Tony Kushner's Angels In America

Angels in America: The Homosexual Identity in the Reagan Era

Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980’s brought forth the tides of the “Reagan Revolution”, a period where the conservative movement dominated the realm of public policy making. In the words of current United States President Barack Obama, “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it” (Obama). Despite the backing of President Reagan by a large majority of the nation, the gay community was largely ignored and left to combat the horrors of AIDS on its own. Tony Kushner’s Angels in America is indicative of the struggles many

members of the homosexual community endured amid the Reagan Era and in the upheaval of the AIDS Crisis where the identity of the homosexual male was ultimately challenged. Kushner’s characters are heavily defined by their political leanings and come from both the left and right on the political spectrum; they act as a direct link to the ideology of Kushner, a member of the homosexual community, on societies vantage point of the homosexual man within the time.
Angles in America takes offense to the societal view on the homosexual community in the 1980s and its production challenged heteronormative politics with its ability to contextualize the horrors of AIDS. The production premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in San, Francisco California to unpredictable and unimaginable success. A study on the AIDS Crisis in 1990 found, “Since the First AIDS case was diagnosed in 1981, approximately 91,000 active cases have been reported in the United States, with 52,000 of these resulting in death” (Kohl 283). Despite these startling numbers, the Reagan administration addressed the plight of the gay community with inaction and did not remark on the issue until well into his second term. In conjunction, the AIDS epidemic became inherently tied to the national perception of the gay community, with one idea becoming synonymous with the other. David Ehrenstein, a gay activist and author, states, "AIDS made it impossible not to talk about gayness. The grave wasn't even a closet anymore. 'Angels in America' tied it into the huge arc of the American story; the gay community was no longer an isolated group. We needed a big play about this, and he gave us an epic — it was Brecht, it was Wagner. It was amazing" (qtd. in McNamara). It was everything the gay community had endured in the shadows of heteronormativity.
Kushner put the spotlight on the morbid toll AIDS elicited from its victims, forcing the nation to acknowledge the epidemic within the context of the national narrative.

Conservativism found connection between the AIDS epidemic and homosexuality, and George Piggford finds, “AIDS theorists in the 1980s and 1990s closely associate the discourses of the syndrome with cultural perceptions of homosexuality; AIDS is seen in many theoretical texts as a horrifying literalization of the disease that homosexuality is already perceived to be” (Piggford 20). By extension, the lesions which identify the contraction of AIDS in Angels in America are not only representational of the illness itself, but point to an undesirable societal implication of effeminacy, socio-economic status, and promiscuity. The public had limited knowledge of the disease and in the panic, the homosexual community was further demonized in the political

backdrop.
Angels in America pulls apart the perceived identities attributed to the gay community by individuals outside of its membership. As expressed, homosexuality was illegitimately associated with pestilence because of the AIDS epidemic, with the societal focus being on the idea that homosexuality was a degenerate lifestyle than ran counter to traditional American values, which centered on the heteronormative family as the exemplar of wholesomeness. The gay community was stereotyped, socially labeled, and compared against the ideal manhood and masculinity of heterosexuality that conservative America decided it needed to protect. Kushner challenges this idea of the heterosexual family by conceptualizing new understanding of community that runs counter to the idea of the post-nuclear family pushed by conservative politics. Joe and Harper, Kushner’s representation of the expected family unit, embody the issues surrounding the institution through their disintegrating and tragic marriage. Joe is presented as the voice of Conservatism and a closeted homosexual in self-denial, who enables his own dissonance in a misguided sense of self-perception: “Does it make any difference? That I might be one thing deep within, no matter how wrong or ugly that thing is, so long as I have fought with everything I have to kill it. … For God’s sake, there’s nothing left, I’m a shell. There’s nothing left to kill. As long as my behavior is what I know it has to be. Decent. Correct” ( Kushner 1;8). Joe is an example of the real and possible result of perpetuating the heteronormative ideal onto the gay community.
Kushner allows his characters the opportunity to develop their own personal narrative when developing their identities by not setting them on a scale of morality. Characters, such as Roy Cohn, are not delivered through a stereotype of wrongdoing and are given the freedom of intersectionality. The depravity of the narrative is presented through the ideas of congruity, intolerance, hypocrisy, racism, and homophobia Kushner finds within conservatism of the Reagan Era. The play positively represents gay lives in a way that avoids the enduring stereotypes that society had placed onto the gay community, essentially humanizing the gay experience in the eyes of the outsider.
By extension, Angels in America challenges identity politics by questioning the value of individualism in the grand scheme of community. Joe Pitt’s character revolves around the delusion surrounding his sexuality and the circumstances which surround it. Joe is an individual who carries discontent for his sense of self, aiming to deny his identity, which does not hold continuity with the ideals society has ingrained within him. He adheres to a strict set of subscribed social and conservative rationale, which essentially acts as the cause of his oppressed sexuality. In this way, societal views are tied directly to his identity. Joe acknowledges his identity as a Mormon, man, husband, lawyer, and conservative in an attempt to smother his inherent identity as a homosexual. Joe’s representation of the homosexual male is a portrayal of the conservative mindset being intrinsic to the identity of the individual. By extension, politics usurp human nature and humanity is adjusted to develop an individual that molds to the desired narrative of Reagan conservatism.
The end of the 20th century was filled with turmoil for the gay community on the heels of Reagan era conservatism, and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America directly challenges the stigma of the time.

Its Oscar winner Mayo Simon aptly stated, "[Angels in America] was about the Jewish experience, the gay experience, McCarthyism, the Mormon experience. It was exploring a whole world of politics, feelings, religion. (qtd. in McNamara). The play brings AIDS to the forefront of the national conversation when conservative representatives, such as Reagan, would not address the plights the epidemic had brought upon the gay community. Instead, the connection of AIDS to the homosexual community served as the traditional rhetoric of the conservative community to further perpetuate the conservative political agenda. The identity of the traditional American family did not fall into line with the realities of homosexuality, which challenged the masculinity that pervaded the Reagan era. Angels in America ultimately brings to light the connotations of what it means to be a homosexual male in the Reagan era; it humanizes the gay community through its smart use of intersectionality in characters such as Roy Cohn and Joe Pitt, disillusioning audiences to the homosexual stereotype. In conclusion, Tony Kushner’s play contextualizes the oppression of the gay community in the midst of a generation where their struggles were largely ignored and individuals of the community were villainized,

ostracized, and prejudiced against in the interest of American conservative politics.