The Traynor Legacy versus the “Patient Zero” Myth
The Traynor Legacy versus the “Patient Zero” Myth
Chapter 7 traces the AIDS crisis into the 1990s. It begins with the 1987 release of Randy Shilts’s And the Band Played On and his portrayal of Dugas as the origin of the epidemic in America. My analysis confirms long-standing assertions that Gäetan Dugas was not the first American with AIDS. Shilts’s editor has confirmed that Shilts manipulated the “Patient Zero” narrative to garner media publicity. Via this publicity, flight attendants were now implicated in the larger social and political battles over AIDS, gay sexual practices, and workplace rights. Over time, the airlines ultimately helped to defuse this hysteria. In 1988 United Airlines stopped grounding flight attendants with AIDS, and, by 1993, American Airlines had become the United States’ first self-proclaimed “gay-friendly” airline.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Patient Zero, Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On, School Board of Nassau County v. Arline, United Airlines, American Airlines, Jesse Helms, William Dannemayer
California Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
