
- eISBN:
- 9780252051326
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042485.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
First-ever biography of controversial journalist and author Randy Shilts, one of the nation’s first openly gay reporters for a major daily newspaper. Known for his tenacity in reporting, he quickly ...
More
First-ever biography of controversial journalist and author Randy Shilts, one of the nation’s first openly gay reporters for a major daily newspaper. Known for his tenacity in reporting, he quickly became the “AIDS scribe” among American journalists. His work was not without controversy, however, with posthumous reviews of his “new journalism” techniques called into question, including the accuracy of some of his research. Review is provided of Shilts’s childhood struggles with physical abuse, his adult battles with alcohol and drug addiction, and his ultimate death from AIDS. The critical review of Shilts is most focused on his 1987 book, And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic – although his work on The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982) and Conduct Unbecoming: Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military (1993)Less
First-ever biography of controversial journalist and author Randy Shilts, one of the nation’s first openly gay reporters for a major daily newspaper. Known for his tenacity in reporting, he quickly became the “AIDS scribe” among American journalists. His work was not without controversy, however, with posthumous reviews of his “new journalism” techniques called into question, including the accuracy of some of his research. Review is provided of Shilts’s childhood struggles with physical abuse, his adult battles with alcohol and drug addiction, and his ultimate death from AIDS. The critical review of Shilts is most focused on his 1987 book, And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic – although his work on The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982) and Conduct Unbecoming: Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military (1993)
Phil Tiemeyer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520274761
- eISBN:
- 9780520955301
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520274761.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Plane Queer details the history of men serving at flight attendants. It begins with the founding of the profession in the late 1920s and continues into the post–September 11 era. Throughout, the book ...
More
Plane Queer details the history of men serving at flight attendants. It begins with the founding of the profession in the late 1920s and continues into the post–September 11 era. Throughout, the book examines the precarious position of men who occupy jobs customarily identified as “women’s work.” It examines the various hardships these men faced at work: a conflation of gender-based, sexuality-based, and AIDS-based discrimination. It also examines how this heavily gay-identified group of workers created an important place for gay men to come out, garner acceptance from their fellow workers, fight homophobia and AIDS phobia, and advocate for a series of LGBT civil rights. All the while, male flight attendants facilitated key breakthroughs in gender-based civil rights law, including an important expansion of the ways that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act would protect workers from “sex discrimination.” Throughout their history, men working as flight attendants unsettled the airplane, converting a technology often identified with American adventuring, technological innovation, and economic power into a queer space. These flight attendants helped to make the plane queer.Less
Plane Queer details the history of men serving at flight attendants. It begins with the founding of the profession in the late 1920s and continues into the post–September 11 era. Throughout, the book examines the precarious position of men who occupy jobs customarily identified as “women’s work.” It examines the various hardships these men faced at work: a conflation of gender-based, sexuality-based, and AIDS-based discrimination. It also examines how this heavily gay-identified group of workers created an important place for gay men to come out, garner acceptance from their fellow workers, fight homophobia and AIDS phobia, and advocate for a series of LGBT civil rights. All the while, male flight attendants facilitated key breakthroughs in gender-based civil rights law, including an important expansion of the ways that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act would protect workers from “sex discrimination.” Throughout their history, men working as flight attendants unsettled the airplane, converting a technology often identified with American adventuring, technological innovation, and economic power into a queer space. These flight attendants helped to make the plane queer.
