'Us' versus 'them': oral history as a forum for HIV-positive homosexual men to challenge memories of shame, 1984-1997

New Zealand had its first case of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1983, two years after the disease was identified in America. Homosexual men with HIV were publicly blamed for their illness, and therefore had to navigate the dual stigma of being gay in a society that condemned homosexuality, and living with what was then identified as a terminal disease. This article engages with the individual life narratives of five HIV-positive homosexual men, who challenge former internalised feelings of shame by speaking openly, and at times publicly, about their positive statuses. It provides a valuable contribution to New Zealand’s oral histories by demonstrating how oral history provides the men with an avenue to challenge past stigma in their present lives.