They Have Always Called Us Sick: Heterosexism and Medical Inequality for Queer Americans with Chronic Illness and a Potential New Direction for AIDS Discourses

Abstract

HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 discourses are often compared; however, theorizing them together in terms of political efficacy and possibility is more novel. The collective of academics, activists, artists, and others–What Would an HIV Doula Do? (WWHIVDD) which for years has responded to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, has turned their attention to experiences of living with COVID-19. Through a qualitative analysis of two texts–a zine and a guide for authors writing about these pandemics–that specifically address experiences of/with COVID-19 by WWHIVDD, we examine how HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 discourses can productively be considered as chronic illness/COVID discourses that have the potential for more fruitful collective/political action and scholarly theorization of people living with pandemics.