Author(s): Charlotte Catipon
Mentor(s): Laura Jane Moore, History
In this video, I discuss my research question, thesis, and evidence for my HIST 499 Senior Capstone class. My thesis is titled “The Aids Epidemic in New York City and Washington DC: How the pursuit of activism brought gay women to gay men,” and focuses on the ways in which gay women’s social communities were altered due to the AIDS crisis in Washington D.C. and New York City from 1981 to 1989.
Hello, my name is Charlotte Catipon and I will be presenting the main ideas behind my research thesis for my history 499 class.
My research thesis is titled The Aids Epidemic in New York City and Washington DC: How the pursuit of activism brought gay women to gay men
The purpose of this video is to illustrate the main points of my research and analysis
My research started off with the question: How did the AIDS crisis alter the social communities of gay women in NYC and Washington D.C. from 1981 to 1989?
This research question led me to my thesis that the AIDS crisis altered gay women’s social spaces by facilitating opportunities for unity between gay men and gay women as a cohesive community situated in discussing queer issues, culture, and identity
The bulk of my primary research came from two different sources correlating to both the Washington DC area and then the NYC area
For the Washington DC area, I used the publication off our backs, a feminist, women-focused, queer-inclusive space to depict the discourse between queer women in the DC area from 1981 to 1989
For the NYC area, I used the organization ACT UP’s Oral history project, which are interviews of participants from the organization about their personal experiences throughout the AIDS crisis
I used the oral interviews to research the real ways in which communities of gay women were interacting with the AIDS crisis and gay men
What was quickly understood through both sources was that over years during the AIDS crisis, gay women became more attentive to gay men and issues that were strictly related to gay identity
This is in contrast to communities of gay women and gay men before the AIDS crisis, as before, gay women would be drawn to activism through a feminist first perspective, rather than participating in activism through a gay identity-perspective
Between the years 1981-1989, gay women participating in AIDS activism and awareness bonded with gay men and addressed issues related to gay identity and culture
In the off our backs publication, there was almost an explosion of AIDS-focused issues for gay women to be aware of. Every month there would be at least one issue focusing on AIDS health and how it related to women and gay women.
In multiple interviews from ACTUP’s Oral History Project, women such as Maria Maggenti and Anne-Christine d’Adesky note the convergence of Gay Women, being drawn to activism and Gay Men being targetted and suffering from AIDS
One excerpt from interviewee Maria Maggenti illustrates the purpose of my paper in how it depicts the new-found tie between gay women and gay men due to the AIDS crisis.
“I didn’t really know any gay men. I had been in almost exclusively female environment – very feminist-oriented, very lesbian oriented. I didn’t have any real sense of gay men at all, actually. The first man that I took care of as a buddy was an old flamer who worked for Fortunoff, and his lover in a highly decorated apartment in Turtle Bay, and he was really bitchy and really funny. And that was, kind of was my first really introduction to a certain kind of gayness that I was not familiar with – which was a gay man who had his own sense of humor, and his own sense of anger and was so not concerned with the things that I was concerned with”
This quote from Maggenti illustrates not only how gay men and women were not often aligned in solidarity before 1980, but also how gay women came from similar places like Maggenti
In my paper, I’m depicting the wave of gay women like Maggenti who came from a feminist-oriented, activist background becoming aware and related to gay men and gay issues through the AIDS crisis.
Within my research, the larger historical significance lies in contributing to understanding the AIDS crisis and how it affected both activists and victims.
When looking back on the tragedy of the crisis, gay women are often not addressed due to the group being assumably the least likely for contamination
However, overlooking the role of gay women during the AIDS crisis overlooks how gay women became frequent caregivers for gay men, and how in turn this allowed gay women to join communities of gay men in solidarity over gay identity and issues
I hope that by sharing some information from my senior thesis that you will understand how the AIDS crisis changed the social atmospheres of gay women by facilitating opportunities to form solidarity and community with gay men
My research thesis is titled The Aids Epidemic in New York City and Washington DC: How the pursuit of activism brought gay women to gay men
The purpose of this video is to illustrate the main points of my research and analysis
My research started off with the question: How did the AIDS crisis alter the social communities of gay women in NYC and Washington D.C. from 1981 to 1989?
This research question led me to my thesis that the AIDS crisis altered gay women’s social spaces by facilitating opportunities for unity between gay men and gay women as a cohesive community situated in discussing queer issues, culture, and identity
The bulk of my primary research came from two different sources correlating to both the Washington DC area and then the NYC area
For the Washington DC area, I used the publication off our backs, a feminist, women-focused, queer-inclusive space to depict the discourse between queer women in the DC area from 1981 to 1989
For the NYC area, I used the organization ACT UP’s Oral history project, which are interviews of participants from the organization about their personal experiences throughout the AIDS crisis
I used the oral interviews to research the real ways in which communities of gay women were interacting with the AIDS crisis and gay men
What was quickly understood through both sources was that over years during the AIDS crisis, gay women became more attentive to gay men and issues that were strictly related to gay identity
This is in contrast to communities of gay women and gay men before the AIDS crisis, as before, gay women would be drawn to activism through a feminist first perspective, rather than participating in activism through a gay identity-perspective
Between the years 1981-1989, gay women participating in AIDS activism and awareness bonded with gay men and addressed issues related to gay identity and culture
In the off our backs publication, there was almost an explosion of AIDS-focused issues for gay women to be aware of. Every month there would be at least one issue focusing on AIDS health and how it related to women and gay women.
In multiple interviews from ACTUP’s Oral History Project, women such as Maria Maggenti and Anne-Christine d’Adesky note the convergence of Gay Women, being drawn to activism and Gay Men being targetted and suffering from AIDS
One excerpt from interviewee Maria Maggenti illustrates the purpose of my paper in how it depicts the new-found tie between gay women and gay men due to the AIDS crisis.
“I didn’t really know any gay men. I had been in almost exclusively female environment – very feminist-oriented, very lesbian oriented. I didn’t have any real sense of gay men at all, actually. The first man that I took care of as a buddy was an old flamer who worked for Fortunoff, and his lover in a highly decorated apartment in Turtle Bay, and he was really bitchy and really funny. And that was, kind of was my first really introduction to a certain kind of gayness that I was not familiar with – which was a gay man who had his own sense of humor, and his own sense of anger and was so not concerned with the things that I was concerned with”
This quote from Maggenti illustrates not only how gay men and women were not often aligned in solidarity before 1980, but also how gay women came from similar places like Maggenti
In my paper, I’m depicting the wave of gay women like Maggenti who came from a feminist-oriented, activist background becoming aware and related to gay men and gay issues through the AIDS crisis.
Within my research, the larger historical significance lies in contributing to understanding the AIDS crisis and how it affected both activists and victims.
When looking back on the tragedy of the crisis, gay women are often not addressed due to the group being assumably the least likely for contamination
However, overlooking the role of gay women during the AIDS crisis overlooks how gay women became frequent caregivers for gay men, and how in turn this allowed gay women to join communities of gay men in solidarity over gay identity and issues
I hope that by sharing some information from my senior thesis that you will understand how the AIDS crisis changed the social atmospheres of gay women by facilitating opportunities to form solidarity and community with gay men