Katie Batza, "AIDS in the Heartland: How Unlikely Coalitions Created a Blueprint for LGBTQ Politics" (UNC Press, 2025)

About this episode

Dr. Katie Batza discusses their book on the unique coalitions that shaped LGBTQ politics in the Midwest during the AIDS crisis.

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Katie Batza on their recently published book, AIDS in the Heartland: How Unlikely Coalitions Created a Blueprint for LGBTQ Politics. Published by the University of North Carolina Press, AIDS in the Heartland demonstrates the unique collaborations of crop duster pilots, church van drivers, nuns, tribal leaders, and synagogue ladies in places such as decommissioned convents, backyard barbecues, high school gyms, and city parks that fostered loud, radical queer politics and homonormative strategies alike. As a result, Batza contends with the respectability of the heart of the nation and how it prevails as core values in national LBGTQ political strategies today. Histories of AIDS in the United States typically regard San Francisco and New York to be the epicenters of the crisis. The Midwest, if considered at all, appears as a footnote to the social, medical, and political struggles of coastal queer communities and communities of color. But the US heartland cultivated its own distinct strategies for survival that became the surprising and lasting blueprint for LGBTQ politics today. Though AIDS cases were relatively low compared to the…

People in this episode

Guest: Katie Batza

Topics covered

• LGBTQ politics
• AIDS activism
• Midwestern history
• coalitions
• health activism
• social movements

Keywords

• AIDS
• LGBTQ
• Midwest
• activism
• coalitions
• politics
• health
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of North Carolina Press

Books & works: AIDS in the Heartland: How Unlikely Coalitions Created a Blueprint for LGBTQ Politics

Places: Midwest, San Francisco, New York

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