ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the paradigms of queer visibility changed as a result of significant transformations in queer lives wrought by the AIDS crisis. The AIDS epidemic shifted priorities for both the gay community and media institutions, which saw pathological discourses around gay men develop once again in mainstream current-affairs programming. The chapter argues that this media coverage prompted a direct response from the gay community, who began to orientate their activism towards AIDS, establishing Gay Health Action and becoming authority figures on AIDS in Ireland. Using the case study of OUT magazine, the chapter argues that the gay community created alternative media economies and counterpublics through a gay press, which became crucial in contesting mainstream media narratives and holding public institutions accountable for their role in proliferating the Irish AIDS crisis. Finally, AIDS resulted in media activism in the form of independently produced documentaries. Using two independent documentaries, this chapter argues that these formed local responses that provided an important intervention to the dominant US/UK-centric AIDS media in Ireland, crucially representing AIDS within an Irish idiom.
