AIDS, homophobia and the media (Episode 2 of 4)

Vito Russo, author of the <i>The Celluloid Closet</i>, in discussion with journalist Marcia Pally and Jim Fouratt from ACT/UP NY. The guests talk about the media's disproportionate focus on heterosexuals in the AIDS crisis and how the most prominent voices, like Cardinal O'Connor, are fighting against teaching safe sex. Russo talks about the assignation of blame between the "innocent" (i.e. children born with HIV or people who acquire it accidentally through transfusion) and the "guilty" in AIDS discourse. Pally talks about how gay men with AIDS are "guilty of having sex." They talk about the stigma of gay men with AIDS and about gay stereotypes in the media.