Background of Study INTRODUCTION
alter their appearance and the way they look, their speech patterns, gestures, manners and general bearing immediately give them away.
The term homosexual started to rise in the late 19th century and has gradually increased in the 20th century. In the late 19th century, the gay
community has emerged among people in America and has become one of the largest communities in New York City. The sexual liberation for gay
community in the 1980s was haunted by the disease that today called AIDS. The Normal Heart is a play that was first premiered on April 21, 1985, Off-
Broadway production. This story is about Ned Weeks, a gay writer, who struggles in pulling together an organization focused on raising the awareness
of unidentified which kills a large amount of gay men. Larry Kramer, through his play, shows the gay community which focused on GMHC and Ned
Weeks struggles to convince the US citizen that AIDS is a national plague which is not only can be brought by gay people only. The play also has some
biographical parallels which are shown through the characters and the plot of the play.
The objective of the study is to inform the readers how AIDS is very closely related to the rise of gay politics. The reflection of the setting and the
development of the characters would allow the researcher to help evaluate the study in order to help the researcher depict the situation of that time in that
era. The Normal Heart questions the government policy regarding the AIDS epidemic. It questions on how and why the government did not do much to
eliminate AIDS. The only people who concerned with this epidemic is the gay
community. How the gay community move between social aspects and started to speak in political area among gay and how the wider community sees it are
reflected through the play. Until today, there are only speculations regarding the history behind the gay politics. With this study, the historical background
and the social background of gay politics can be identified.