Montejo 1

Darnell Montejo

Professor Batty

English 102

12 December 2019

AIDS Wasn’t so Angelic: The Stigma around AIDS

The play Angels in America: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner had many themes

such as AIDS, LGBTQ+, drug addiction, infidelity, religion, mental illness, etc. One of the many

themes that caught my eye was the use of AIDS to advance the story it was very tragic and

intriguing to read. To have AIDS in the eighties was very stigmatized and it was very taboo to

even mention in public during that time because it was associated with homosexuality. This play

touched on very important topics that were not being talked about during the time the play is set

in and even when the book was released the topic was still very controversial. Most people

would undermine the apparent stigma around AIDS and gay men with AIDS and it is often

overlooked or not even discussed but this play did the exact opposite it highlighted that specific

issue. I will argue how this play did perpetuate stigma around AIDS and gay men with AIDS.

First, I will explain my analysis about the play and its characters first. This play has to do

with many complex characters with some fall under the LGBTQ+ umbrella (even if some of the

characters don't accept it). This story focuses on two couples Joe and Harper also Louis and

Prior. By Act I scene four you can tell that Louis and Prior really do love each other but once

Prior tells him the bad news which is that he has AIDS their relationship dynamic shifts between

them. On the other hand, the relationship between Joe and Harper is very rocky and unstable

since their first scene together. The play continues to focus on how Joe might be gay but cannot
 Montejo 2

accept himself and also how Louis leaves prior in the hospital because gets extremely sick. The

first two acts are very tragic, but they encapsulate how it might’ve been in the eighties to either

be gay or be gay and have AIDS in America. Another main character that fits in to the LGBTQ+

umbrella would be Roy M. Cohn, he is a business man that catches AIDS but denies his

homosexuality and Aids. In the first and second act of Angels in America you discover the two

different relationships dynamics of Joe with Harper and Louis with Prior and how homosexuality

is a big part of their relationships. In the first act Joe denies and rejects his homosexuality while

Louis and prior are out and proud. This story mainly depicts how many people’s lives were

affected by the AIDS epidemics in the eighties.

The AIDS epidemics in the eighties was a huge part of this play and there is more to it

than just to advance the storyline there is a history to the AIDS epidemic in the eighties. The

effects of the AIDS epidemic are first introduced in the very beginning when the character Prior

Walter reveals to his boyfriend Louis Ironson that he has AIDS. Another character that has AIDS

is Roy M. Cohn but this character denies that he has the sickness. Even in the first act Kushner

foreshadows death as it starts off with Louis being at a funeral for his grandmother. Then after

the funeral Prior tells louis that he has AIDS. In the scholarly article "History and AIDS in Was

and Angels in America." written by Susan Knabe, Knabe delves into two pieces of literature Was

and Angels in America and explains the history behind these texts and the correlation of Aids

within those texts. Knabe argues, “Both texts also, importantly, work with a specific temporal

register in relation to AIDS and my emphasis on precise dates associated with these works in the

introduction is not incidental. AIDS as an epidemic is itself infected with the virus of time, (8)

and as such is always already part of a historical continuum which includes it, but is not limited

to it, though it may be limited by it” (Knabe, 1). In this specific quote she discusses how the aids
 Montejo 3

epidemic in both texts and how AIDS had its virus attached to it which is stigma and how society

during that time dealt with it. Knabe also touches on how AIDS or stigma arounds AIDS would

eventually cause death to the character of the stories and how the “threshold of revelation”

foreshadowed that. She says, “The concept of the "threshold of revelation" offers ways of

reworking the already overdetermined apocalyptic imagery which saturates any number of

discourses on AIDS even as it draws on the apocalyptic resonances inherent in the concept of

revelation” (Knabe, 1). AIDS as a disease was very horrible disease to have but also to have

stigmatization layered on top of that was very hard for the people with it.

