Early AIDS Awareness in Bloomington

Background and Fundamentals

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, abbreviated AIDS, is the set of symptoms associated with long-term infection by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. First described by the United States Center for Disease Control in 1981, AIDS is characterized by opportunistic infections stemming from vectors not usually significantly dangerous to human beings and increased susceptibility to certain forms of cancerous development and more traditionally dangerous diseases and viruses.

In its earliest media coverage, AIDS was more frequently referred to as GRID—“gay related immune deficiency.” In some circles it became known as the 4-H disease, for its disproportionate presence in homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users, and Haitians, before “AIDS” was introduced into the lexicon in 1982.

Developing AIDS Awareness in Bloomington

The First Inklings

Bloomington is far removed from Los Angeles, where the CDC first discovered sufferers of the syndrome, and the distance shows in terms of Bloomington’s reaction to the developing AIDS crisis. Coverage of the AIDS epidemic in Bloomington proper did not begin in earnest until 1983, though the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction showed an early interest in the epidemiology of the condition by sending delegates to early conferences held on the condition across the United States.

An Increasing Concern

In 1983, AIDS awareness began to truly reach Bloomington—not through queer activists, but through the American Red Cross. On March 2, 1983, the ARC held a blood drive on the Bloomington Indiana University campus, and as a matter of course, quizzed potential donors about drug use, blood conditions, travel history—and sexual habits, including sexual preference. The local American Blood Resources Association affiliate, Sera-Tec, also announced an intention to “work with the Bloomington Gay Alliance and other high-risk groups to educate donors on AIDS symptoms.” As of the March 2 blood drive, however, no donors were actually turned away for membership in a “high risk group."

The pattern of local queer apathy towards the AIDS epidemic continued for several years; in a December 1983 article in the Indiana Daily Student, the director of the Bloomington Gay and Lesbian Alliance stated that he felt gays and lesbians in the area had been “lulled into a sense of safety” and that “they’re thinking this is a problem they have in other places, so why worry about it?” In January 1984, the local blood resource center, Sera-Tec, noted that it was confident that blood donation and transfusion would not contribute to the spread of AIDS. Even within the same statement, however, Sera-Tec also noted that it had begun to ask gay men not to give blood.

Serious Business

As of January 1986, only one Monroe County resident was confirmed to be a victim of AIDS. As the epidemic began to ramp up toward pandemic proportions, however, Indiana University President John Ryan ordered the formation of an Indiana University AIDS Task Force. In February 1987, one of the member of that task force and the chairman of the Indiana State Health AIDS Advisory Committee addressed a group of pre-medical students and made a frightening prediction: that more than 10% of Americans would test positive for HIV antibodies by 1991. While predictions like these have proven vastly inflated, this panic marks a major shift in the Bloomington community’s handling of the increasingly-personal AIDS epidemic: by February 1987, four people had joined the man who previously had been Monroe County’s sole sufferer.

Bloomington AIDS Activism in the 1980s

Social Activism

After 1986, the Bloomington community began to react to the AIDS crisis in a manner one might expect from a community with disproportionate GLBT representation. In October 1986, the Indiana University Health Center attempted to start a support group for sufferers of AIDS; it did not attract any participants, though it is unclear whether that was more because the community had not reached a critical mass of HIV-positive individuals or if had more to do with the still-prevalent stigma. In 1988, however, Doris and Bob Fox, a couple with an HIV-positive son, started Project FIND, or Friends INDeed, with the help of the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard and the Bloomington Gay and Lesbian Alliance. This community-organized and –run support network for AIDS sufferers and their families proved far more successful than the university administration-organized attempt of 1986. This may reflect a certain distrust of the university by local queers whose lives are more emphatically rural than the university’s proximity might imply. Two years later, after their son had died, the Fox family was also instrumental in starting the first PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) chapter in southern Indiana.

Campus groups also organized consciousness-raising and support events. In February 1989, a coalition including the GLB student group OUT, the Campus AIDS Task Force, the IU Student Association, the Department of Health and Wellness Education, and the Residence Halls Association sponsored events to recognize AIDS Awareness Week, including panels and a presentation by the president of the American College Health Association, Dr. Richard Keeling.

Academic and Institutional Activism

The university also engaged in significant AIDS activist work.

In true liberal arts college fashion, the Bloomington campus of Indiana University played host to the conference “AIDS and Sex: an Integrated Biomedical and Biobehavioral Approach” from December 5 to December 8, 1987. The conference, which attracted more than 100 experts in a variety of fields, hoped to produce a report on the AIDS crisis that would provide not only technical information, but also “cross-cultural” and “historical” perspectives, in addition to an analysis of governmental and institutional policy and education tactics for managing the spread of AIDS.

The university also tried in both 1986 and 1989 to found support groups for AIDS sufferers. However, IU Health Services met with little success in this regard, possibly due to a combination of the fact that Indiana University students did not make up the majority of Monroe County AIDS sufferers and a mild “Town and Gown” animosity between the university and the otherwise largely rural and suburban community.

Transitions: the AIDS Quilt

In 1990, 248 panels of the AIDS Quilt, the product of Cleve Jones’s The Names Project, were brought to IU through the combined efforts of the Bloomington Names Project and the Monroe County AIDS Community Action Group. The portion of the quilt was on display from February 15 to February 18.

This display marked a major transition from the informational approach of earlier AIDS activism to the spectacles and productions of the activism of the coming Queer 90s. After 1991, Bloomington continued to see occasional informational panels and presentations on AIDS, but with decreasing frequency. By 1997, Bloomington’s AIDS activism had become dominated by benefit concerts, charity-hosted drag shows, and consciousness-raising spectacles.

Sources

Blever, Richard. “AIDS awareness reaches campus through blood drive.” Indiana Daily Student. March 2, 1983, Bloomington Section.

Boyle, Regina. “Locally, fear of AIDS not changing habits.” Indiana Daily Student. December 13, 1983, Bloomington Section.

Daily Student Reports, "HIV support group organized on IU campus." Indiana Daily Student, no. 121 (92188): 3.

Essig, Trisha. “Committee to set up AIDS guidelines.” Indiana Daily Student. January 21, 1986.

Fiemeyer, Isabelle. "IU Health Center to begin AIDS victim support group." Indiana Daily Student. September 29, 1987, Campus.

Gordan, Kim. "IU set as future site for AIDS conference." Indiana Daily Student. October 16, 1987.

Gordan, Kim. "Cooperation needed on AIDS experts say." Indiana Daily Student. December 7, 1987.

Martin, Jennifer. “Campus, city program provides support for AIDS victims.” Indiana Daily Student. February 17, 1989, Campus Section.

Martin, Jennifer. “Groups team up to sponsor IU’s AIDS Awareness Week.” Indiana Daily Student. February 13, 1989, Campus Section.

Mills, Kim I. "Homosexuals more at risk for attack due to rising AIDS epidemic." Indiana Daily Student, no. 121 (6888): 10.

Newman, David. "HIV testing at IU health Center." Indiana Daily Student. February 19, 1987, Campus.

O’Brien, Patti. “Candle vigil remembers 236 Hoosier AIDS deaths.” Indiana Daily Student. February 17, 1989, Campus Section.

Taylor, Wendy. “Blood Bank Officials Don’t Worry About AIDS.” Indiana Daily Student. January 17, 1984.

Watson, Anne. “AIDS panic exaggerates disease’s danger to public.” Indiana Daily Student. January 18, 1986.