[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]magsmagenta wrote:[/b]
The shift since then has been enormous in both the gay and straight communities, and what happened to Freddie and others like Kenny Everett had a lot to do with that.[/QUOTE]
I think that's true now in retrospect, but at the time it played a role in reinforcing unjust perceptions that depended on a sense of distance from the disease. Privileged gay celebrities struck down by AIDS supported the narrative that defined HIV as a judgement on immorality and self indulgence and it maintained the illusion of remoteness. Attitudes ultimately changed because they had to. One by one the imagined barriers between the disease and the average person fell away until we all knew this could be any of us in the blink of one bad decision or stroke of ill luck. Only then I think the culture could collectively look at people like Fred and Kenny and Rock Hudson and fully see humanity and tragedy, and only then could they become effective symbols of awareness and compassion.[/QUOTE]
I suppose that depends on your point of view, when I was a teenager in the 80's, I had been brought up to see gay people as an underclass who we didn't really talk about, not as people who could be talented and admired.
It came as quite a shock to many people to realize that these people who they admired were actually gay, especially someone like Freddie who has so many straight male fans.
And then that these people had fallen to this disease that was supposed to be affecting a group of people who most people thought didn't matter to them, who were someone else's problem and at best figures of fun and at worst the spawn of the devil really brought it home that this could happen to anyone.
GratefulFan's post is very relevant. In the early days of HIV/AIDS, the social death through the virus preceded the physical death.
Anyone interested in understanding how the situation was in the very early years of HIV/AIDS' discovery should watch 'The Age Of Aids', a Frontline documentary. It's available in full here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/view/. The first few parts deal with the discovery of the virus, and the climate it brought about. Freddie was living right in the midst of that climate.
Don't judge Freddie. He himself said he didn't give a shit. Irresponsible? Of course. But so what? As Zebonka said, he paid the price.
Thanks for that link, Costa86. I don't know why I have long been interested in the early days of the AIDS discovery...maybe because I was a kid at the time and very impressionable. But this documentary is great and I appreciate it.
