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 ...
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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.
