{"id":12310,"date":"2026-06-09T12:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/06\/09\/bearing-witness-and-building-the-fightback-reviews-culture-socialist-worker\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:31:15","slug":"bearing-witness-and-building-the-fightback-reviews-culture-socialist-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/06\/09\/bearing-witness-and-building-the-fightback-reviews-culture-socialist-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing witness and building the fightback Reviews & Culture – Socialist Worker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gordon\n

Gordon Rainsford, ACT UP World AIDS Day, December 1989 (Photo: The Wellcome Collection)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There doesn\u2019t seem to be a day that goes by where there is not an attack on the trans+ \u00adcommunity in the right wing press or on social media.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s and 1990s, it felt eerily the same for gay men and women in the coverage of the HIV\/AIDS crisis.<\/p>\n

Disgracefully, trans+ \u00advictims of oppression today are somehow transformed into being the oppressors.<\/p>\n

The photographic \u00adexhibition Tenderness and Rage at the Wellcome Collection in London reflects back on the reality of the \u00adsuffering of those with HIV\/AIDS at a time when the \u00adcondition was referred to as \u201cthe gay plague\u201d by the press.<\/p>\n

\u201cBritain threatened by gay plague virus\u201d, \u201cGays in Fear\u201d and \u201c\u2018I\u2019d shoot my son if he had AIDS\u2019 says vicar\u201d. These were all appalling \u00adhomophobic headlines designed to create maximum fear and hatred at the height of the suffering of innocent people.<\/p>\n

This exhibition \u00adpresents a different reality. At its centre are two photographic series created with artist Gideon Mendel. \u201cThe Ward\u201d documents the lives of patients on AIDS wards at Middlesex Hospital in London. While, \u201cThrough Positive Eyes\u201d\u2014a project led by the Art & Global Health Center at University of California, Los Angeles\u2014shares the perspectives of HIV activists worldwide.<\/p>\n

The photographs of patients at Middlesex Hospital are intensely moving, \u00adfocusing on the love, care and \u00adresilience of the gay \u00adcommunity under attack. \u201cThrough Positive Eyes\u201d \u00adforegrounds the \u00addetermination of black women in South Africa to \u00adconfront, overcome and \u00adsucceed in living with HIV.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the \u00adexhibition makes the connection between oppression and the need for a political fight back.<\/p>\n

The images of \u00adprotest against the That\u00adcher \u00adgovernment\u2019s treatment of people with HIV find a place next to those of tenderness.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

There is now a rich \u00adartistic 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 \u00adcentury. The spirit of Tenderness and Rage is inspirational for LGBT+ struggles today.<\/p>\n

And there is a real \u00adparallel with the situation trans+ people face now\u2014the bigots can be fought and can be beaten.<\/p>\n