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(More customer reviews)Growing up hearing about AIDS on the nightly news, my generation missed out on the sexual freedom which my parents had experienced.
But we have a different language to utilize and a different environment to utilize it in as a response from this development.
Initially and mistakenly identified as GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency), AIDS now permeates every demographic group in society.
A profound strength of this book is that it examines the response to the virus from an intersecting sociological perspective. Almost as if from learning from the mistakes of the response to the virus itself, the voices of women and people of color are thoroughly intertwined throughout the text. AIDS is not merely a white man's disease.
And she includes some interesting pieces of political information along for the ride. Due to my young age, I had not paid close attention to politics when Reagan was in office. I now know he was extreme, but I was honestly shocked to realize that he had people like Gary Bauer (perhaps best known for involvement with the Family Research Council) serving in his White House administration--and in social policy positions.
Such an environment probably stalled the government's effective response to the emergent AIDS crisis. It did not actively address AIDS when the disease was percieved as something which would only strike a certain segment of the population--and one which the conservative administration did not care for.
I have great respect for former Surgeon General Koop. He was able to accomplish the work he did in such a trying work environment. Fear had placed presence over science in many a case. But he pressed on, undaunted and convinced that effective and practical education about AIDS needed priority.
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