Beowulf Thorne, Tom Shearer, Tom Ace, & Michael Botkin ed.

Diseased Pariah News No. 1-11 [Complete Run]

San Francisco: 1990-95. Each 7 x 8 1⁄2 in. Saddle- stapled in wraps, issues 1-7 with obi bands cut, flexi-disc included as issued with no. 5. All issues first printings with the exception of the first
issue which is a reprint made while the zine was still being published. All in near fine condition. Item #5770

Complete run of the groundbreaking 1990’s zine made for and by members of the gay community living with HIV/AIDS. The publication dealt with the AIDS epidemic with black humor while also providing factual information on living with and managing the disease. The often shocking viewpoints set forth by the editors were their way of combating the media’s representation of gay men living with AIDS at the time as ‘languishing saints’, and in the process embraced and humanized their pariah status.

The zine was named after a cartoon in The Advocate, which attacked Delta Airlines’ policy of not seating customers with HIV, depicting an airline attendant asking a customer “’Would you like smoking, non- smoking or the diseased-pariah section?” The official mascot of the DPN was the oncomouse, a genetically engineered breed of laboratory mouse used in cancer testing, and a natural pariah.

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