Tom Duane gives stunning speech on AIDS

[WillParkinson]

Tom Duane gives stunning speech on AIDS

Before the New York State Senate closed last week, Sen. Tom Duane, gay and HIV positive, gave an impassioned, riveting speech reminding us all what the AIDS epidemic was at its worst:

“Visiting friends in hospitals. We’d go in. We’d go in one night, in the morning they’d be dead. I’d bring them food. My family, bring them food. My friends bring someone food. But whoever was in bed would be dead before they could eat it. We’d leave it - maybe the nurses would take it home. No! They wouldn’t eat it! ‘Cause it’s contaminated. Contaminated! Wouldn’t touch it. Wouldn’t go into the room. Wearing masks. Gloves! Gowns! Someone gets sick in the afternoon. They’d be dead the next day. Dead! And that went on for months, and then years. Dead! Dead! You think if you got sick and your friends were dying that I would sit there and do nothing? No. But that’s what happened. That’s what happened. Every cold. Every virus. Every temperature. I thought I’d be dead, and so did so many people that I knew. Dead! You think you scare me? You think you can make be back off? Nothing scares me.”

http://www.365gay.com/blog/tom-duane-gives-stunning-speech-on-aids/

[Warpy]

1. I was among a group of nurses who rebelled at the gloves and gowns

and masks. We realized early on that the pattern was more like Hep B, meaning we just gloved for body fluids and wore eye protection if it looked like something would splash. Eventually the CDC came out with universal precautions and vindicated us.

It's impossible to overstate the holocaust of the early and mid 80s. There were no drugs to treat HIV and the worst words from admitting became "Male, age 30, pneumonia." We knew there was little we could do beyond settling him into bed and waiting for the inevitable. When we started to see drugs, they were experimental drugs with letters and numbers, not names, but we slowly began to buy our patients a little time to say goodbye, measured in days or weeks, only.

All the time, official policy of the administration (read: Saint Reagan) was to ignore the whole thing since it was killing all the "right" people.

It wasn't just in the hospital, either. Day trips to Provincetown became very sad as so many wonderful shops and restaurants would sport "closed due to illness" signs in the window and we just knew. There were empty chairs in orchestras. Street performers disappeared. With every death, the world became a little grayer, a little more Republican.

No one who was there will ever forgive the Republican Party for their pious stonewalling against trying to contain this disease.

[WillParkinson]

2. Your words...

Are every bit as stirring and emotional.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Nurses like you made a big difference back then

Every word you posted, I second it. I can not say it better.

[imdjh]

5. We had one come to our house for education.

I never knew exactly how that came about, but a nurse came to the house I shared with two other men and gave us a talk on the practical and epidemiological aspects of AIDS. It was like something out of a Lifetime movie. I came home from work one night, and my roommate said, "A nurse named Debbie is coming by in a little while to talk to us about AIDS." I guess I never really thought about the scope of that effort; one house at a time. Those people must have put their lives on hold for a very long time to do all that outreach. Heroes, every one.

[mitchtv]

6. Your post brought me right back to the days

of "gay cancer" and "mysterious cancer plagues Gay men" headlines, Not even a name. I lost most of my friends in those years. Partner and I moved to a rural area and were out , and accepted in the very liberal town. We both ended up hospitalized for non AIDS problems in the early nineties, and this liberal town's hospital both Drs and nurses tested us, contiually tested us, in spite of our non risky lifes. Finally. I told one group to simply ask the doctor who was in charge( who had just tested partner) he had diverticulitis.They liked Gays, but were scared to death.

[imdjh]

4. I remember a neighbor breaking down in the stairwell of our building.

I was very busy at the time. I hadn't seen the downstairs neighbor at the mailboxes in several days, perhaps weeks. I ran into him, and asked about his absence. "Robbie's been in the hospital." I gave the perfunctory, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Is he home now?" never even thinking about AIDS, even though the stories were already running about people dying and others being ruined or rejected. "He's got it, he's dying." I quote "it", I'm not sure what name it had at that time, but it had been established as a death sentence.

I put down my bags, and wrapped my arms around my neighbor and now I can't even remember his name. I hugged him and told him I was so sorry. He started crying, loudly, and I was a bit surprised but thought maybe it was just hitting him again that his lover was dying. He hugged me tighter and said, "Oh DJ, you're the first person who has touched me since this started. Everyone's afraid they're going to catch it." Frankly, it had ever occurred to me that I could catch it from hugging someone. I said, "That's ridiculous." having no idea whether it was or wasn't. No saint though, that planted doubt in my mind, and it would be another year (as I recall) before official opinions on safe contact would be disseminated.

[Ohio Joe]

7. I grew up just outside of NYC...

I remember the late 70's, early 80's and it was scary. There was next to nothing about "it" on the news or in the papers but everyone talked about "it". Being in my late teens, the rumors were rampant and facts were scarce. The biggest question was always, "Why isn't someone doing something about it?"

[bigscott]

8. i stopped counting at 30 dead friends

and there have been many more. panels on a quilt, the ache of unfulfilled potential, the humanity of the people we lost. It is hard explaining to my son - who never knew the world without AIDS - what it was like. But as soon as he was able to strap one on he had a box of condoms and was educated about every aspect of sex.

I have spent 20+ years in the pharmaceutical industry - I worked on the second and third drugs approved to treat HIV. At first all our patients died, then they started to live. now they can thrive. but the memories never leave me.

and my heart breaks for the youth of today who think they are as invincible as we thought we were in the 70s

peace

[gwashington2650]

9. What a great speech

Hopefully we'll find a cure for this horrific disease.