LGBTQ
My HIV/AIDS Memories Got a Jolt This Week
Being interviewed by a teen for a school report, a question hit me hard.
I agreed a few weeks ago to an interview about my experience during the HIV/AIDS crisis.
This sentence already affects me. I have called those years of constant pain and death in my community (the late 1980’s to early 1990’s) many things, and “crisis” seems to be rather safe. For those of us in the midst of it it was much more than a crisis.
My husband is a public high school orchestra teacher (yes, I married up) and told me one of his students was writing a report on HIV/AIDS. He asked if I’d be willing to be interviewed by her, and I said yes, of course.
We set up the interview, and she started off letting me know that her report was about the HIV/AIDS crisis along with the life of Ryan White.
We spoke less about Ryan White, as I didn’t know him and could only speak to what his living and dying from HIV/AIDS had to do with the crisis back then. A Midwest teen infected during a blood transfusion who had to face all of the hate our gay siblings had to deal with who were living with the disease. He was 18 when he lost his battle in 1990.
