David Wojnarowicz (with Diamanda Galás), Fire in my Belly

This work was removed from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called “Hide/Seek,” which deals with issues of gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans sexuality, because the Catholic League (aided by Rep. John Boehner) deemed it “sacrilegious.” Or, moreover, because the powers that be at the museum did not see fit to defend the artist (who is deceased) and his work against the same oppressive right-wing Christian forces that the artist battled in 1990, when he took on Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association and won.

It is a bitter irony that this would happen the day before World AIDS Day, since the artist himself, a vocal critic of the systematic attempts to suppress the awareness of and the fight against AIDS, died of AIDS-related illness in 1992.

Besides the fact that the museum completely reneged on its responsibility to the artist and the art, it is troubling and pathetic that this small-minded, reactionary group can’t see the connections Wojnarowicz is making between the suffering of AIDS victims and the suffering of Christ. Even though I am an atheist, that is plainly obvious to me, along with the profound eroticization of Christ, which has been a theme in religious art since before the Renaissance. (See Leo Steinberg’s book The Sexuality of Christ). In the face of such hysteria, it baffles me that the museum saw fit to be an agent of censorship, rather than promoting meaningful dialogue about works in a show that they had to know would be controversial. It’s 1990 all over again.