Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care

214 Pages·2020·7.727 MB·English

by  Marty Fink

Forget Burial
Q
Frontispiece Jessica Whitbread (HIV activist) and Morgan M. Page (trans activist)
having a date in spacesuits— also hazmat suits. Due to HIV stigma, Jessica feels she is
constantly explaining to her dates that they d on’t need to wear spacesuits to have sex.
From Jessica Whitbread and Morgan M. Page’s photo series Space Dates. Courtesy of
Jessica Whitbread and Morgan M. Page. Photo credit: Tania Anderson.
Forget Burial
Q
HIV Kinship, Disability, and
Queer/Trans Narratives of Care
Marty Fink
rutgers university press
new brunswick, camden, and newark,
new jersey, and london
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fink, Marty, author.
Title: Forget burial : HIV kinship, disability, and queer/trans narratives of care /
Marty Fink.
Description: New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2020] |
Revision of author’s thesis (doctoral)—City University of New York, 2010. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020004899 | ISBN 9781978813779 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781978813762 (paperback) | ISBN 9781978813786 (epub) |
ISBN 9781978813793 (mobi) | ISBN 9781978813809 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: HIV-positive persons—Care—United States—Historiography. |
Caregivers—United States—Archives. | Caregivers—United States—Biography. |
HIV-positive persons—Archives. | HIV-positive persons—Biography. | Sexual
minorities with disabilities—United States—Historiography. | Sexual minority
community—United States—Historiography. | Kinship care—United States—
Historiography.
Classification: LCC RC606.6 .F56 2020 | DDC 362.19697/9200973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004899
A British Cataloging- in- Publication rec ord for this book is available from
the British Library.
Copyright © 2021 by Marty Fink
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press,
106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition
is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
www . rutgersuniversitypress . org
Manufactured in the United States of Amer i ca
For all the HIV heroes, mentors, and ghosts

Contents
Introduction: Taking Care 1
1 Silence = Undead: Vampires, HIV Kinship,
and Communities of Care 2 3
2 Caregiving Collations and “Gender Trash from Hell”:
Trans Women’s HIV Archives 52
3 Chosen Families: Rejection, Desire, and Archives
of Care 7 7
4 The Gift of Dykes: Naming Desire in Rebecca Brown’s
Narratives of Care 1 05
5 Queering Customs: Unburying Care in My B rother
and ACE 1 29
Conclusion: Forget Burial 159
Acknowl edgments 163
Works Cited 167
Index 195
vii

Forget Burial
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