A healthcare crisis in the rear-view mirror
When I was in college in the mid-’90s, I produced an award-winning documentary on AIDS. We took an in-depth look at people affected by the disease, working to dispel the dangerous stereotypes that surrounded it. We interviewed a young woman who contracted AIDS through heterosexual sex with a cheating boyfriend and a young boy who became infected after a blood transfusion. It was important for us to share their stories - real people, real lives - to show how the disease crossed demographics and shattered assumptions. We talked honestly with healthcare professionals about how AIDS was spread and - just as importantly - how it was not . For those of us who lived through the ’80s and early ’90s, we remember. We remember the fear that fed toxic homophobia. We remember the blatant disregard for marginalized communities. We remember hearing stories of people dying long, excruciating deaths, often alone. Their suffering hidden or dismissed because society deemed their illness an abomination. I...
