Gosh, these photos really bring home the horror of AIDS. It is hard to even imagine how much Freddie and everybody else that died from AIDS in those days must have suffered! Freddie (and I am sure so many others) must have had immense courage to face their condition day after day... RIP!
noorie wrote:
Freddie (and I am sure so many others) must have had immense courage to face their condition day after day... RIP!
noorie, i beg to disagree with you. why single AIDS out as being an illness demanding particular courage?
people have being dealing with terminal illnesses for centuries - with dignity, courage and grace. AIDS is no different to anything else - and should NEVER be considered so.
My father and brother both died of cancer - knowing there was no hope and knowing (within) weeks what their life expectancy would be....and just got on with living while family and friends were in a state of bewildered "pre-mourning" they maintained their dignity...that takes courage - hiding away doesn't.
Don't believe me? need a sharp dose of perspective or reality?
Ok, let's consider our most relevant case - Freddie. He hid away and denied his illness to the outside world for (at least) two yrs - his motives may have been genuine, but at a time when HIV/AIDS needed faces to "bring home" a proper awareness - he did nothing.
Think I'm being harsh? ok, and i know i'll get flamed to f*ck for this ....Gerry will be at the front of the queue.
But before ANY of you flame me, no matter where you live in the world - google "Stephen Sutton" and see what i mean about turning something terrible into something positive.
Kinda puts everything into perspective - Freddie coulda done SO MUCH...but he didn't.
brENsKi, I totally agree with you; there are way too many horrible diseases. I just mentioned the horror of AIDS because that was the topic under discussion. I have a very close friend who is dying of MND and it is the most horrible thing to see her go slowly each day. Hers is a death sentence, and there is no medicine, no cure. She cannot even speak any more, and will one day choke on her tongue. So I truly feel that way about anybody who suffers from anything awful, as well as their families who go through such hell each day. I am so sorry about your father and brother - really!
However, about Freddie not wanting to divulge his illness, well I am sure he had his reasons. Most important was probably to spare his family the stigma of AIDS as it was at that time. I can just imagine the pain his parents must have gone through at the time seeing their son dying and feeling helpless about it, not to mention the attitude people had in those days about AIDS and homosexuality. And also I do feel that each person has a right to fight his own battles his way, without always having to consider everybody else. To Freddie, just coping with the illness, and worrying about the people he cared about was probably enough to deal with.
Yes, I do so admire people like Stephen Sutton and Terry Fox very very much, but not everybody has that capacity. And while cancer was socially 'acceptable' (what an awful thing to say about any disease, but unfortunately true..), AIDS was considered a 'punishment'.
May all of them be having champagne for breakfast wherever they are!
Yes, definitely kudos to those who shared their illesses with the world. But AIDS disclosure was difficult at the time. Isaac Asimov was advised by his doctor not to disclose his illness. He acquired AIDS from a blood transfusion, but it didn't matter, the stigma of the disease then was just horrible. Ryan White bravely struggled to educate amazingly ignorant "God Hates Homosexuals" audiences who desperately wanted him to denounce gays. Had Freddie informed the world of his illness early on, he would have been hated by so many including fans, and risked that hatred spilling onto his family, close friends, and Queen's other members.
have to disagree with this ^^^
maybe when HIV/AIDS first came to prominence maybe, but NOT by 89/90 - the world had come a long way by that time
after all we're talking 1980s not 1880s
Yup, it was the 80s - not the 2000s. There was a huge stigma.
Remember when Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive, and plenty of other basketball players didn't want to play on the same court as him because they thought they'd get AIDS ?
Yeah ... that was 1991.
It's easy to look back in hindsight and call Freddie a coward. Considering the time and circumstances that have been pointed out in this thread, he did the best he could. Telling people to say he died of pneumonia would've been cowardly..
i'm not calling him a coward. i am saying that he just wasn't the epitome of courage some make him out to be. and certainly no more so than ANYONE anywhere facing a terminal illness...so let's stop giving HIV/AIDS some kind of "courage badge".
I think that some of the people who deify Freddie and others for facing up to HIV wouldn't give a flying fuck about the illness if Freddie had never had it in the first place.
I give Freddie my admiration and respect for working into his last year on the planet. He was desperately ill with a thinning voice and yet to me, his last songs are the most precious of them all. His mantra, "I will work until I fucking drop" is very heroic to me.
Another hero of mine, Curtis Mayfield, also worked under difficult health. He made his last album on his back, only able to sing one line between breaths.
Both men lived entirely different lives, and one can argue that Curtis Mayfield deserved much more praise than Freddie who made many mistakes. But they both ended their lives honorably and nobly by making great music and leaving their respective lasting legacy. I give them both my respect and admmiration equally.