ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the work that women AIDS activists in Toronto did in the late 1980s and early 1990s to revise their lives and transform social relations and imaginaries of AIDS. Taking a queer, feminist approach to rhetorical inquiry, the study draws on activist interviews and archival materials exploring activists’ experiences and struggles. The chapter clarifies how activists worked—symbolically and materially—to shift from centering prevention/men/HIV-negative messages to honoring treatment/women/HIV-positive messages. This chapter theorizes “queer rhetorical work,” while opening up the possibilities and productive tensions at the heart of this work.
