The Gay Community Response to the Emergence of AIDS in Ireland: Activism, Covert Policy, and the Significance of an “Invisible Minority”

Abstract

Abstract:The first response to AIDS in Ireland emerged from within a radical, socialist, and predominantly nationalist wing of the gay rights movement in 1985. At a time when homosexual acts were criminalized, the Irish state operated a policy of protracted nonengagement with Gay Health Action, while covertly supporting selected health-promotion activities. As international momentum unified around a response to the AIDS crisis characterized by value-neutral public health principles, the Irish State, and particularly the statutory health sector, was compelled to balance the views of a conservative voting majority at home with the liberal consensus that was defining the response internationally. AIDS was a catalyst for change throughout the world and Gay Health Action was at the forefront of that transformative movement in Ireland. At the outbreak of AIDS, the gay community was an “invisible minority” that by 1990 had pushed the boundaries of sexual health discourse to herald a more liberal age.

Participação dos movimentos sociais na saúde de gays e lésbicas

“…Na Irlanda, no fim dos anos 1970, a crise da Aids foi utilizada pela comunidade gay para criticar a criminalização de atos homossexuais, a ausência da educação sexual nas escolas, a limitação do acesso a preservativos e serviços de saúde sexual, fazendo com que o Estado se mostrasse pouco preparado frente aos desafios da Aids 25 . Na Índia, A epidemia de HIV/Aids trouxe desafios para o Estado e para sociedade, impulsionando o questionamento, dentre outros aspectos, a heteronormatividade patriarcal e a participação de pessoas de sexualidades alternativas, que lançaram uma luta pela reforma da lei antisodomia 27 .…”

“…Na comparação dos direitos sexuais entre gays e lésbicas, historicamente nem sempre os movimentos de lésbicas conseguiram conquistas similares às dos gays. Na Irlanda, em 1985, embora se reconhecesse que a comunidade lésbica fosse conhecida pelo seu ativismo, as análises acadêmicas, políticas e a mídia se concentraram mais em gays 25 . Apesar dessa consideração, na literatura consultada identificou-se uma extensa pesquisa voltada para aspectos demográficos, saúde mental e vida comunitária de 1925 lésbicas dos 50 estados dos EUA e vários territórios, realizada em 1984 29 .…”

Study protocol for the COvid-19 Toolbox for All IslaNd (CONTAIN) project: A cross-border analysis in Ireland to disentangle psychological, behavioural, media and governmental responses to COVID-19

“…Across the world, different responses to the pandemic have demonstrated the complex relationship between public health, science and politics with the potential of the pandemic to both make and destroy political reputations 22 . When politics rather than careful scientific analysis makes policy for public health, there is generally a cost to citizens, as the international literature in other disease outbreaks has illustrated 23 – 25 . Low compliance with public health messaging has been associated with mistrust of governmental institutions 26 pointing to the importance of political leadership in containing the spread of COVID-19.…”

Study protocol for the COvid-19 Toolbox for All IslaNd (CONTAIN) project: A cross-border analysis in Ireland to disentangle psychological, behavioural, media and governmental responses to COVID-19

“…Across the world, different responses to the pandemic have demonstrated the complex relationship between public health, science and politics with the potential of the pandemic to both make and destroy political reputations 22 . When politics rather than careful scientific analysis makes policy for public health, there is generally a cost to citizens, as the international literature in other disease outbreaks has illustrated [23][24][25] . Low compliance with public health messaging has been associated with mistrust of governmental institutions 26 pointing to the importance of political leadership in containing the spread of COVID-19.…”