Did AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s disproportionately kill socially and sexually central figures in gay arts communities, as Fran Lebowitz claims, particularly in New York’s theatre, dance, and performance scenes?

In Public Speaking (2010), Fran Lebowitz argues that early HIV transmission in gay male communities was structured by dense sexual and social networks, and that in tightly interwoven arts scenes this meant the most socially central figures, often also key artistic, critical, and institutional nodes, were among the first to die. She further suggests this produced a cascading sequencing of deaths among progressively less central figures across New York’s theatre, dance, and downtown performance ecosystems.

Can her claims withstand historical scrutiny? Or are they no more than charming aphorisms?