Med varme bøsselesbiske hilsner

Abstract

With Gay Greetings and Lesbian Solidarity: Transnational AIDS-activism and the Danish National Organization for Gays and Lesbians 1981-1994. AIDS-activism is an understudied area of Danish history, and the previous research made has only focused on the Danish government’s response to the epidemic. Using Signild Vallgårda’s theories of ‘problematization’ and ‘path dependency’, and Sidney Tarrow and Donatella della Porta’s theories of transnational activism, this article examines how The Danish National Organization for Gays and Lesbians developed AIDS-activism strategies at international conferences. By analyzing conference notes, meeting minutes, and campaign materials, this article finds that the AIDS-epidemic was mainly problematized as a discriminatory problem within the international organizations The Nordic Council for Homosexuals and the International Lesbian and Gay Association. This was caused by the organizations’ previous work with discrimination. A diffusion of AIDS-prevention strategies evolved within these international forums and while the diffusion of AIDS-prevention strategies mainly happened between European homosexual organizations, Danish AIDS-activists used American symbols to frame the AIDS-epidemic, such as the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The use of American symbols in the Danish AIDS-activism, might have made the American influence in the Danish AIDS-activism seem bigger.