The evolution of the AIDS illness and the polarisation of values.

ABSTRACT

PIP: MC and KR are two young men who were living with AIDS in Sao Paulo, Brazil, during 1983-86. MC is a 25-year old son of Italian immigrants and KR is a 24-year old grandson of German immigrants. MC attained a relative degree of professional success by working as an airline steward, while KR was never really able to secure and maintain full-time, gainful employment. The author describes how being diagnosed and living with AIDS changed their lives and the way in which they perceive themselves. As a steward, MC traveled extensively to Europe and the US where he frequented the best gay clubs and saunas. He was open and proud of his homosexuality. Being diagnosed with AIDS and going through its sequelae of morbidity and lost income and productivity, however, changed this self-perception. MC began to deny his homosexuality, embraced religion, and avoided talking about his past. In so doing, he distanced himself from all that was responsible for his currently painful experiences. KR, however, had lived a very modest suburban life, having sexual relations with men in the city for money when the need and desire motivated him. KR enjoyed sex with men, but hated being homosexual. He had therefore denied his homosexuality and hid it from as many people as possible. As it did for MC, diagnosis and hospitalization with AIDS changed KR's life. KR's life, however, changed for the better. Once back at home out of the hospital, KR began telling everyone that he had AIDS. A well-known weekly doing a story on AIDS subsequently used a photo of KR for its cover and began paying KR a minimum salary. For the first time in his life, KR gained notoriety and began receiving affection from a broad segment of the community. KR had achieved some degree of success. KR explained that facing death gave him a newfound openness and the ability to stop considering all that is relative as absolute, such as sexuality, the family, sin, and friendship. Death became the only absolute. MC therefore fell from success to failure, while the opposite was true for KR. Both had been role models for their brothers. Once that role was compromised, the brothers rejected MC and KR. The author notes how individuals, once confronted with situations which fall outside the ordinary social world, are obliged to reconstruct and reinterpret their new situation, and suggests to what extent AIDS becomes a determining factor in recognizing and accepting homosexuality.