GAYLETTER

“Why have so many younger queer men turned their backs on larger HIV/AIDS histories?”

It’s a frank question that is as complex as it is simple. Is it entitlement? Erasure? Plain ignorance? The question also happens to be one that Brooklyn writer Kyle Bella asked himself when he began work on his latest project, Viral Legacies. Looking to explore the histories of HIV/AIDS in New York, Berlin, Barcelona, and London, Bella is examining the epidemic through a contemporary gaze, questioning what modern gay experiences with the crisis are like and how the social and cultural grief from the initial outbreak are still very much impacting the lives of queer men today.

Bella is currently crowd sourcing for the project, which will take the form of writings that “blur the lines between fact and fiction” as they discuss the unwritten histories of HIV/AIDS in different parts of the globe. By traveling through Europe, Bella hopes to speak to young men like himself in order to capture the effect globalization has had on the ongoing crisis so that we, as queer people, can create better strategies for discussing sexuality and safety. He’s also making an admirable effort to “gather art, film, and written representations from artists who have died because of AIDS” in these European cities as well. Although controversial, Bella’s candor and enthusiasm in addressing the seemingly willful ignorance of young queer men about a crisis that still infects roughly 50,000 people per year in the US alone should give us all a great deal of hope for the future.

Want to help out? Click here to donate to Bella’s project.