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| Photo by Allyana Hernandez |
“They need to know that I’ve been where they are, that I understand their struggle.” - Blanca Evangelista
In the four corners of the clinic, the dreadful silence was interrupted. "I am sorry, the results came as positive.” The doctor said, with pure concern painting her face. Pray Tell hoped for a false positive, but to no avail. He was speechless; developed into heavy breaths, and with a single tear running down his cheek, he replied in a shaky voice: “This is the moment I dreaded most, dodged it for years, and now it has finally caught up with me.”
Today is World AIDS Day and today, we join the fight in raising awareness and addressing inequalities with the 2022 theme, "Putting Ourselves to the Test: Achieving Equity to End HIV." Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS has been a nightmare for both its victims and those who are wary of it, with no solution or cure. The AIDS Epidemic in the US during the 1980s has been one of the events that have shaken people, especially the LGBTQIA Community.
Pose, an American TV show set in the 1980s, known for its famous tagline "And the category is… Live, Work, Pose!” has effectively delivered the early history of AIDS, and how it affected everyone—especially people of color and homosexuals. The show gave the newer generation an unfiltered truth about the disease, the pain of those who found themselves on their deathbed, and for those they left behind—a pain nothing else could ever amount to. Pose encapsulated the rawness of emotions, the glamour of the ballroom culture, the lack of cognizance of the government to sexuality and HIV/AIDS, the intentional ignorance of society towards the victims of this disease, and the suffering of everyone who found themselves in that situation.
In Season 1, the show revolved around the personal lives of each characters like Blanca Evangelista and Pray Tell who come to discover that they were HIV positive, with the knowledge that many of the acquaintances of every character succumbing to the same disease.
I can remember watching episode 6 and fixating on a certain scene where Costas Perez, Pray Tell’s boyfriend who is also suffering from AIDS said, “When I move on, I want you to cry your ass off and scream to the Lord on high but only for one day.” I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the mindset of many LGBTQ+ people during those times? The acceptance and strength that these people have meant one thing: they knew they wouldn’t last long, and they were ready to live life at its fullest in the limited time that they have left. This broke me. Pray Tell was always wary that someday the community might vanish because of AIDS at the rate people were succumbing to it every day.
But alas, the struggle does not end inside of their own shell because in Seasons 2 and 3 (which were now set in the 1990s), AIDS started to spread out and people didn’t have the full knowledge about it, which needed to change. Pray Tell, Blanca Evangelista, Angel, and the other characters start to realize that their fight needed to be heard, but it was a rough start because they had to come out to the streets where they are under perusal; we all got to start somewhere and sacrifice a little.
Their involvement in the protests started when Nurse Judy dragged Pray Tell into the ACT UP meeting. Pray Tell didn’t want to involve himself at first but Nurse Judy answered him, “Pray, you got to put your pain to good use, or I swear it will eat you alive.” This stuck out to me because I could resonate a lot with Pray Tell on certain occasions and it felt like nurse Judy called me out too. There were many narrow-minded people in the '90s, and to see other individuals coming together from different races and identities to unite for one thing proves to me that there is still so much more to our humanity.
As part of the LGBTQIA+ community myself, it was an emotional roller coaster to see them suffering and not be heard just because of who they were. It made me know more about my community’s roots and sacrifices, and it made my appreciation even greater for the generation I belong to, which they fought for and helped build. This goes as well for those who are not in the LGBTQIA+ community, those who are stigmatized and under judgment for having HIV/AIDS. They’ve all fought for AIDS awareness, and most still do with or without the disease.
