During the 32nd annual AIDS Walk this year on September 16th, along the route of the walk, were Neo-Nazi posters by Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. One poster in particular said “you deserve AIDS” (Nassar, H. M., & Brown, J. 2017). This is important concerning necropolitics. There are lives that are valued more than others and ones that are devalued to the point that they are viewed as not worthy of life. Snorton, Riley, and Haritaworn write about how specifically Trans people of colour are often targeted and are at constant risk of death: “violated bodies are continually reinscribed as degenerate and killable” (2013 p.67). Due to the history of HIV/AIDS and its ties to QTBIPOC communities, these communities are the ones that are targeted in an event such as the posters at the AIDS Walk. For example, Indigenous Canadians are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than people of other ethnicities by 2.7 times. In 2014, they also make up about 11% of new HIV cases. The living conditions of Indigenous communities, though these conditions and populations vary, experience a disproportionate amount of social, economic, and cultural influences that put these communities at risk for HIV infection. One of these factors is injection drug use, which increases the likelihood of HIV transmission. Indigenous individuals also comprise 9% of all Canadians with HIV in 2014 (Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange 2015). These statistics show that there is a disproportionate impact on communities that struggle economically, in conjunction with other social, political and cultural factors. In many instances, these disadvantaged populations are QTBIPOC.
Specific groups are at more risk than others, and though the posters target all of the people who have HIV/AIDS, the death threats are added onto those who are QTBIPOC in comparison to gay men. Canada’s reputation as a progressive country denies the state’s complicity “in facilitating the exclusion and regulation of gendered and sexual others” (Kinsman, 1996 p.183, as cited in Nash, C., & Catungal, J. (2015). The overrepresentation of white gay men as the demographic that is affected by HIV/AIDS simultaneously normalizes white gay men as activists for sexual health issues while rendering those of different sexualities and genders invisible. This results in the inclusion of certain sexualities and genders that have been previously excluded, while further pushing away others who do not fit this representation. There becomes a division of who can more safely protest or fundraise and who cannot. There are social, economic, and cultural factors that affect one’s ability to do so, and much like the rates of HIV infection, these factors affect QTBIPOC. When violence, such as in the form of hateful posters, are introduced in a space meant to fundraise for HIV health and wellness while also to counter HIV stigma, those who are more excluded become more vulnerable. To state that one deserves AIDS and therefore deserves to die exemplifies the power that dominant discourses have over QTBIPOC lives (and deaths). The message reinforces the structure of deciding who is worthy of life and who is not.
It is also important to put this year’s walk into perspective with current events. Trump’s 2016 election has allowed the conditions of racist, sexist, and violent bigotry. These feelings have always existed, and many political events have continually oppressed QTBIPOC through the state, but to elect a person who reinforces these ideals as acceptable make them tolerable outwardly rather than subliminally. This has been documented through a moment on Twitter entitled “Day 1 in Trump’s America”. The violent and direct outbursts that are similar to the Neo-Nazi posters at the AIDS Walk are a result of what Christian Fuchs has dubbed Trumpology – the ideology that currently leads the Trump administration. It is “not the ideology of a single person, but rather a whole way of thought and life that consists of elements such as hyper-individualism, hard labour, leadership, the friend/enemy scheme, and Social Darwinism” (p.48). This ideology focuses on meritocracy – the hard work of the individual leads to the making of their own success and those who are unsuccessful are not working hard enough. It creates a sense of entitlement of who belongs and who deserves to succeed (as well as who does not).
Though this may seem like a separate phenomenon due to its location to the US, it is crucial to understand that ideology transcends borders and that we must further analyze the connections between the local and the global. It is also not to say, however, that the structural devaluation of people with HIV/AIDS is an occurrence that has emerged with Trump’s presidency. There have been decades of history during which these groups of individuals have been neglected or systematically oppressed though it is crucial to acknowledge the political overtones that influence hostile behaviours such as those exhibited at the AIDS walk. It is essential as well to analyze who is devalued, and to understand the gender, racial, sexual, and class intersections of the communities that are repeatedly devalued.
Sources
Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange. (2015). Indigenous People. Retrieved from http://www.catie.ca/en/hiv-canada/2/2-3/2-3-4
Day 1 in Trump’s America. (n.d.). Retrieved November 08, 2017, from https://twitter.com/i/moments/796417517157830656?lang=en
Government of Canada. (2016). HIV in Canada: Surveillance summary tables, 2014-2015. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/hiv-in-canada-surveillance-summary-tables-2014-2015.html
Nassar, H. M., & Brown, J. (2017, September 17). Hateful flyers target annual AIDS walk. Retrieved November 08, 2017, from http://www.news1130.com/2017/09/16/hateful-flyers-target-annual-aids-walk/
Nash, C., & Catungal, J. (2015). Introduction: Sexual Landscapes, Lives and Livelihoods in Canada. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 12(2), 181-192. Retrieved from https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/959/813
Snorton, C. Riley and Jin Haritaworn. (2013). Trans necropolitics: a transnational reflection on violence, death and a trans of color afterlife. In Transgender Studies Reader 2, pp. 66-75.