Queered bodies and straightened borders: natur[at]ed-AIDS in a present and anticipated plague

The first generation of government AIDS campaigns in Australia, Britain and the United States directed at heterosexuals reproduced bioscientific discursive formulations and commentaries which had identified the initial locus in infectious queered bodies. In representations and narrations, the campaigns likened the anticipated heterosexual plague to a pastiche of 'dangerous' gay proclivities and perverse practices. In attempting to normalise HIV infection, the campaigns sought to breach the historically contrived categorical distinctions between faggots and straights. They failed because the commentaries and imaginaries replicated that which they sought to disown: the natur[at]ed distinction between queer bodies and straight practices.