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The Baltimore Waltz Historical Context
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The setting for The Baltimore Waltz is most likely the year Paula’s brother passed away, which was 1988. The eighties was a decade that experienced great socioeconomic change. There were huge leaps and advances in technology, the beginning of globalization and was also the was also the decade the AIDS epidemic became wildly recognized. Since reported in 2013, AIDS has killed an estimated 39 million people.
Politics
In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president with George H.W. Bush as his Vice President. During Reagan’s presidency, the Reagan Administration accelerated the War on Drugs through many publicity campaigns, including the “Just Say No” of First Lady Nancy Reagan. Drugs were a serious problem in the 80s with cocaine being the most popular among celebrities and those who could afford it, and crack, which was the cheaper and stronger of the drug was sold in cities sparking violence within them and more.
It was also in 1980 that Democrats became the first major political party to endorse a homseocual rights platform when the Democratic Rules Committee state that they would not discriminate against homosexuals at the National Convention.
In 1982 the U.S. Army declared homosexuality to “incompatible with military service” ultimately to be forced to admit that gay recruits were “just as good or better” than homosexuals in 1989.
Medicine
Medicine practices had many advances with the first surrogate pregnancy of an unrelated child which took play in 1986, the first genetically modified crops in 1988 and gene therapy being established in the late 80s which allowed for gene tagging and gene therapy to become a possibility.
The CDC in 1988 mailed brochures, Understanding AIDS, to every household in the United States. Over 107 million brochures were mailed out.
Economics
In the first half of the eighties, the U.S. was marked by a severe global economic recession. The inflation peaked in the United States in 1980 at 14.76% and fell to 1.10% in 1986. It rebounded at the end of the decade at 4.65%. During this time, finances and the stock market were big once again since the 1920s, and people like Donald Trump were seen as a big figure of the 80s.
Society
The eighties is known as the largest in human history within the realm of population. It goes down as a time of great growth in the population around the world, surpassing the 70s! The movement of gay rights entered a new the 1980s with the AIDS epidemic, going into the 90s, most of the leadership for this movement has passed away. Unfortunately the emergence of the gay community and the fight for equality was driven by the appearance of HIV/AIDS. It tore through the community effortlessly but it created a bond of love and support within the community as well.
December 1, 1988, the World Health Organization organized the first World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the spreading epidemic.
The AIDs Epidemic
For more information concerning the AIDS Epidemic Click Here
For a Timeline of the AIDS Epidemic Click Here
The first case, later to be found to be AIDS related was a care of a rare pneumonia – Pneumocystis carinii which was found in young gay men. From here the AIDS epidemic exploded and would begin to tear through the world. Since the knowledge that gay men were dying of this rare pneumonia, it quickly was given the name “the gay disease” or “the gay cancer” which sparked more fear, and violent backlash to the gay community.
AIDS attacks the immune systems and people living with AIDS are highly susceptible to unusual infections that those with healthy immune systems could fight out flawlessly. During the initial outbreak, American politicians were unsure of what was happening, while some weren’t even aware of this new disease. When a journalist as a spokesperson in 82 about Reagan’s stance on AIDS, the spokesperson responded with, “What’s AIDS?”
By the 1989, the death toll for AIDS related death would be at more than 1, 200, 000 deaths. Making it the leading death of gay men under 44 in New York and in other cities, surpassing homicide and other diseases.
Paula’s brother, whom the play is about and dedicated to, died in 1988 at the Johns Hopkins hospital from a bout of pneumonia from AIDS. The play deals with the subject matter.
Vogel’s approach to the play was to write away from the subject matter in order to highlight it. She knew if she tried to write a play about her brother dying, she could not write it. So, her character, Anna, is the sibling that is dying from the disease ATD, which is just a metaphor for AIDS, which her brother is dying of AIDS related causes. She decided to create a fantasy world. Seeing as though Vogel writes about taboo subjects and at the time the subject and AIDs was extremely taboo, so she wrote the play giving Anna, an everyday first grade school teacher this terminal disease (ATD) for which there was no known cure.
For more information past the 80s, please click here.