Movement, knowledge, emotion: gay activism and HIV/AIDS in Australia

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) entered the public arena as a ‘mystery disease’ for which there was no known cause and no cure. Concerns that this unknown killer would sweep rapidly across whole populations provided it with media and political attention few medical conditions receive. But more significantly, AIDS achieved rapid infamy through its association with a set of social and sexual practices considered by many to be deviant and highly immoral: homosexuality, illicit drug use and prostitution…