{"id":933,"date":"2022-10-29T13:00:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-29T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=933"},"modified":"2022-10-29T13:00:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T17:00:58","slug":"more-than-a-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2022\/10\/29\/more-than-a-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than a Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the play <\/span>Angels in America<\/span><\/i> by Tony Kushner, Prior Walter, a gay man suffering from AIDS, is chosen as a religious prophet, and eventually refutes his position. By making a sick gay man a prophet who stands up to otherworldly figures, Kushner challenges anti-gay sentiments and proves that those infected with AIDS are more than their disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

Act Five of <\/span>Perestroika <\/span><\/i>places Prior in heaven, as he attempts to bargain with the angels that have blessed him with their knowledge. Prior speaks to the angels: \u201cI\u2019m leaving Heaven to you now. I\u2019ll take my illness with me, and. And I\u2019ll take my death with me, too. The earth\u2019s my home, and I want to go home\u201d (Kushner 279). The author chooses Prior\u2019s words carefully to demonstrate his self assurance. Prior does not ask permission to leave heaven, but rather, he states that he is leaving the religious duties to the angels. By standing up for himself, Prior begins to show fortitude. Most importantly, Prior explains that his illness, AIDS, will still be with him when he returns to earth. Even though he wishes he could recover from AIDS, he recognizes this disease will be with him for the rest of his life, up until his death. That simple recognition displays Prior\u2019s strength. But AIDS does not define who he is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By writing that Prior is actively \u201ctaking\u201d AIDS with him, Kushner conveys the idea that the illness is secondary to Prior\u2019s humanity. Throughout the AIDS crisis, sick gay men were often recognized as just their disease and nothing more. Their interests, passions, and hobbies were overlooked because bigots were so focused on villainizing them. Prior\u2019s character combats these ideas, and shows that people living with AIDS are more than their disease, and are strong enough to fight against bias. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the play Angels in America by Tony Kushner, Prior Walter, a gay man suffering from AIDS, is chosen as a religious prophet, and eventually refutes his position. By making a sick gay man a prophet who stands up to otherworldly figures, Kushner challenges anti-gay sentiments and proves that those infected with AIDS are more … Continue reading More Than a Disease<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4986,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4986"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}