And the Band Played On is a nonfiction book that tells the story of the AIDS epidemic in the gay community during the 1970s and 80s . It was written by Randy Shilts a gay journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Shilts spends the book emphasizing the fact that the AIDS crisis was allowed to happen. The apathy and ignorance of many different groups lead to many deaths that could have been avoidable. And the Band Played On is essentially a large work of investigative journalism. Shilts writes in chronological order starting with the death of Dr Ib Bygbjerg a Danish physician working in Zaire. Shilts spends most of the book focusing on groups that either could have been instrumental in preventing the epidemic or were hardest hit by the disease. Ironically there was some overlap between both of these groups. The book starts talking about the origin of the disease in Africa and some of the earliest known patients. After that Shilts turns his attention to the gay community. Early in the book he asks some of his sources when the last time they remember everyone being healthy. The time …show more content…
Shilts goes above and beyond investigating what exactly happend to allow this disease to cut so many lives short. He also makes sure to tackle the issue from a very unbiased viewpoint. As a gay man from San Francisco it would not be unexpected if he went easy on the gay community when talking about the causes of the issue. He actually sites the sexual flippancy of the gay community and the outright apathy towards the disease as two of the major contributing factors towards the crisis. Shilts creates a narrative that points out all the places where society's ignorance, apathy, and selfishness created grievous results. He uses his writing to show where we went wrong and how we could have been better. Shilts did this in hope that we could avoid future situations where society lets completely unavoidable situations lead to such
The disease was viewed as a black man’s disease due to its vast spread in the black race community. In this chapter, it is clear that the medical fraternity had formed opinion of the disease even before the start of the experiment. The theme of racial prejudice is brought out clearly in this chapter. The blacks are discriminated from the whites even after learning that syphilis can affect both races alike. The slaves received treatment like their masters just because of economic concerns and not because they were human like their masters. In chapter 3 “Disease Germs Are the Most Democratic Creatures in the World”, the writer points out that the germ theory changed the way syphilis is viewed in the society. It was clear that other emphasis such as sanitation, education and preventative medicine was necessary to combat the disease. The areas inhabited by the blacks were behind in healthcare facilities and service. In this chapter, the theme of unequal distribution of resources is seen. Whereas areas inhabited by the whites had better hospitals and qualified professionals to deal with the
Daniel Robert Elfman known as Danny Elfman was born May 29, 1953 in Amarillo Texas. He grew up in Los Angeles until he moved to France with his brother at the age of 18. His mother Blossom Elfman was a teacher and a writer and his father Milton was a teacher and was also in the Air Force. His brother Robert is a filmmaker. He was married to Bridget Fonda on November 29, 2003 and has scored one movie of hers in 1997. He has three children Lola born in 1979, Mali born in 1984, and Oliver born in 2005.
In 1932 the United States Public Health Services was responsible for monitoring, identifying, ways to treat sexually transmitted diseases in all US citizens. Public health service was sponsored by Rosenwald Fund; identified Macon County, Alabama had the highest rate of male population infected with the Syphilis. So the Tuskegee Institute was approached to study the effects of untreated syphilis on a black male population for duration of six to nine months and then follow-up with a treatment plan. The research was led by Dr. Taliafero Clark, six hundred Macon County men, 399 with syphilis and 201 who weren’t infected, were enrolled to be part of the study.
In the early 1980’s, reports were appearing in California and New York of a small number of men who appeared to have rare forms of cancer and pneumonia (Blumberg). The men were young and in very good health (Blumberg). These men were alike because they were homosexual (Blumberg). They had a disease known as AIDS, which is caused by HIV (Blumberg). The virus slowly attacks the immune system which makes the human body more prone to infections (Blumberg). They did not know what the disease was for a while (Blumberg). It was believed to be “gay-related” because homosexuals were many of the first reported cases (Blumberg). That belief was abolished when scientist found out that heterosexuals could be infected too (Blumberg).
He describes how the loss of lives affected the people who survived. He also goes into detail about the Jewish conspiracy and how the Jews were to blame for all this. He illustrated about how the Black Death affected many families, cultures, societies, and institutions during the thirteenth century. (Cantor, Wake p. 10) He made remarkable parallels throughout the book between BSE and HIV/AIDS.
Kenedy, X.J., and Dana Goia. "Shiloh." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. Dana Goina and X.J. Kenedy. Eleventh edition. New York: Longman, 2010. pg. 569-578. Print.
This lead to the demise of the population when the disease was transported through the heart of an infected man. Once the doctors completed the heart transplant, the man came to life with the generic grey blood and he was much more hostile.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Since Plagues and Peoples covers several subjects of knowledge, he helps the reader understand key concepts by fully explaining parasitism and its dependence on humans and animals. People in the field of history, which make up a majority of this books audience, would need more insight into epidemiology to grasp its key concepts. It would not be likely for a historian to be knowledgeable in a branch of medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in populations.
