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Library of Congress Research Guides

LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide

HIV and AIDS

This page provides search strategies and a selection of recommended resources related to HIV and AIDS.

Browse the Library of Congress Online Catalog to locate relevant materials by subject:

  • AIDS (Disease).
    • Can be subdivided geographically, e.g., "AIDS (disease)--United States" See also headings "AIDS (disease) in [a group of persons]", e.g. "in adolescence" "in children"; and "in women", etc. To focus more narrowly, search under these or similar subdivisions:
  • AIDS (Disease)--Complications.
  • AIDS (Disease)--Government policy. 
  • AIDS (Disease)--Law and legislation. 
  • AIDS (Disease)--Psychological aspects. 
  • AIDS (Disease)--Social aspects.
  • AIDS (Disease)--Study and teaching. 
  • AIDS (Disease)--Transmission. 
  • AIDS (Disease)--Treatment. 
  • Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Inc
  • Gran Fury (Artists' collective).
  • HIV (Infections).
  • HIV-Positive persons.
  • HIV (Viruses).
  • Authors/Activists writing about HIV and AIDS:
    • Feinberg, David B., -1994.
    • Kramer, Larry
    • Schulman, Sarah
  • Silence = Death Project (Artists' collective).

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

  • HIV & AIDS activism is still alive and necessary today. Researchers looking at historical HIV/AIDS activisms in the United States will find that many published accounts focus on the U.S. coasts during the last two decades of the 20th century. However, HIV/AIDS has impacted every part of the United States, then and now. Therefore, there exists an opportunity to research lesser known activisms, particularly in the U.S. Midwest and South.

As Sarah Schulman notes in Let the Record Show,"...there were 148 chapters of ACT UP around the world, each acted autonomously." And while the still operating ACT UP is perhaps the best known AIDS activist group, there were a number of other important activists and organizations whose stories and struggles are yet to be widely known. Search the Library of Congress Online Catalog and databases using the names of known activists, organizations, demonstrations or publications. The list below is not comprehensive, but is meant to offer some starting search terms and concepts for researchers.

Activist Organizations

  • AIDS Project Los Angeles
  • ACT UP, New York and other local U.S. and international chapters
  • Actions and Demonstrations Committee of Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights
  • Chicken Soup Brigade
  • Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC)
  • GLAAD, formed in New York in 1985, activist Marty Robinson was the first to chair the Swift and Terrible Retribution Committee 
  • Lavender Hill Mob (founded by Sara Belcher, Bill Bahlman, Jean Elizabeth Glass, Buddy Noro, Marty Robinson, and Henry Yeager). See Also: Lavender Hill News via Archives of Sexuality and Gender.
  • Shanti
  • Testing the Limits (Video Collective)

AIDS Activism in Print, Publications

  • ACT UP, originally founded in New York City in 1987
  • Sarah Schulman, See articles in: New York Native
  • David France
  • The Journal of AID Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)

Sources:

Lavender Hill Mob. November 17, 1986-November 27, 1989. MS Organization Files from the Lesbian Herstory Archives ORGFIL0755. Lesbian Herstory Archives. Archives of Sexuality and Gender. 

Ahead of World AIDS Day 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Congressman John Lewis announced the future of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and its archives at a special ceremony at the Library of Congress. The National AIDS Memorial will become the new caretaker of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and NAMES Project programs. As part of the transition, the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial have agreed to jointly gift care and stewardship of the Quilt's archival collections to the prestigious American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, making this collection available to all through the world's largest public library.

 

David France discusses his telling of the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., a riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. Around the globe, 16 million people are alive today thanks to their efforts. October 2017, hosted by LC-GLOBE. 

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