In the eighties people who had AIDS would sometimes deny or reject their diagnosis

because of the stigma around it. Many men would deny that they had AIDS, there is an example

of this in the play when Roy visits his doctor and the doctor tells him that he has AIDS but Roy

denies it and tells him he is wrong he has liver cancer but he also denies his homosexuality.

AIDS was attached to homosexuality that’s why it was majorly stigmatized. The part where Roy

denies his diagnosis occurs towards the end of the scene and Henry the doctor says “ROY: And

what is my diagnosis, Henry? HENRY: You have AIDS, Roy. ROY: No, Henry, no. AIDS is

what homosexuals have. I have liver cancer” (Kushner, 22). This type of example of men

rejecting or denying their AIDS diagnosis which was very common. Roy denies his AIDS

because he is also denying his homosexuality at the same time obviously because of the stigma

around gay men during the 80’s. The Scholarly article “The Analysis of Spirituality of Patients

with HIV/AIDS in Taking Lessons and Self-Acceptance” written by Neila Sulung and Rahmi

Asyura from the Department of Nursing in Indonesia goes in depth on how many men who got

diagnosed with HIV or AIDS would react in many negative ways including rejecting their

diagnosis. Sulung and Asyura say that “Most of male participants felt disappointed, shocked,
 Montejo 4

scared, embarrassed, angry, sorry, and reject knowing their status when diagnosed HIV/AIDS

positively” (Sulung, Asyura; 234). Sulung and Asyura also touch on how they react like this

because of the stigma around HIV/AIDS when they argue “This is an answer to the participants'

concerns because HIV diagnosis causes fear due to the stigma attached to HIV disease because it

also attached to the stigma of homosexuality.” (Sulung, Asyura; 234). Sulung and Asyura discuss

the similar issue that happens in the scene of the play and how men would reject or deny when

getting diagnosed with AIDS because of the stigma around it.

Most people would argue that this play undermines the apparent stigma around AIDS and

gay men with AIDS and it is often overlooked or not even discussed but this play did the exact

opposite it highlighted that specific issue. The Acts that I read in the play all depicted real

situations of why people had trouble telling anyone that they had AIDS. For example, Roy had

trouble accepting his AIDS diagnosis because he doesn’t want to be stigmatized for being gay.

AIDS was a stigma because it was connected to homosexuality and homosexuality is

stigmatized. This play showed many examples of how AIDS was stigmatized alongside with

homosexuality, but this is not really discussed when the play is mentioned. Stigma around AIDS

and homosexuality is still prevalent today, sadly.

To summarize, I argued how this play did perpetuate stigma around AIDS and gay men

with AIDS. This play is a great example of how gay men with Aids were stigmatized especially

in the eighties and are still being stigmatized till this day. I also explained my analysis about the

play and its characters first. This play has to do with many complex characters with some fall

under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. The AIDS epidemics in the eighties was a huge part of this play

and there is more to it than just to advance the storyline there is a history to the AIDS epidemic

in the eighties. In the eighties people who had Aids would sometimes deny or reject their
 Montejo 5

diagnosis because of the stigma around it. Lastly, most people would argue that this play

undermines the apparent stigma around AIDS and gay men with AIDS and it is often overlooked

or not even discussed but this play did the exact opposite it highlighted that specific issue.
 Montejo 6

Works Cited

Knabe, Susan. "History and AIDS in Was and Angels in America." Extrapolation, vol. 49, no. 2,

2008, p. 214+. Literature Resource Center,

https://library.lavc.edu:2480/apps/doc/A190976200/LitRC?u=lavc_main&sid=LitRC&xi

d=f6193230. Accessed 8 Oct. 2019.

Kushner, Tony. Angels in America : A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Theatre

Communications Group, 1995.

Sulung, Neila, and Rahmi Asyura. “The Analysis of Spirituality of

Patients with HIV/AIDS in Taking Lessons and Self-Acceptance.” Indian

Journal of Palliative Care, vol. 25, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 232–235.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_203_18.