Obviously, the AIDS crisis underpins the lives of the characters in Rent. While luckily, AIDS related deaths have slowed down considerably, the disease had an enormous impact on the creative community in the era that the show is set.
Here's the first national news report on AIDS - the NBC Nightly News in 1982
"The Kaposi's Sarcoma Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco: An Early Response to the AIDS Epidemic" details some of the earliest efforts to treat people with AIDS.
- Smith Hughes, Sally. “The Karposi’s Sarcoma Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco: An Early Response to the AIDS Epidemic.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 71.4 (1997): 651-88. Print.
ACT UP - The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power - was one of the first organizations to actively criticize the government and Catholic Church for their policies about People with AIDS.
This is an oral history of ACT UP. Click on the links on the right side of the page.
Jon Greenberg - one of ACT UP's founders - explains the organization's history
ACT UP's "Capsule History" detailing the history of their direct action protests
Video of ACT UP Activist Vito Russo in 1989
Video of playwright Larry Kramer - author of The Normal Heart - talks about the early days of ACT UP
The AIDS Time Line: Not about ACT UP specifically, but this describes the history of the AIDS pandemic and cultural reaction to it. This is what ACT UP was reacting to.
Avert.org, an English AIDS prevention organization has a detailed timeline of the history of HIV & AIDS
"In Their Own Words:" an oral history project by the National Institutes on Health documenting how early researchers dealt with the AIDS pandemic. Interesting material on the crisis during the mid-to-late 1980s.
In May 1991, Queer Nation - another Gay Rights group - disrupted a taping of The Arsenio Hall Show. Aresnio, and the crowd's reaction to the protesters really illustrates the prevailing attitude in the culture toward gay folks.
"Save Our Kids, Keep AIDS Out" Anti-AIDS Activism and the Legacy of Community Control in Queens, New York" details the 1985 community response allowing students with AIDS in public schools in Queens, NY.
- Brier, Jennifer. “Save Our Kids, Keep Aids Out:” Anti-Aids Activism and the Legacy of Community Control in Queens, New York.” Journal of Social History 39.4 (2006): 965-87. Print.
AZT was first approved for use in 1987. It stops the reproduction of DNA and reduces the viral load
Video explaining how AZT - a reverse transcriptase inhibitor - effects HIV. It's pretty dense at the beginning, but it's fairly accessible by the end.
Very in depth article about the impact of group therapy on people with AIDS in the late 1980s:
- DiPasquale, Joan A. “The Psychological Effects of Support Groups on Individuals Infected by the AIDS Virus.” Career Nursing 13.5 (1990): 278-85. Print.
Article analyzing how the characters in //Rent// are impacted by their AIDS diagnoses. Very interesting piece using examples from the text to make arguments.
Larson based the support group in Rent on Friends in Deed, a group that he and his friends attended in New York. Here are instructions for first time attendees at Friends in Deed meetings.
More on the history of AIDS and its cultural impact in the 1980s.
