An object that stood out to me during our session at Special Collections was the “NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt” from 1994. I think that this object should be included in the public exhibition because I believe that it is a very important piece of our LGBT history and that it is our duty to remember those who have passed away in our community. I also believe that this quilt will help bring awareness about how dangerous AIDS is, and how important it is to take action to prevent the transmission of AIDS. I think that this piece could also be a really good reason to collaborate with Trillium Health in Rochester, NY on their resources for HIV prevention.
When it comes to remembering the AIDS epidemic, the LGBT community is always the first people who come to mind because it was our people who were affected by this disease, and it is also our community that is still at a higher risk of being infected with AIDS. Due to this being a predominantly LGBT health issue, heterosexual people usually are not as concerned about this history because it didn’t affect them as much. I believe that this quilt would help to show the heterosexual community that AIDS was an issue that also concerned their community because so many people knew of someone who was affected by AIDS and signed the quilt to remember them.
An example of inclusion that has made me feel unsatisfied was in a psychology questionnaire for the psychology of human sexuality. There were questions regarding sexuality and sexual activity, and one of the questions was “Have you ever had vaginal sex?” This question was very hard to answer because it was not specific, and I wasn’t sure if this question was being asked in the heteronormative sense, in which vaginal sex was solely the penetration of the vagina by a male penis. If this were to be true, which I was pretty sure that it was being asked in a heteronormative sense, then it would be completely erasing/invalidating lesbian sex (which does not involve a penis). Having surveys that are supposed to be acquiring as much information from the general public as possible in order to collect data and understand society, that completely ignores lesbians and causes them to question whether their sex is valid or not because it is not heterosexual is an example of why the inclusion of all groups is very important.
~BZ