Hurry Up & Wait: Remembering the AIDS Crisis

XXceedingly Persuasive

This Pride Month also marks 40 years since the first AIDS diagnoses: On the one hand, the LGBTQ+ community has come so far; on the other, the US Supreme Court has just ruled against same-sex couples’ freedom to adopt from religious organizations. We discuss progress, corporatized pride, and re-work last year’s interview with John Ascher, who lost his partner Stewart Joy to AIDS in 1988. John tells us about the stigma and heartbreak, the Reagan Administration’s failure to act, and public health response in an epidemic.