Pride is seen a quintessential part of the LGBTQ experience, taking place every year on June twenty-eighth, since 1970 (Popova). Originally dominated by organized groups such as The Gay Liberation Front, pride was centered around community along with ending shame around homosexuality and internalized homophobia. In later years, academics, such as Deborah Gould, came to analyze the shift in the focus of pride. In Gould’s 2002 piece titled, “Life During Wartime: Emotions and the Development of ACT UP” she analyzes the effects of emotions in activist based communities, specifically ACT UP during the mid-1980s. In her piece she claims, “ACT UP dramatically altered the object of pride, dislodging it from its place within a politics of respectability and linking it instead to confrontational AIDS activism” (10). This shift in political motivation is made evident by the rise in political street fashion specifically through t-shirts.

     T-shirts often are viewed with a sense of community. Take, for instance, a club, sports team, or education group: what do they have in common? These groups often are united through collective identificational t-shirts. ACT UP, an AIDS coalition formed in 1986, does not fall exempt from this occurrence. One of their multitude of t-shirts states on the front of the shirt, “ACT UP,” in white inside an onomatopoeic representation of a shout. Underneath are the words in black are, “SAN FRANCISCO.” Found on the back of the shirt in black is the statement,

We believe that the AIDS crisis calls for a broad movement actively engaged in ending the epidemic. We recognize that AIDS has had a devastating impact on the lesbian and gay community. We further recognize that the AIDS crisis disproportionately affects men and women of color. Any strategies to fight the crisis must incorporate these understandings. We  demand: a massive funding to end the AIDS epidemic, a federally-funded education program, centrally coordinated research, a free nationalized health care system, public accountability, a worldwide culturally-sensitive funding program. We oppose: quarantine or mandatory testing for HIV exposure, discriminatory measures instituted by public or private organizations against any groups or individuals with AIDS or ARC, or who test positive for HIV exposure, all laws that contribute to the spread of AIDS or discrimination, spending cuts in any social service or health programs, the use of inflammatory isolating language (ACT UP San Francisco).

 

    As previously established, t-shirts instill community and would lead one to think that these shirts resemble the goals of pride that were previously established and in a way they do. T-shirts, themselves, are inexpensive and easy to distribute. During demonstrations, it would be easy to identify supporters and in the case of police interventions, they would be difficult to lose or be broken like picket signs or flags. As a result, t-shirts were a major success. Complicating previous thoughts of pride,  these t-shirts also exemplify Gould’s point of the shift to “in your face” politics. By directly stating the inherent goals of ACT UP this shirt acts to speak even when their wearers were silent. When one imagines a group marching in uniform shirts, a team of sorts, and it creates an intimidation factor. It gives an image of strength and solidarity opposed to a group of individuals. This was revolutionary in the shift to direct action from respectability politics.

    Aside from Gould’s perspective, these shirts additionally highlight a key critique of queer theory. The nature of confrontational politics stands clear in the wording of the shirt as it acknowledges that AIDS affects men and women of color more. By bringing attention to the intersections of race and AIDS, these shirts highlight the tension between queer theory and its often exclusionary work, in terms of race. These intersections challenge how people choose to identify due to how policy, heteronormativity, stereotypes, education blur the line on what it means to be a queer person during the AIDS epidemic. This is addressed through the oppositions and demands printed on ACT UP San Francisco’s shirts.

    All in all, the t-shirt from San Francisco’s ACT UP organization exemplifies not only Gould’s point that AIDS shaped the nature of pride, but points out that the nature of pride did not change completely. Notably, these shirts bring up the questions of how does confrontational political shirts affect how people view themselves in terms of their sexual and gender identity as a result of HIV/AIDS, how do intersections affect group uniformity, and how does this shirt shift ideas about queer theory?

(October 2016)

Works Cited

“ACT UP San Francisco,” Wearing Gay History, accessed September 19,

    2016, http://www.wearinggayhistory.com/items/show/3053.

Gould, Deborah. “LIFE DURING WARTIME: EMOTIONS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF

    ACT UP.” (2002): 10. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

Popova, Maria. “After Stonewall: The First-Ever Pride Parades, In Vintage Photos.” Brain

    Pickings. N.p., 28 June 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.