32 The New York Review
Slotten emphasizes, the disease made
it impossible for gay men to stay in
the closet. They had to seek care, and
in many cases reveal their sexuality to
their employers and their families.
Yes, there were still those who vi-
ciously characterized AIDS as divine
punishment for the sin of same- sex
love. But these voices were increasingly
marginalized by popular Hollywood
celebrities and fashion icons, and then
charitable organizations that recruited
donors from the traditional corridors
of the establishment, like banking and
retail. Politicians—notably Joe Biden,
who influenced Barack Obama—
stepped forward to advocate for gay
rights, and the military soon became
more tolerant. Ultimately, federal and
local legislation and Supreme Court
rulings made discrimination against
gay people illegal:So much had changed, and not
only in how we managed HIV in-
fection. Although 1984 had looked
nothing like George Orwell’s dys-
topia, 2014 looked nothing like
1984, at least in terms of Amer-
ican society’s perceptions of the
LGBT community. Even the term
LBGT (or later LGBTQ) had no
resonance in 1984. At that time we
belonged to the caste of untouch-
ables. Thirty years later more than
half the country supported same-
sex marriage. It’s not a stretch to
claim that without AIDS, same- sex
marriage might not have come to
pass as soon as it did. By bringing
so many well- known, talented, and
influential people out of the closet,
AIDS paradoxically humanized
gays and lesbians. AIDS didn’t ac-
complish this feat alone, but it was
an instrumental factor, especially
after it ceased to threaten main-
stream America and was trans-
formed by the miracle of modern
medicine into a chronic and man-
ageable infection.Slotten married Ted Grady in Chi-
cago in June 2014, six days after Illinois
legalized same- sex marriage. The inner
turmoil that he carried before coming
out to his family was ultimately re-
solved with the unexpected loving ac-
ceptance of his mother.
The marriage, as for many gay cou-
ples, followed a civil union some three
years earlier, which Slotten’s mother
“attended happily.” She confided to
her son, “I really like your mother- in-
law,” and did simple but unambiguous
things to indicate her support, like re-
fusing to eat at Chick- fil- A because its
COO was opposed to LGBTQ rights,
and sending a birthday card to Ted
with an “Equality Forever” stamp on
the envelope.The Plague Years prompts us to draw
comparisons between AIDS and the
current Covid pandemic. COV- 2 conta-
gion is not restricted to sex, blood, and
needles like HIV, but is largely spread
through the air and via droplets. There
is still denial of the severity of the
virus, but it is promoted not within the
afflicted communities but by conspir-
acy theorists and those with political
agendas. While a productive détente
was ultimately forged between activists
who realized the grim reality of HIV
and dedicated scientists and clinicians,
there is scant evidence that such a boldalliance will be seriously and consis-
tently sustained by the Trump admin-
istration and its most vocal supporters.
Fauci, for one, has become a target not
only of vicious conspiracy theorists but
of Trump and the White House Of-
fice of Communications, and instead
of the focused and organized efforts of
the federal government that followed the
initial laxity of the Reagan administra-
tion to address HIV, there is still no co-
herent nationwide plan of consequence
to tackle Covid—rather, there’s chaos
and scattershot measures.
What loudly echoes from Slotten’s
account is the commitment of caregiv-
ers to confront the uncertainty of a con-
tagious disease. The applause at 7 PM
in many cities for their efforts against
COV- 2 has largely waned. What persists
across the country is the tragic burden
of such dedicated care, as in the case
of Lorna Breen, the emergency room
physician at NewYork- Presbyterian
Allen Hospital who committed suicide,
apparently overwhelmed after she her-
self became infected with COV- 2. The
longer- term effects on the mental and
physical health of these doctors and
nurses are yet to be seen.^4 Slotten, for
one, seems to have lost a part of his psy-
che needed to mourn:Over the years death has obsessed
me, and increasingly as I grow
older and continue to ponder the
purposelessness of life. We come,
make our brief mark on the world,
and vanish—that’s a cliché but a
simple truth. So many lives lost to
AIDS, I thought, a surfeit of grief
that almost negated my ability to
experience grief at all.I hope this is not the long- term out-
come of the Covid pandemic, but such
emotional hollowing is understandable
after years witnessing disease and loss
in the clinical trenches.
There is a terrible fear that the toll
on health care workers from Covid will
have been in vain if Trump’s failure to
effectively tackle the pandemic contin-
ues, if testing is not ramped up to levels
that allow for identification of carriers
and contact tracing, if distribution of
protective equipment is not done ratio-
nally but rather through nepotism and
profiteering, if experts are removed
from important positions after ques-
tioning incompetent political leader-
ship, and if reopening the economy
is done haphazardly to fulfill talking
points on cable TV in hopes of gaining
reelection.
Perhaps the greatest lesson we can
take from the AIDS epidemic is one
that came after the movie star Rock
Hudson died, effectively removing the
blinders that President Reagan was
wearing. Reagan, a friend of Hudson,
at last ceded authority to scientists like
Fauci, who knew how to speak to the
public about illness and create a sense
of common cause, and to mobilize both
the public and private sectors to tri-
umph over a virus that had never been
seen before and many believed could
not be effectively combated. AIDS
arrived as a murderer; now it can be
shackled. We are nowhere near that
point with Covid- 19. Q(^4) See Jan Hoffman, “I Can’t Turn My
Brain Off: PTSD and Burnout Threaten
Medical Workers,” The New York
Times, May 16, 2020.
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen changed
the conversation.
Just Us urges all of us into it
GRAYWOLF PRESS
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CLAUDIA RANKINE
author of Citizen: An American Lyric
“Rankine writes with disarming intimacy and
searing honesty.... A work that should move, challenge,
and transform every reader who encounters it.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“With clarity and grace, Claudia Rankine delivers
a gut punch to white denial.”
—Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility
“Rankine presents another arresting blend of essays and
images, perfectly attuned to this long-overdue moment
of racial reckoning.” —Booklist, starred review
“Anyone who turns away from this bold and vital invitation
to get to work would be a damn fool.”—Judith Butler