Like a Prayer

Like a Prayer

AIDS, activist video, documentary, collective. Protesting the church for its harmful messaging toward LGBTQ+ people and women around AIDS and abortion.

Acquired for research for my doctoral disseration, then monograph, AIDS TV. Digitized for my VHS Archives class, Fall 2018. Made by DIVA TV and starring Ray Navarro as Jesus.

 

DIVA TV

1991

English

Television program; documentary; AIDS activism; skit; protest; performance; comedic; drag

Manhattan; 1989; St. Patrick’s Cathedral

With the December 10th, 1989 demonstration by ACT UP and WHAM! (Women's Health Action and Mobilization) at St. Patrick's Cathedral as its focus, Like a Prayer is more than a simple documentation of that event. This show explores the many issues that were cause for the action - as well as those resulting from it - while charting the course of events both inside and outside the church. Like a Prayer is composed of several sections including an analysis of the demonstration as it was portrayed in the mainstream media and reactions of Catholics who participated. Like a Prayer is a show of force and pride; a challenge to the Church and its policy on AIDS and reproductive rights. Produced by DIVA-TV in collaboration with WHAM!

Features cameo of Ray Navarro as Jesus.

DIVA TV presents “The 7 Deadly Sins of Cardinal O’Connor and Church Politicians”. Protestors gather for a rally and die-in named “STOP THE CHURCH” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral upon the arrival of Cardinal O’Connor on December 10th, 1989. The seven deadly “sins” identify wrongdoings of O’Connor and church politicians who took harmful, stigmatizing positions on sexuality, disease, and abortion regarding LGBTQ+ people and women at the time.

1. “Jesus Christ” skit and monologue
2. STOP THE CHURCH documentation
3. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF CARDINAL O’CONNOR AND CHURCH POLITICIANS
IGNORANT DENIAL
ENDANGERING WOMEN’S LIVES
NO SAFE SEX EDUCATION
NO CONDOMS
NO CLEAN NEEDLES
BIAS
ASSAULT OF LESBIANS AND GAY MEN
4. Operation Ridiculous
5. Criticism of media portrayal
5. In Memory of Costa Pappas

Public; LGBTQ+ community; women; Catholics; church-goers

A process, used to engender knowledge, attitudes and skills, that the described resource is designed to support. Instructional Method will typically include ways of presenting instructional materials or conducting instructional activities, patterns of learner-to-learner and learner-to-instructor interactions, and mechanisms by which group and individual levels of learning are measured. Instructional methods include all aspects of the instruction and learning processes from planning and implementation through evaluation and feedback.

00:28:58

DIVA TV, WHAM!

DIVA

Watch on NJVid

Watch on YouTube

DIVA TV biography (via ACT UP Historical Archive)

https://brooklyn-cuny.yuja.com/V/Video?v=10594420&node=46267917&a=57476977