Wrer Richard McKay on the legacy of Gaëtan Dugas, the man still nnected to false narrativ on gay men and HIV.
Contents:
HOW THE GAY AIRLE STEWARD BEME A STEREOTYPE
Some mentary on Pedro Almodóvar’s new edy I’m So Exced has noted that rerc gay stereotyp, particularly the characters of s... * gay flight attendant aids *
"Wh hdsight, I regnize that my reactn was no small part due to my as-yet-unacknowledged ternalized homophobia, as well as Shilts's persuasive — and subtly, untentnally homophobic — wrg, which we n clearly see that he created 'good, rpectable' gays vs.
'bad, prodigly sexual' gays, for example Dugas. "Knowg John and then, of urse, seeg his credible film Zero Patience, totally woke me up to the ridiculons of the whole 'patient zero' story and to the homophobia behd the need to assign blame for this disease, " Lynd says. This film wants to tell his tthQueeriThe F Mache: Why every Canadian should learn about this untry's 'gay purge'QueeriThe 200 most inic queers cultural history, part oneAs for Lynd's own cematic ntributn to bunkg the myth, the ia first me to his producer, Corey Rsell, who had optned Richard McKay's 2017 book, Patient Zero and the Makg of the AIDS Epimic.
"Right away, I realized I wanted to make this film bee of havg lived through the tim picts, havg experienced some — though mercifully not the worst — of the horrors of the AIDS years, and bee I have long wanted to mark the sts of homophobia on my generatn of queer men and women, " Lynd says. I realized that addn to hopefully, and fally, rehabilatg Dugas's name, Killg Patient Zero uld tell the story of the pernic legacy of the homophobia of the tim.
Zero Patience: Directed by John Greyson. Wh John Robson, Normand Ftx, Dianne Heathergton, Richardo Keens-Douglas. An immortal, bigoted, uhil taxirmist is dog rearch on "Patient Zero", the gay flight attendant who allegedly was the first to brg AIDS to North Ameri, for a mm show about ntag diseas, helped by the man's ghost." data-id="ma * gay flight attendant aids *
And I thk one of the strongt thgs I took om Richard McKay's remarkable book — and this suff my film — was his revelatn of how the homophobia of mastream culture fed the need for blame, and fuelled the dissematn of the ridiculo 'patient zero' story. "At a time when 600 men were ad or dyg, the news of a 'gay plague' was greeted wh risive lghter, " he says. "The plete disregard evinced for the liv of gay men still leav me speechls.
McKay)Lynd hop that, beyond Dugas's te story, dienc of Killg Patient Zero remember — or perhaps even learn — that "a holot was allowed to happen to gay men North Ameri the 1980s [and] the entrenched homophobia of our society — and ernments — emed queer men so unsirable that their aths did not matter.
""In the strange polil tim — wh 'populist' right wg ernments seemgly ascendance, and wh the rultg rise sanctned homophobia — I scerely hope that Killg Patient Zero, through the still-shockg example of the AIDS crisis, will remd dienc of the btal st prejudice curs. Men prottg support of more money for AIDS rearch marched down Fifth Avenue durg the 14th annual Lbian and Gay Pri para New York 1983. He drew the assignment of a lifetime: Figure out why gay men Los Angel were dyg of a strange illns.