The AIDS Dissidents

by Ian Young

This is a bibliography of dissident and "alternative" approaches to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Since the initial reports of its incidence in 1981, the phenomenon of AIDS has generated a considerable literature, reflecting a wide variety of opinions as to the nature and origins of the syndrome and the appropriateness of various medical, political, and other approaches. Existing bibliographies and resource guides have tended to reflect present medical and political orthodoxies and to exclude or minimize dissenting views, whether by scientists, journalists, political activists, or people with AIDS themselves. Young fills a nuch-needed gap by providing a comprehensive guide to these important materials.

Over 700 English-language items are listed. Nearly 150 books and monographs are each given up to a page or more of descriptive evaluation; a wide selection of newspaper and magazine articles, audiotapes, and periodicals is annotated more briefly. Books, monographs, and audiotapes are cross-referenced in a title index. Issues covered include activism, AZT, blood testing and screening, cultural issues and the media, experimental therapies and techniques, the HIV hypothesis, holistic therapies, intravenous and recreational drugs, long-term survivors, macrobiotics and traditional Oriental medicine, mental and spiritual aspects, origins, policies and politics, other sexually transmitted diseases, race and color, "safe sex," and vitamin therapies. Four key documents from the AIDS dissident movement are appended.

This bibliography will be of value to all medical, public health, and social science libraries, to collections specializing in political dissidence, and to AIDS organizations and clinics.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

Ian Young is an English-Canadian poet, editor, literary critic, and historian. An alumnus of the University of Toronto, he founded Canada's first gay publishing company, Catalyst Press, in 1970. His work has appeared in Canadian Notes & Queries, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Rites and Continuum, as well as in more than fifty anthologies. He was a regular columnist for The Body Politic from 1975 to 1985 and for Torso between 1991 and 2008.

Young is best known for his work as editor of the anthology The Gay Muse and the bibliography The Male Homosexual in Literature. He was interested in ceremonial magic during the 1980s and was a founding member of the Hermetic Order of the Silver Sword.

His most recent book, Encounters with Authors (2013), featured historical and critical essays on the work of three noted Canadian LGBT writers, Scott Symons, Robin Hardy and Norman Elder. [wikipedia]