Art as Activism: David Wojnarowicz’s Fight Against the AIDS Epidemic
Aden Middleton
The fight for gay rights and liberation has been a long and difficult one, and it’s nowhere near over. From the Lavender Scare to the Stonewall Riots and the Gay Liberation Movement as a whole, countless struggles have threatened to overtake the gay community in the US. One of the most devastating was the AIDS crisis. A deadly STI ravaged the gay community and killed hundreds of thousands of people. The US government did next to nothing to help or spread awareness. In its place, the artists and activists of the gay community spoke out; raising awareness and caring for those who had been infected with HIV. Art has always been essential to activism, and activism has always been essential to the gay community.
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that is deadly if left untreated. HIV severely weakens the immune system and will eventually progress to AIDS if not treated. Though it can be managed, and on the right medications many HIV-positive people can live full lives and even become undetectable (testing negative for HIV and having no risk of transmitting it), there is no cure. HIV is primarily transmitted through unprotected sex, contaminated needles, or from mother to child during pregnancy. The AIDS epidemic officially began on June 5th, 1981. It affected many heavily stigmatized communities, sex workers, addicts, and gay men, disproportionately. Because of this, it was not covered properly by mainstream media outlets, and the CDC, FDA, and US government did little to research or educate people on how to stop the spread of HIV. Instead, HIV patients and their families and lovers had to advocate for themselves and educate each other. The AIDS crisis caused gay people to be subject to intense fear, discrimination, and in some cases, violence, and an intense moral panic surrounded many discussions of the crisis. As Dion Kagan says in Positive Images, “AIDS in Europe and the US was associated with homosexuals, migrants, drug users and other stigmatized communities, and widespread panic was fueled by the popular media. The sexual dimension of this new, mysterious and frightening fatal disease stirred up a profound example of what historians of sexuality call ‘sex panic’.” (xix). The massive moral/’sex panic’ surrounding the crisis partially fueled by the general public’s aversion to talking about gay people, and the idea that they somehow deserved the slow, painful death from AIDS for the sin of being homosexual, made generating awareness more than difficult.
Many doctors flat-out refused to treat patients with HIV or AIDS. Some believed it was their duty to stay away from the risk of contracting HIV for the sake of their other patients. Others, (many others), believed that they had no ethical obligation to care for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS (and, possibly, that they somehow deserved to suffer from it). In a mid-1980s survey of primary care providers, half said that they would not care for HIV/AIDS patients if given the choice (Wikipedia, “HIV/AIDS in the United States”). The disgusting mishandling of this epidemic by the US government, the FDA, CDC, and the medical community as a whole cost tens of thousands of lives. The incredibly lackluster reaction to this crisis created massive outrage among the gay community and inspired countless gay artists with a burning passion to raise awareness. One of those artists was David Wojnarowicz. He is famously quoted as saying “If I die of AIDS- forget burial- just drop my body on the steps of the FDA.” This quote and many of his other, beautiful, personal, and often inflammatory works fueled activists and spread awareness far and wide.
Included below: Silence=Death (1989), Fuck You Faggot Fucker (1984), One Day This Kid (1990), and Untitled (Between C & D) (1985)
David Wojnarowicz was born in Red Bank, New Jersey on September 14th, 1954. His parents, Polish-American Ed Wojnarowicz and Australian Dolores McGuiness met and married in 1948 when he was 26 and she was just 16. Ed was physically abusive to David, his siblings, and occasionally Dolores as well. After their bitter divorce in 1956, Dolores was awarded custody but Ed kidnapped David and his two siblings. David and his siblings found their mother in a New York city phonebook and moved in with her after several years of instability with their father in Michigan and Long Island. David worked as a street hustler (a prostitute) during his teenage years in Manhattan. By the time he was 17, he was living on the streets full time, and barely graduated from the High School of Music and Art when he was 19. He emerged in the late 1970s, after a period outside of New York, as one of the most prominent and prolific members of an avant-garde wing that used mixed media and graffiti as street art. In early 1981, David met photographer Peter Hujar. They had a brief stint as lovers, and after the end of their romantic engagement he came to see Hujar as a great friend and mentor. Peter died of AIDS on November 26th, 1987. A few weeks later, David moved into his loft. He inherited Peter’s darkroom and remaining art supplies, which became essential to his artwork.
Peter Hujar’s death inspired David to create more explicit and political artwork surrounding the AIDS crisis. His art was often vulgar and inflammatory, forcing those who saw it to acknowledge the crisis that many chose to ignore. He was especially fueled by the silence of the Reagan and Bush administrations, which he saw as “a result of the straight white men being the ones in charge of what the public is exposed to via the media” (Wikipedia, “Art of the AIDS Crisis”). His work is incredibly unique and distinctive. He drew inspiration heavily from pop art, street art, and surrealism. Much of his work incorporates elements of collage and confusing, surreal visuals. His art was both political and autobiographical in nature. Images of soldiers, animals, and men embracing each other were reoccurring in his art, among many other things. Following the loss of Peter Hujar, he also began using photography much more frequently and incorporating text in an incredibly iconic way.
At the end of 1987, David’s boyfriend Tom Rauffenbart tested positive for HIV. David tested positive the following year. After his diagnosis, he began attending ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) meetings and protests with his boyfriend. They, along with their friend Zoe Leonard, created an ACT UP affinity group called “The Candelabras” to plan their own actions and demonstrations. In the last few years of his life, David created great amounts of art, and wrote two autobiographies: Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration (1991) and Memories That Smell Like Gasoline (1992). Both were published very soon before he died.
