While the publication dealt with issues related to having HIV/AIDS in a humorous, if dark, manner, many of the articles contained factual information about managing and living with the disease.

[2] The content was largely aimed at gay men, but the editors routinely acknowledged AIDS as a global concern and solicited material from "diseased pariahs" of all kinds.

[3] The irreverence and black humor of the magazine were attempts by the editors and contributors to fight what they felt was a view in the media of people infected with HIV as "languishing saints" or "hug objects".

[5] Scholars have seen this and a related zine called "Infected Faggot Perspectives" as counterpublics, spaces where marginalized cultures can create their own discourse and identity, outside of the one imposed on them by society.

[6][7] The California-based GLBT Historical Society has digitized all eleven issues of Diseased Pariah News and made them available online within their archived collection containing the papers of DPN editor and co-founder Beowulf Thorne.