HIV Survivors in Sydney, 1st ed. 2019
Memories of the Epidemic
Palgrave Studies in Oral History Series

Inner-city Sydney was the epicenter of gay life in the Southern hemisphere in the 1970s and early 1980s. Gay men moved from across Australasia to find liberation in the city?s vibrant community networks; and when HIV and AIDS devastated those networks, they grieved, suffered, and survived in ways that have often been left out of the historical record. This book excavates the intimate lives and memories of HIV-positive gay men in Sydney, focusing on the critical years between 1982 and 1996, when HIV went from being a terrifying unidentified disease to a chronic condition that could be managed with antiretroviral medication. Using oral histories and archival research, Cheryl Ware offers a sensitive, moving exploration of how HIV-positive gay men navigated issues around disclosure, health, sex, grief, death, and survival. HIV Survivors in Sydney reveals how gay men dealt with the virus both within and outside of support networks, and how they remember these experiences nearly three decades later.  

1. 'Our Lives Are Going to Change'.- 2. The Gay Capital of the Southern Hemisphere.- 3. The Face of HIV.- 4. 'The Disease of a Thousand Rehearsals'.- 5. Living by the Code of the Condom.- 6. Patient Stories.- 7. The Heroes of the Epidemic.- 8. Coping with Death.- 9. Life as Lazarus, 1996.- 10. Bearing Witness to the Epidemic.- 11. Conclusion.

Cheryl Ware is a Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Offers the first book-length account on how HIV and AIDS transformed the intimate lives of gay men in Sydney Moves beyond the usual focus on public mobilization and activism in the history of HIV and AIDS to foreground the stories of individual men and the impact of the disease on their personal lives Features oral histories of gay men diagnosed with HIV in Sydney before the advent of antiretroviral medication Appeals to scholars and readers interested in the history of sexuality, LGBTQ studies, oral history, memory studies, the history of medicine, the history of HIV and AIDS, and Australian history