David Wojnarowicz died of AIDS-related complications on July 22nd, 1992. Tom Rauffenbart took loving care of him in his final months, arranging in-home nursing care and welcoming friends and family to spend time with him. “David lives to see the publication of his second memoir, Memories That Smell Like Gasoline, and holds the book in his hands.” (The David Wojnarowicz Foundation, “1992”). He died at home, surrounded by friends and family. He was 37 years old. Weeks after his death, the ‘political funeral’ he had envisioned looped through East Village carrying a banner that read: DAVID WOJNAROWICZ, 1956-1992, DIED OF AIDS DUE TO GOVERNMENT NEGLECT. A memorial was held on what would have been his 38th birthday at St. Mark’s Church. In October of 1996, Tom Rauffenbart scattered his ashes on the White House lawn as part of ACT UP’s second ashes action. Just like he wanted.
As I’m sure you know by now, the federal government’s response to the AIDS crisis was, in a word, abysmal. Not only did President Ronald Reagan refuse to acknowledge the crisis until four years after it began, the topic was treated as a joke. In recordings of press conferences within the Reagan administration, fits of laughter are heard whenever AIDS is brought up. Jokes are made repeatedly throughout, referring to AIDS as the “gay plague”. This was, of course, well after experts understood the gravity of the epidemic. The federal government’s silence, lack of funding for AIDS research, and general neglect of the crisis are disgusting. As is stated in the “Federal Response to the AIDS Epidemic” section of Health Policy, “The federal response to AIDS is considered uncoordinated, insufficient and inadequate in particular with respect to the support of public health education and the financing of health care for AIDS patients.” (Lee, Arno, Health Policy, 259-267). The first federal funding of AIDS research had to be paired with research for Toxic Shock Syndrome and Leigionnaire’s Disease in a Public Health Emergency fund. And even then, Reagan chose to cut budgets for the CDC and National Institutes of Health, following his agenda of “trimming” the federal government.
Dr Donald Francis lead development of the US’s first AIDS prevention plan in early 1985. It was rejected on February 4th, 1985. After the rejection, the CDC’s AIDS task force chairman Dr Jon Bennett told him “Don, they rejected the plan. They said, ‘Look pretty and do as little as you can.'” (as qtd in History Channel). Another absolutely infuriating display of the callousness and carelessness that hung over the AIDS epidemic like a storm cloud. Reagan didn’t start publicly speaking about AIDS until September of 1985. He called it a “top priority”, though he had done nothing, not even mentioning it up until that point. On October 2nd, 1985, Congress finally allocated $190 million for AIDS research. On that same day, Rock Hudson, a close personal friend of Reagan’s, died of AIDS. His death finally dragged AIDS into the public eye.
The gay community was failed in countless other ways by more people and more groups than I have time to name. The FDA, CDC, federal government, and even the Catholic Church, who declared that wearing a condom was more “morally reprehensible” than dying of AIDS (LaFleur, Seitler, Sex, Violence, and Memoir, 2). But, through all of that, the gay community was able to hold strong. Through art, activism, and community, they persevered through the immense tragedy that was the AIDS crisis. Community-led organizations like ACT UP created massive amounts of awareness and support for grieving families. Between 1981 and 1988, a total of 46,134 people died of AIDS. It’s a miracle that the gay community was able to keep going through all the discrimination, fear, death, and heartbreak that the AIDS crisis caused. And though the crisis is far from over, treatments, awareness, and education on AIDS have improved exponentially in the last 40 years.
The AIDS crisis was the culmination of years of hatred, fear, and discrimination towards gay people. It forced people to talk about homosexuality- a near-unmentionable thing. The horrific mismanagement of the AIDS crisis by the US government, the CDC, and the FDA killed tens of thousands. But the resilience of the gay community, the hundreds of thousands that rallied to support their friends and loved ones, helped hundreds of thousands more pull through. The art and activism that came out of the AIDS crisis is beyond beautiful. The art was central to the activism, and the activism was central to the art. David Wojnarowicz’s art came from a tumultuous life, full of violence, exploitation, and loss. His activism was fueled by anger, art, and compassion. And though AIDS is no longer a death sentence, though the education and awareness about it have improved incredible amounts, we can’t forget those we’ve lost. Look after your loved ones. Make more art, make more change, and make more love. We all could use it.
Works Cited
Bennington-Castro, Joseph. “How AIDS Remained an Unspoken—but Deadly—Epidemic for Years.” HISTORY, A&E Television Networks, 1 June 2020,
https://www.history.com/news/aids-epidemic-ronald-reagan
Kagan, Dion. Positive Images. Bloomsbury Publishing, 5 Apr. 2018.
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/lwtclearningcommons-ebooks/reader.action?docID=5798166
LaFleur, Greta, and Dana Seitler. “Sex, Violence, and Memoir: David Wojnarowicz’s Close to the Knives.” Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 4, Oct. 2022, pp. 455–76.
“HIV/AIDS in the United States.” Wikipedia, 14 May 2022,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_the_United_States#Public_perception
“Art of the AIDS Crisis.” Wikipedia, 14 Nov. 2023,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_the_AIDS_Crisis
Lee, Philip R., and Peter S. Arno. “The Federal Response to the AIDS Epidemic.” Health Policy, vol. 6, no. 3, Jan. 1986, pp. 259–267,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0168851086900357
“1992—POLITICAL FUNERAL | the David Wojnarowicz Foundation.” Wojfound.org,
https://wojfound.org/scholarship/timeline/1992-political-funeral/
