There are many angles to motivate reading this book, and mine is from a deep interest in HIV. The supermodel known simply as “Gia” was one of the first prominent women to die of AIDS-related complications, and she remains one of the best-explored IV drug users who died from AIDS. Of course, most of the world knows her as a model who quickly rose to the front pages of the world’s leading fashion magazines in…
If you’re looking to cry in empathy with an author’s grief and hardships yet sense an undercurrent of hope, this memoir might be the book for you. Jonathan Tepper grew up as a missionary kid in Madrid, Spain. His parents tried to “save” people for heaven in a new church, but failed. Then they pivoted their ministry to help people overcome heroin addiction, and they slowly grew a church and social service. However, the HIV/AIDS…
I’m not your usual AIDS activist. First of all, I’m actually a terrible activist who rarely, if ever, takes to the streets. Second, I grew up on the political and religious right. Third, I’m a white heterosexual cisgendered monogamous male, not really in any risk group. So why do I care deeply about HIV? I grew fascinated with the complex science involved during medical school. I loved studying – and often forgetting on tests! –…
To date, blacks in America continue to suffer disproportionately in proportion from HIV infections. HIV has always preyed most on those marginalized from society, and American blacks are included in that recipe. Although many associate HIV as a gay man’s disease, black women have come to suffer more in recent years. How are we to know and understand these stories? Dan Royles shares it through seven distinct angles. The perspectives include that of black sexuality…
First, I want to acknowledge the nobility of this book’s purpose. HIV is a dehumanizing condition that only worsens with stigma. Today, both women and orphans are disproportionately affected, and both groups have traditionally been objects of the church’s compassion. However, such a compassionate orientation hasn’t been the case with HIV; instead, stigma reigns, especially in countries hardest hit by the epidemic. This book represents a direct call for the church to instead reclaim its…
Today, it’s easy to forget the days when an HIV diagnosis implied a death sentence within 24 months. Randy Shilts’ And the Band Played On tells the story of how the AIDS pandemic played out in the epicenter of San Francisco, and David France, in this book, tells how it played out in the other American epicenter of New York City. He tells how activists and scientists sometimes fought and sometimes collaborated to find how…
Because of the COVID pandemic, the name Tony Fauci has become incredibly politicized. To some, he is a villain who took over the country through a pandemic. They cynically blame him for all of America’s woes from the coronavirus. To others, he’s a hero for speaking life-conveying truth in a public-health crisis when most others equivocated. I’m in the latter camp, and this book, a memoir mixed with an apologia, certainly explains his perspective on…
American religion has bifurcated along ideological lines in recent decades. Some voices trumpet a moralistic approach while others trumpet a compassion-driven approach. Some of the early splitting can be observed in the story of how the church treated those afflicted by AIDS in the 1980s. Moralistic voices today still seem to hold the loudest places in the Christian church, but compassionate approaches can be seen everywhere. Journalist Michael O’Loughlin records some of those stories before…
Stories about HIV and AIDS fascinate me. They speak of our common humanity and our tragically all-too-common inhumanity towards each other. In fear, so many in power sought to sweep this disease and its victims under the rug, yet it pervaded to impact human life in almost every sphere. When AZT first showed promise and HAART later showed effectiveness, many breathed sighs of collective relief. Today, we live in an era of PEPFAR, where the…
Today is HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. As those around me have probably picked up on, making an HIV vaccine has become one of my causes. In the quickest vaccine development ever, we made a COVID vaccine in a number of months, but it’s been almost 40 years since AIDS came to light, you say… Why haven’t we developed an effective HIV vaccine when COVID’s was made so quickly? For one, COVID has significantly less mutations.…