dinsdag, januari 28, 2003
The final word on the death of Herb Ritts
High-profile columnist/ provocateur Michelangelo Signorile on the recent death of Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer: "It was downright creepy to see a Reagan-era euphemism for AIDS pop up as the cause of Ritts' death in obituary after obituary: "complications from pneumonia." The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press (in a story that ran in Newsday and many other papers) and other media organizations quoted Ritts' publicist, also identified as a friend, who used that term to describe what brought the openly gay photographer's life to an end at the age of 50. Soon enough it was revealed in the gay press (and since has only appeared in a few gossip columns) that Ritts had in fact been HIV-positive for years. His immune system had been sufficiently weakened; HIV infection had left him unable to fight off the pneumonia. In other words, Herb Ritts' death was an AIDS fatality. And the ignorance of the truth surrounding it signals that, once again, this is a disease that dare not speak its name. And that silence has consequences."
Bron: Newsday.
High-profile columnist/ provocateur Michelangelo Signorile on the recent death of Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer: "It was downright creepy to see a Reagan-era euphemism for AIDS pop up as the cause of Ritts' death in obituary after obituary: "complications from pneumonia." The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press (in a story that ran in Newsday and many other papers) and other media organizations quoted Ritts' publicist, also identified as a friend, who used that term to describe what brought the openly gay photographer's life to an end at the age of 50. Soon enough it was revealed in the gay press (and since has only appeared in a few gossip columns) that Ritts had in fact been HIV-positive for years. His immune system had been sufficiently weakened; HIV infection had left him unable to fight off the pneumonia. In other words, Herb Ritts' death was an AIDS fatality. And the ignorance of the truth surrounding it signals that, once again, this is a disease that dare not speak its name. And that silence has consequences."
Bron: Newsday.
# posted by Jan-Edward : 15:49
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