I don't want a reporter's perspective or a historian's. I'd love to see one from a character or from a person who experienced it firsthand/secondhand in those communities; gay, trans, ballroom, drag etc. And specifically in the 80/90s.
It sounds like a simple task to find one, but I'm struggling here!! 😭 Thanks to anyone who can find one ☺️
by c-e-r-y-s
3 Comments
My Own Country by Abraham Verghese. He was an infectious disease specialist in East Tennessee during the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. It’s a very compassionate story about an area that sometimes gets left out of the usual historical narratives.
Fiction, but great book that might fit the bill: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.
And The Band Played On by Randy Schilts Technically written by a reporter, but he was HIV positive and a huge part of the queer community (actually didn’t get tested while he was writing the book to try and stay objective)
When We Rise by Cleve Jones. Cleve launched the memorial quilt project, and some of the same people appear in his book as in the above.