Gordon Rainsford, ACT UP World AIDS Day, December 1989 (Photo: The Wellcome Collection)
There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by where there is not an attack on the trans+ community in the right wing press or on social media.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it felt eerily the same for gay men and women in the coverage of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Disgracefully, trans+ victims of oppression today are somehow transformed into being the oppressors.
The photographic exhibition Tenderness and Rage at the Wellcome Collection in London reflects back on the reality of the suffering of those with HIV/AIDS at a time when the condition was referred to as “the gay plague” by the press.
“Britain threatened by gay plague virus”, “Gays in Fear” and “‘I’d shoot my son if he had AIDS’ says vicar”. These were all appalling homophobic headlines designed to create maximum fear and hatred at the height of the suffering of innocent people.
This exhibition presents a different reality. At its centre are two photographic series created with artist Gideon Mendel. “The Ward” documents the lives of patients on AIDS wards at Middlesex Hospital in London. While, “Through Positive Eyes”—a project led by the Art & Global Health Center at University of California, Los Angeles—shares the perspectives of HIV activists worldwide.
The photographs of patients at Middlesex Hospital are intensely moving, focusing on the love, care and resilience of the gay community under attack. “Through Positive Eyes” foregrounds the determination of black women in South Africa to confront, overcome and succeed in living with HIV.
Crucially, the exhibition makes the connection between oppression and the need for a political fight back.
The images of protest against the Thatcher government’s treatment of people with HIV find a place next to those of tenderness.
The actions of the LGBT+ direct action group Act Up are captured in the fight for the medical aid denied those with HIV in the 1990s.
There is now a rich artistic representation of LGBT+ struggle that connects the fight back over HIV/AIDS with the struggle against Section 28 and the battles to gain equality in the 21st century. The spirit of Tenderness and Rage is inspirational for LGBT+ struggles today.
And there is a real parallel with the situation trans+ people face now—the bigots can be fought and can be beaten.
- Tenderness and Rage is on until 30 May 2027 at the Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE
- Find more information here
