'Facing it Together': Early Caregiving Responses to Vancouver's HIV/AIDS Epidemic. Issue 3 (16th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Klassen, Benjamin
• Editors: Burnett, Kristin; Ritchey, Sara; Thomas, Lynn M.
• Is Part Of: Gender & history. Volume 33:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 774
• Page End: 789
• Publication Date: 2021-08-16
• Subjects: Sex role -- History -- Periodicals; Gender identity -- History -- Periodicals; 305.3
• DOI: 10.1111/1468-0424.12549
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-5233

Abstract

Abstract: This article utilises oral history interviews with long‐term survivors and caregivers in Vancouver, British Columbia to foreground the importance of gay men's early HIV/AIDS caregiving work. Caregiving was essential to the health and resilience of Vancouver's gay community and served as a political response to homophobic discourses that demonised gay men and devalued the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. This analysis of the practical and political significance of HIV/AIDS caregiving demonstrates that historians must find better ways to recover the often‐untold histories of men's caregiving and domesticity and appreciate their significance to the success of social movements.