Against Death: The Practice of Living with AIDS

Robert Ariss - activist and academic - had a unique vision of HIV/AIDS. As an HIV seropositive individual for many years before his death in May 1994, he was a full participant in, and critic of, the development of the gay community’s response to the HIV epidemic both in Australia and internationally. Though his life is a definite presence in this study, it is not an autobiography. Instead, it is a critical account of a public health crisis, a community’s response, and the politics of sexuality. It was in Sydney, Australia, famous for its Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, that Robert Ariss lived and worked. It is his vision of that community - of its members infected with and affected by HIV - which is documented in this anthropological study. Yet this book’s aim is to reach beyond Sydney to all communities living with HIV and AIDS.