With the Jan 1 arrival of health care for millions, and with it the attendant sigh of relief, I have been reminded of the history among my gay brothers and sisters who have been living for years with AIDS.
Not that long ago, we had a President who wouldn’t acknowledge the epidemic ravaging mostly gay men, creating whole communities of walking dead. There was no medication, no hope, a certain death sentence with an HIV diagnosis. Insurance? Maybe.
This disease brought the best of my community forward. But it didn’t always bring love and compassion from the medical community, families, the government or insurance companies.
There are horrific stories of doctors turning away patients with an HIV diagnosis, families not allowing their siblings to see nieces and nephews, making them eat with plastic utensils so everything they touched could be immediately eliminated. There was a long list of indignities for those already suffering with a disease that made young people into old men and women in their 20’s.
There are many more stories of lovers, crippled by a ravaged immune system, cradling each other in death. The legions of friends, community, neighbors who brought relief with visits, company, rubbing cancer covered limbs, will never forget the site of their loved ones slipping away to an end that was truly a relief from suffering.
Let all of this remind us that elections matter. When Bill Clinton was elected he spoke of people with AIDS, the lesbian and gay community as equal citizens of this country. He appointed an AIDS czar, his administration had a Health and Human Services agency that actually funded and supported AIDS prevention and programming. The Clinton administration was not perfect but they did open the door to change and we have not gone back.
I still remember the days of sunken cheeks in a 21 year old man, no longer able to get out of a chair by himself, holding my friend crying because his life was over before it ever started. If nothing else, I owe to him and all the others to continue to remember their names, that they were loved and it is my job to keep their memories alive. And it is my job to always remind those in power that we, the poor, the disabled, the pariahs are humans deserving equal protection.
Gloria Nieto is a writer and a gay rights activist.
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