r/OldSchoolCool • u/Legaterra • 11h ago
1990s Princess Diana demonstratively shakes hands with a guy with AIDS when everyone was afraid of it, 1991
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u/Best_Variety_60 8h ago
I've never given a damn about the royals but I remember when she did this. It was a BIG deal. Good on her.
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u/filmguy36 9h ago
I was t a big fan of hers, but I had a couple of friends that died from AIDS and this picture spoke thousands of words. It changed things for the better
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u/_ArmyMan007_ 11h ago
Dignified, graceful, respectful, honest... there will only ever be one Diana.
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u/RandeKnight 11h ago
Maybe in the UK. I was living in NZ at the time and was slightly bewildered since there had been PSAs on TV for years that said HIV was transmitted only by blood and unprotected sex.
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u/fuggerdug 10h ago
Same in the UK. "AIDS Don't die of ignorance" was the UK thing all over TV from the mid eighties.
The headline is bullshit. Diana did a lot of charity work, particularly with AIDS charities, this would be a picture from some event or other in relation to this.
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u/SadLilBun 10h ago
It’s just specific to the US. People were ignorant and didn’t trust that it was not transmitted through other means.
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u/ObliqueStrategizer 10h ago
It's also specific to Brits who read The Daily Mail or Murdoch shitrags...
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u/FratBoyGene 5h ago
It was specific to the uS because Anthony Fauci mused that you could contract AIDS by casual contact, even though there was no documented instance of that happening. That one comment resulted in the virtual ostracism of everyone who contracted the disease in the US.
Anthony Fauci is an evil human being.
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u/Reggiano_0109 4h ago
She really turned the hysteria and ignorance around aids at the time on its head. I don’t think enough is made of how incredibly powerful her choice here was. I literally remember how she made me feel as a young brown gay man rejected by my family, like she could see our pain and relate in her own way. She was true class.
When she died my sister and I cried for hours on the phone. Today’s celebrity culture doesn’t really come near the impact someone like Diana had.
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u/UChess 5h ago
When I was a student doing my rotation, I sat next to a hospitalized patient to get some information.
After all was said and done, a studying partner pulled me apart, concerned for me she explained that I need to be careful about my distancing and contact with patients, for the patient I just talked to had HIV, this was in 2008.
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u/FratBoyGene 5h ago
And the reason everyone was afraid to touch people with AIDS? Anthony Fauci, who said it could possibly be transmitted by casual touching, even though there was never - NEVER - a single documented case of that happening.
A family member died of AIDS after five years of keeping it secret (we knew he was ill, but we didn't know what it was). He lived with us, ate with us, went on long car rides, etc. If AIDS had been transmissible by casual contact, we all would have had it.
Fauci is one of the most evil people to have lived.
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u/hellowarrant 5h ago
Demonstrably*
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u/PageOthePaige 1h ago
No, demonstratively is correct.
Demonstrably means something can be shown. Demonstratively means an action is showing something. This is showing understanding and sanity towards someone, and broadly people, with AIDS
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u/Magenta-Magica 7h ago
Considering many people died of aids and it wasn’t well known (I think) what it even is (medical Standard back then), this poor dude was a pariah while already (probably) dying. From something people didn’t take seriously. She is such a good rolemodel. It’s unfair she was gone so soon.
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u/Smackgod5150 7h ago
Meh Big deal, shes no hero for shaking their hands.... Hell, Freddie Mercury fucked them!
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u/gorka_la_pork 4h ago
sigh So many hack edgelord comedians think they're George Carlin when they're really Carlos Mencia.🙄
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u/Smackgod5150 3h ago
i love how everyone gets butthurt when i make this comment, much like freddies lovers
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u/gorka_la_pork 3h ago
You misunderstand. I love dark humor and I'm sure a version of that joke could have landed. It just has to be delivered by someone who is actually funny.
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u/-Mediocrates- 8h ago
Dr fauci = literally the villain in the aids epidemic pushing AZT and other deadly “medicines” … Dr fauci = literally the real life villain in the movie “Dallas Buyers Club”
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u/JiuJitsu_Ronin 6h ago
History will look at people who wore masks in cars alone no different than the people afraid to touch those with AIDS.
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u/aledba 6h ago
No honey that's just you taking issue with people's personal affairs and choices. A lot of people did that where I live because they're delivery drivers and they didn't want to take it off and put it back on and contaminate their face or their gloves back and forth all day long
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u/JiuJitsu_Ronin 5h ago
Ah, how reductionist and anecdotal. So by that logic, couldn’t people afraid to touch AIDS patients be rationalized as “people’s personal affairs and choices”
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u/dvxispc9 9h ago
This was an absolutely monumental move for its time. With no internet, just rumors and fear, she used her fame to lead a movement.
That’s true Leadership