Under hösten 2012 visades Jonas Gardells tv-serie Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar på Sveriges Television. Historien utspelar sig i Stockholm på 80-talet och i den begynnande AIDS-epidemin. Sjukdomen slog till hårt och drabbade många unga homosexuella män. Historieskrivningen är Gardells egen och ingen konstaterad ”sanning”. Däremot blev den efterföljande debatten i svensk press stor under lång tid efter att serien sändes på tv. Genom en diskursanalys har vi kunnat se hur resonemangen förts i debatten och hur debattörerna ger mening åt specifika ting. Vi har också valt att komplettera studien med inslag från den kritiska diskursanalysen. Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkter är socialkonstruktionism, representationer och diskursteori. Urvalet bestod av tio texter som alla valdes ut mellan den 8 oktober 2012 och den 8 oktober 2013. Vi avgränsade oss genom att välja bort Jonas Gardells egna texter samt blogginlägg och texter från andra diskussionsforum. Med tematiseringarna sjukvården, identitet och skuld och skam kunde vi länka samman de olika texterna och urskilja mönster, likheter och olikheter i debattörernas argument. Resultatet visade att majoriteten av debattörerna ställde sig accepterande till Gardells historieskrivning. Vidare diskussion visar att samhällets utvecklingskurva kring homosexualitet är i förändring. / During the fall of 2012 Jonas Gardell’s television series Never wipe tears without gloves was shown on Swedish National Television. The story takes place in Stockholm in the 1980s and in the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The disease hit hard and striked many young gay men. The historiography is Gardell’s own and no actual "truth". In contrast, the subsequent debate was large in the Swedish press after it was broadcasted on television. Through discourse analysis, we have been able to see how the arguments have raised in the debate and the debaters give meaning to specific things. We have also chosen to complement the study with elements from the critical discourse analysis. Essay theoretical points are social constructionism, representations and discourse theory. The sample consisted of ten texts and all were selected from 8th of October 2012 until 8th of October 2013. We defined ourselves by deselecting Jonas Gardell’s own texts and texts from blogs and other discussion boards. With the themes Healthcare, Identity and Guilt and Shame we could link together the various texts and was able to identify patterns of similarities and differences in the debater's argument. The results showed that the majority of the debaters accept Gardells’s historiography. Further discussion shows that society’s development curve around homosexuality are changing.

This thesis sets out to explore the lives of homosexuals in the AIDS epidemic in Sweden in Jonas Gardell´s trilogy Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar (Don´t Ever Dry Tears Without Gloves). How is queer space able to unfold in connection to concrete places? The thesis utilizes the perspective of queer theory, where the useful terms of queer space and heteronormativity are found.   The analysis is divided into two parts based on the important themes of life and death found in the trilogy. The metal ring at the central station called Bögringen (The Gay Ring) and other public places such as parks and streets make up the first part. It becomes evident that these spaces are vital to the very existence of the homosexual lives of the men in the book-series. In these places, they are able to create their own (queer) space, which exists in parallel to the heteronormative surroundings. The concrete spaces that become these queer spaces are nevertheless often challenged by their surroundings, both verbally and physically.   Funerals make up the second half of the analysis. Here, two opposite funerals are being looked closer at. These are the funerals of two of the most important men in the trilogy: Rasmus and Paul. In Rasmus´funeral, there is no room for anything (or anyone) that might be associated with homosexuality and AIDS – a queer lifestyle ­– at all, and the boyfriend and all the other friends of the deceased Rasmus are not welcome. Everything queer is banished. The other funeral, Paul´s funeral, celebrates everything that is different, and here, it is the heteronormative, conservative views and thoughts that are being pushed aside. This funeral brings hope (and power) to the queers.