Katie Batza teaches in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at the University of Kansas.
""[A] highly compelling, important book . . . Katie Batza's Before AIDS dramatically expands our portrait of the gay 1970s and of the relationships between gay liberation, the US state, and the politics of health. Through three case studies and a tightly argued, absorbingly written analysis, Batza shows that health activism was central to gay politics well before the beginning of the AIDS epidemic."" * <i>Journal of the History of Sexuality</i> * ""Batza charts new ground in an accomplished debut monograph by tracking the diverse paths that gay health activism followed in the United States during the 1970s. Building up from three case studies of community-based clinics in Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, she succeeds in painting a nuanced picture of the development and trajectory of gay health activism—and American gay liberation more generally—during a decade more commonly cast as an era of easy 'promiscuity.'"" * Journal of Social History * ""Before AIDS makes significant contributions to our understanding of the social construction of health and medicine, medical homophobia, health care activism, sex and sexuality, the history of medicine and health care, and the history of HIV/AIDS. The astute examination of relationships between social movements, health activism, and the state is relevant to numerous academic disciplines. Finally, the book is so accessible and engaging that it’s perfect for undergraduate and graduate courses as well as laypeople, particularly those working for health care justice."" * Bulletin of the History of Medicine * ""Before AIDS is the first book to chart the development of a national gay health network in the 1970s. Katie Batza's insightful and compelling analysis makes valuable contributions to the history of sexuality, LGBTQ studies, the history of medicine, and American political history."" * Tamar Carroll, Rochester Institute of Technology * ""Well-conceived, deftly argued, and based on an impressive range of primary materials, oral interviews, and a good command of the secondary literature, Before AIDS brings fresh light and perspective to the wider field of the history of sexuality in the United States."" * Jonathan Bell, University College London *