The problem with making AIDS comfortable: federal policy making and the rhetoric of innocence

This essay presents a narrative of U.S. AIDS policy which highlights the ways that people with AIDS (PWAs) have been categorized throughout the epidemic. I argue that PWAs have been broadly categorized as either "innocent" or "guilty" in the public discourse about AIDS, and that these distinctions have greatly influenced the way that policies are designed and justified. An examination of the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990 shows that policy rationales of lawmakers overwhelmingly relied on rhetoric which focused on the most sympathetic PWAs: "innocent" women and children. While this rhetorical strategy helped gain passage of the law, it effectively shut out the concerns of the majority of PWAs who fell into less sympathetic categories and resulted in policy decisions which often work against the stated goals of lawmakers.