Lessons from the Damned

by Nancy E. Stoller

First published in 1998. Nancy Stoller records how the poor, people of color, gay men and lesbians, drug users, and women have built social movements to fight the impact of AIDS, revealing that organizational structure and culture have a greater impact on who is served and how than do public health theories or official organizational goals. She draws on ethnographic research and the words of the activists themselves, as well as the literature of social movements and theories of bureaucracy. In addition to the stories of the organizational strategies, the book offers guidelines for dealing with diversity and conflict with both theoretical and practical perspectives on cross-community and international organizing.

Genres: LGBT, Queer, Nonfiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 1997

Reviews

[Ai Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of this felt like a reread, especially if you're familiar with histories of ACT UP or women's involvements around AIDS, but the other chapters felt far newer and I would love to see all of them be expanded further. The stuff about needle exchanges especially felt super interesting and rich, as well as the sex worker chapter. The Asian (/American) chapter seemed the weakest to me, and especially unincorporated in other aspects (like the chapter on women.) But a good read and interesting piece, and certainly interesting in the context of a larger historiography.

[Maggie Mayhem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugely influential text for me when I was deeply involved in HIV prevention, a harm reduction neophyte, and before I was in the struggle for sex worker rights. Some of the material and language may feel dated but this was a Trail blazing book that really helped me chart my path and laid out some serious truths that the public health community needed to hear.

When PREP became a thing (that’s Pre Exposure Prophylaxis, or HIV medication to prevent an infection) I had to nod to Stoller. This breakthrough didn’t come from doctors or epidemiologists, it came from those on the ground at risk for HIV who hypothesized that if antiretrovirals worked and Post Exposure Prophylaxis (medication you take after a high risk exposure but before an infection has occurred) worked, that taking a HIV meds should also work. They were right, but sadly they’ll never see recognition or profit from their accurate theory. In fact, it falls in line with history when junkies, whores, and queers turned to the streets and the medical libraries and each other and halted an epidemic. A must read for those who believe in the power of acting up.

[Jeff Keith]

LESSONS FROM THE DAMNED: Queers, Whores, and Junkies Respond to AIDS by Nancy E. Stoller
JEFF KEITH’S COMMENTS: [four stars] This is an interesting chapter of the struggle against the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. The author is a White, lesbian professor with radical political ideas who teaches community studies and sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and wrote or edited other books on AIDS. She was an activist against AIDS for many years in San Francisco and for a while on the board of the largest AIDS organization in the city, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF). This book describes the struggles of various groups other than White gay men to cope with the epidemic.
Chapter One: women; Chapter Two: history of the SFAF (pages 33 on, struggles of African Americans and Latinos with the group); Chapter Three: Asian American AIDS groups; Chapter Four: organizing sex workers; Chapter Five: the anarchist organizing strategies of Prevention Point; Chapter Six: ACT UP-New York and how it had so many connections to people in "high places"; Chapter Seven: "Lessons from the Damned"