Editor Beowulf Thorne Editor Tom Ace Photographer Mod Bob | Editor Tom Shearer Editrix Michael Botkin Categories Lifestyle magazine | |
Diseased Pariah News (DPN) was a zine published "by, for and about" people with HIV and AIDS in the 1990s. The publication used black humor and shock humor to address many of the issues that affected people who had been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS.
Contents
While the publication dealt with issues related to having HIV/AIDS in a humorous, if dark, manner, many of the articles contained factual information about managing and living with the disease. The content was largely aimed at gay men, but the editors routinely acknowledged AIDS as a global concern and solicited material from "diseased pariahs" of all kind. All of the editors of the Zine had HIV or AIDS and only one of the four main editors survives today.
Title and logo
The name of the zine came from a cartoon from The Advocate about how Delta Air Lines refused to seat a passenger who had AIDS. In the caption, an airport gate agent asked an emaciated ticket-holder, "Will that be smoking, nonsmoking, or diseased pariah?"
The official mascot of DPN is the oncomouse. This animal was chosen as the editors felt they were natural pariahs, due to the fact they were bred to generate tumors.
Content
The irreverence and black humor of the magazine were attempts by the editors and contributors to fight what they felt was a view in the media of people infected with HIV as "languishing saints" or "hug objects". The editors sought to reject this label imposed on them and embrace their identity as "diseased pariahs". Scholars have seen this and a related zine called "Infected Faggot Perspectives" as counterpublics, spaces where marginalized cultures can create their own discourse and identity, outside of the one imposed on them by society.
Notable columns
Archive
In November 2009, the New York Public Library digitized the first eight issues of Diseased Pariah News and posted them online at new DPN Online Archive. The goal is to eventually have all eleven issues digitized and made available to allow AIDS historians and others to benefit from reading the publication.