Victory Deferred: how AIDS changed gay life in America
<p>John-Manuel Andriote interviewed nearly 200 individuals for his 1999 book, <em>Victory Deferred: how AIDS changed gay life in America</em>. In the book’s preface he stated, “I wrote <em>Victory Deferred</em> because, despite the abundance of books written about AIDS, no one until now has examined both the ‘big picture’ and its finer details in considering the many ways AIDS affected the nation’s hardest hit community, gay men.” </p>
<p>Andriote donated his interviews and research materials to the Archives Center in 2008. The <em>Victory Deferred</em> collection is a comprehensive resource of personal histories of the epidemic.</p>
<p><strong>Interview tape, copy of <em>Victory Deferred</em> and notes, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1995-1999</em></p>
Movie poster, <em>Philadelphia</em>, 1993
<p>In the film <em>Philadelphia</em>, gay lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), is fired from his conservative law firm because he has AIDS. Beckett sues his former employer with the help of Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a homophobic lawyer. Miller overcomes his homophobia and helps Beckett win his case before Beckett dies of AIDS. </p>
<p><em>Philadelphia</em> was lauded for addressing the subject of AIDS with major Hollywood talent and studio backing. It also was criticized as addressing the devastation of the epidemic after the fact and with a storyline that avoided more controversial aspects of AIDS.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>Philadelphia</em> to me was old when it came out.”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Dominick Margarelli, Cure AIDS Now, Incorporated, 1995</strong></p>
<p><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection
Photo book and poster, <em>Longtime Companion</em>, 1990
<p>Set in Manhattan and on Fire Island, the film <em>Longtime Companion</em> follows the lives of a small circle of friends from the first mention of AIDS in 1981. As the story progresses, the disease devastates the characters’ lives, touching each one in a different way. The title of the film refers to the <em>New York Times</em>' refusal to acknowledge homosexual relationships in its obituary section, instead using "longtime companion" to refer to the surviving life partner of the deceased.</p>
<p>“Even at the beginning, even when families were involved . . . there was a real need to change the [funeral] ritual . . . to stamp it in a different way, how important it became when AIDS got mentioned one way or another, that the person was gay—those things became so important. The whole issue of what to put in the obit, the cause of death—how important it was to those who survived, friends and lover, that attention be paid not to write this off.”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Judy Pollatsek, bereavement expert and therapist, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection
<p><em>Chicago Tribune TV Week</em>, November 10-16, 1985</p>
<p>In the television film <em>An Early Frost</em>, Michael Pierson (Aidan Quinn) is a young gay man with AIDS. Forced to be open about his homosexuality and the disease, he must also face the inevitability of his death. At a time when AIDS was seen as a certain death sentence, <em>An Early Frost</em> presented the tragedy of the epidemic to a wide audience. Media writer Kenneth R. Clark noted, “NBC . . . is the first to explore AIDS with a full-length movie, and a lot of people are nervous about it.” </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We have to have in us the will to be the one to survive, to be the old, old man who will tell the world what happened. Because eventually the world will change. The one who survives out of the plague, out of the holocaust, out of whatever, to be the one to tell the world . . . .”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Cornelius Baker, National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection
Poster, The Brig, early 1980s
<p>The Brig was a gay bar located in the Fells Point area of Baltimore, MD. The bar and bathhouse culture within the gay community was criticized by many both within and outside the community. It was seen by some as an unintended venue to spread HIV and a problem to be addressed. Conversely, the call to alter behavior and close specific bathhouses or clubs was seen by some as impinging on individual freedoms.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“BILL: . . . I went to leave with him and somebody pulled me back in and said, ‘You don’t want to leave with that man.’ And when all this came down that he had AIDS, I was like, o-o-h somebody was helping me. But this was back in eighty-five. I didn’t think a thing about it. It’s like Rubber [another bar patron] and I were talking about when he started having safe sex. And he said, 1981. He was already HIV.”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with “Bill,” Shamrock Bar patron, 1999<br /></strong><em>The Shamrock Bar: Photographs and Interviews, 1997-2003</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I remember going into the Hippo [a gay bar in Baltimore, Maryland] and asking them to stop the music so we could recruit people for the study [Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study]. We were practically stoned—this was 1981/82/83/84. People said don’t bring us down; we’re out here having a good time, don’t talk about AIDS.”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Curt Decker, lobbyist, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection
Benefit advertisement, Roxy, 1995