Randy Shilts set out to make monumental changes in the world’s perspective of AIDS. He planned to enlighten, motivate, and educate the population on this tragic disease that has already claimed so many lives. He believed that virtually all the misconceptions about AIDS would be corrected and the public would insist that more be done to stop the epidemic. "I had hoped to effect some fundamental changes. I really believed I could alter the performance of the institutions that had allowed AIDS to sweep through America unchecked" (220). Shilts’s immense expectations positioned him for his inevitable sense of failure. He did not accomplished all that he had planned. AIDS was still spreading and people were still dying. "The bitter irony is, my role as an AIDS celebrity just gives me a more elevated promontory from which to watch the world make the same mistakes in the handling of the AIDS epidemic that I hoped my work would help to change"(220).
“And the Band Played On” was an HBO movie that illustrated the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s. The movie touched on subjects concerning the reaction of the gay community, the heterosexual community, and the medical community. It showed not only the research in AIDS, but also the way that the US government dealt with it. The movie expressed the consequences the gay community suffered, the plight of the medical community in researching the disease, and the issue of government response to it.
In the beginning the movie the scientist used many methods to identify the virus. One of the methods was when the character Dr. Dan Francis, compares the disease with a similar virus called Hepatitis B. Although they are similar, it doesn’t prove a lot. After that didn’t work, they realize that not only gay people could get it. Many people with donated blood, started to have it, including babies. The doctors and scientist decided to tell the blood banks to start checking their blood. This could show people that it was ant only gay men who could have it but also, anybody and it could be transferred by blood also. However the blood banks denied checking their blood. Later on scientist in France discovered the virus and told the scientist in America.
The background of homosexuality in the 1940’s and 50’s was harsh, but people started to be opened toward the rights. There were criticisms toward homosexuality in the early days of Milk. Gay men carried the labels of mentally ill or psychopathic. Often times, gay men committed suicide from harsh judgement and criticism that always followed them. Even though population of homosexuality grew and had jobs, they were harassed and beaten by the police. There were a lot of disapproval and hostility of homosexuality. Anita Bryant, a singer, made a campaign to oppose the rights of homosexuals. Christian forces and activists withdrew gay-right legislation which lead to Proposition 6. The harshness from background of homosexuality back in the 1940’s and 50’s took the freedom away from the homosexuals. After the harshness, there came a little bit of hope for the homosexuals in San Francisco. Castro, a city in San Francisco, became the center of gay neighborhood. In 1964, gay men formed Society of Individual Right (SIR), and 1,200 members joined. Homosexuals started having good views when Sipple who was gay saved the president from a gunshot. Finally in 1972, Board of Supervisor banned the discrimination law for homosexuals. Even though in 1940...
...were mentally ill or psychotic. Frank Kameny, a leader of the gay rights movement, perpetuated the idea that “Homosexuality is not a sickness…but is merely a preference, an orientation, or propensity, on par with, and not different in kind from, heterosexuality.” (Sherry Wolf, Sexuality and Socialism) Some schools even went as far as to create public safe spaces for gay students such as Columbia University’s Student Homophile League. Now, people are well aware of the presence of the LGBTQ community, and members are even trying to educate people who seem ignorant or bigoted. Many people currently dedicate a good portion of their lives to learning and teaching people about the gay rights movement and how it functions today. The community has evolved to include transgender, asexual, pansexual, and non binary people as well as a multitude of other labels and identities.
The movie, And the Band Played On, portrays a current issue the U.S. health care system face: the effects of societal perceptions of people who should receive health care support. Those perceived as undeserving are disregarded. Homosexual men were the first to be affected by AIDS in the US, and because of this, the stigma of homosexuality prevented developing health care policy to control the epidemic. Homosexuality was, and to a lesser extent now, not widely accepted. Marginalizing gay individuals was seen in the movie at the beginning, when media coverage on AIDs would not include “homosexual” within the news title (Pillsbury, Sanford, & Spottiswoode, 1993). This represents how media has to be marketed; the broader public will not be interested if a new disease only affects an undesirable population. Another example of this negligence is seen when Phillip Burton is asked to introduce a bill on AIDS. He agrees, but does not hesitate to retort, “They couldn’t get a dime out of this administration with the name gay on it” (Pillsbury, Sanford, & Spottiswoode, 1993). Finally, in order to change the perception, at the CDC conference with blood agencies, they renamed gay related immune deficiency (GRID) to AIDS, and the film cuts to news segments finally covering
We believe that Violence and hate against homosexuality need to diminish severely. Gay bashing, gay bullying, and hate crime is very popular when it comes to hating on homosexual people. LGBT people of all ages die every year, whether caused by suicide, injury or homicide. From 1999-2010, the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program says that suicide is the 3rd leading cause (4,600 deaths) of death among young people ages 15 to 24. In 2011 there were 1,572 victims that received hate crimes based on sexual orientation. In an article on PBS, written by a woman named Karen Franklin, a description of an interview with a man called Brian states that him and his ...