AWESOMEYvonne

The Great Believers was my Pride Month read. It is a story told in two separate timelines, starting in 1985 and 2015. The story is about a group of gay men and their friends in Chicago during the AIDS epidemic.

I knew this was going to be a heavy read. I did not expect though, to learn as much as I did. I was born in 1977. I grew up during this exact time. I did reports in high school on HIV and AIDS. My roommate and I went to see the AIDS quilt at Temple when it was there in 1995-1996. My roommate read off names of people that had died. I can pronounce Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Kaposi’s Sarcoma correctly and know exactly what they are.

It was those two diseases that helped to discover what would eventually be called AIDS and HIV when clusters starting to show up in 1981. It was referred to as the 4H disease before it had a name (Haitians, Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, and Heroin users.) It made the front page of the New York Times by May 25, 1983 and the House held hearings on the federal response to AIDS in August of 1983. I remember feeling like it was everywhere. What I didn’t know though was Ronald Reagan did not publicly acknowledge the disease until September of 1985 and his first speech isn’t until May of 1987.

I did not know how much misinformation was spread initially and that due to HIV being considered a primarily gay man disease and the stigma already in place, the funding for research was inadequate.

I did know but never thought about the fact that HIV/AIDS was a death sentence for something like 99% of the people infected during the 1980’s and half of the 90’s. I never thought about how terrifying and how alone gay men felt during that early time. In addition to that, some hospitals didn’t want to take people with AIDS or nurses didn’t want to touch infected people. On top of that, health insurance wasn’t available to everyone and insurance companies could exclude pre=existing conditions and most insurance companies had a cap on the amount of money they would spent on you in a lifetime.

And this is where the 1985 timeline starts in the book. In Chicago, in a gay community, more and more people are finding out they are infected and more and more people are dying and very few people were willing to help. Another unfortunate thing about this time is that many families would disown their children when they found out they were gay which meant that the men often didn’t have family when they were dying.

My memories don’t really kick in until the early 1990’s. I personally remember there was a push for gloves whenever there was bodily fluid. I remember hearing a some people complain about wasting time and others never wanting to touch anyone again. As real AIDS education started to spread there was also a push for condoms for everyone. I remember that everyone that went to visit the AIDS Quilt left with a brown paper bag filled with condoms.

I remember when Magic Johnson announced in 1991 that he was HIV positive, it did help change some public perception. In 1994, AIDS was the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44.I graduated high school in 1995. I saw the AIDS quilt in college in 1995 or 1996. A new treatment was discovered in 1995/1996 and the death rate decreased greatly.

To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I have really heard about HIV in the news and then did a little research on the advancements. Africa is still hit very hard. And the disease isn’t gone. However, people that are treated can expect to live long lives. Of course, just like most things in our country, most ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, especially African Americans in the United States. And while I do not find this surprises unfortunately, it is all too common and is something I hope will finally be addressed someday.

I gave the book 4 stars and I think was very well researched and well written. It really shed some light on things and I always appreciate things like that. I absolutely recommend it, just be ready to break a little.

You can find the book here on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3rdycOX