Bearing Witness: Gay Men's Health Crisis and the Politics of AIDS

Kayal, professor of sociology at Seton Hall University (N.J.), volunteered from 1983 to 1986 at Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City, and his experience in this pioneer mobilization against AIDS informs his disorganized but sometimes insightful book about volunteerism and cultural transformation. While Kayal offers a first-person account, his analysis is primarily sociological, and his history of GMHC is rather sketchy. He praises gay volunteerism because it is a means of self-affirmation, just as the term ``People with AIDS'' is more humanizing than the term ``AIDS victims.'' However, his castigation of the mainstream media for ignoring the ``remarkable contribution of the gay community to the care of People with AIDS'' seems dated. Kayal warns that ``Gays need to claim AIDS again'' because democratization of the disease will result in a diminution of gay identity that has arisen in response to the epidemic, and that community-based agencies like GMHC may lose their autonomy. Criticizing activists like playwright Larry Kramer for ``fighting hate with hate,'' Kayal argues for recognition that gay volunteerism is a way to join ``the sacred, the political and the personal.'' (May)