<p>Roxy was a popular nightclub located in Chelsea, New York City from 1978 until it closed 2007. The nightclub hosted weekly gay dance nights and held events benefitting AIDS-related charities like New York’s Gay Men’s Health Clinic. The bar culture was criticized as part of the problem in the spread of HIV, but it also became a part of the solution. The LGBT community used the bar culture to create a different sense of community—one that could help meet the challenge of AIDS.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I think in the beginning what drove the movement of we gay people taking charge quickly was this sense of we need to protect ourselves. We need to save ourselves. We need to do whatever we can to protect our own because of all the political ramification of that, historically all the oppression and all that stuff. You see, it was a new thing among gay people—the whole Stonewall thing was new.”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Moises Agosto, National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection
<p><strong><em>1 World Manga, Passage 2</em></strong><strong>, 2006; </strong><strong><em>Teen Life: Frequently Asked Questions About AIDS and HIV</em></strong><strong>, 2008; </strong><strong><em>Time Out: The Truth About HIV, AIDS, and You</em></strong><strong>, 1992</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Many methods have been used to distribute information about HIV and AIDS.</p>
<p>In <em>1 World Manga</em>, a comic book for young adults, a man meets a woman whose parents died of AIDS. He learns the reality of relationships in a world coping with AIDS. The book includes facts about HIV and AIDS, including sections on HIV and AIDS in developing countries, “The Impact of AIDS,” and “What Can I Do?”</p>
<p>In <em>Teen Life</em>, the answers to frequently asked questions provide teenagers with a broader knowledge of HIV and AIDS and its prevention.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In <em>Time Out: The Truth About HIV, AIDS, and You</em>,<strong> </strong>Magic Johnson and Arsenio Hall educate teenagers and young adults about HIV and AIDS.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“A young person recently told me this epidemic had no meaning for him until a friend of his was infected. I think that points out that it’s not real for them until it’s personal, until their friends/lovers get it—then they get involved, question [their] own status/own habits. . . . a lot of times people don’t pay attention (until it gets personal) . . . .”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Joe Fera, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection
“Quilt Weekend,” <em>The Washington Blade</em> insert, October 11, 1996
<p>The AIDS Memorial Quilt is an ever-growing symbol of the toll of AIDS. The Quilt consists of thousands of handmade fabric panels made by family or friends of the deceased which memorialize persons who have died of AIDS. <strong></strong></p>
<p>Displayed in Washington, DC in October 1987 for the first time, the quilt had been conceived by Cleve Jones in San Francisco, “. . . what led to the Quilt is that I felt we were failing to reach the vast, overwhelming majority of Americans who do not live on the Coasts and do not know gay people.” By 1996, the AIDS Memorial Quilt had grown to the size of twenty-nine football fields, 45,000 panels. </p>
<p>A panel from the Quilt is on display in the museum’s first floor artifact gallery.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The underlying question that the epidemic has raised has never been answered, and that is: is a gay life worth saving?”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Eugene M. Harrington, Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>“It doesn’t make any difference to me if it was age-specific, straight or gay, or elderly people—all you have to do is to see a couple of cases of this disease to realize the suffering is absolutely unbelievable; the guillotine is a much nicer way to die than to go through HIV.”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Dr. Don Francis, retired, United States Public Health Service, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
<p><strong> </strong><strong> </strong></p>
<p>“We had a little munchkin from LA, Joey, a street hustler. . . . He had lymphoma of the brain. . . . I called the father and told him that if he wanted to see Joey again, he’d have to come to Houston fairly quickly. He said he had no intention of coming to Houston. I said if it was a matter of money, we could raise the money to fly him out here. He said it isn’t the money; I just don’t want to see him. I said, well, okay, what would you like to do with the body? He informed me that we could put the little son-of-a-bitch in a Hefty trash bag and leave him out by the curb.”<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>Interview with John Paul Barnich, lawyer, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1995-1999
AIDS awareness card: Rock Hudson, 1993
<p>Trading cards are a popular form of entertainment, but are also used to educate a segment of the population that may not be reached through more traditional methods. This set of 110 trading cards designed for young adults depicts personalities who died from AIDS or were involved in the fight against AIDS, as well as a variety of HIV and AIDS-related topics.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“That summer of ‘85 really changed the whole epidemic because Rock Hudson put a face on it. And once you put a face on AIDS, there was a substantial shift in resources.”</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Paul Kawata, National Minority AIDS Council, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection
AIDS awareness card: Larry Kramer, 1993
<p>Trading cards are a popular form of entertainment, but are also used to educate a segment of the population that may not be reached through more traditional methods. This set of 110 trading cards designed for young adults depicts personalities who died from AIDS or were involved in the fight against AIDS, as well as a variety of HIV and AIDS-related topics.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Another thing I’ve learned is it doesn’t matter who is president, which party is in power, who controls Congress. I don’t think it makes one bit of difference.”<em> </em></p>
<p><em></em><strong>Interview with Larry Kramer, writer and activist, 1995<br /></strong><em>John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008</em></p>
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection