Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Remembering Mike Sisco & Oprah on World AIDS Day

As we recognize today as World AIDS Day, let's take an uncomfortable but necessary look at the past so we don't forget not only how views of HIV/AIDS have changed but also how some views may not have changed.

The clip is from the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1987. It centered around a controversy in Williamson, WVA when Mike Sisco, a man living with AIDS, took a dip in the community pool. The ignorance and fear will simply make you sad.




Oprah returned to the town 23 years later:





2 comments:

KayInMaine said...

It is sad how AIDS/HIV was perceived so many years ago! These same kinds of people who exhibited unnecessary fears are the same ones now promoting fear against the Syrian refugees.

My cousin Johnny died of AIDS in March of 2000. His own fear and denial is what prevented him to get tested prior to dying. Ugh. By the time he did get tested, his T-cell count was down to 17 and he died a few months later. My aunt (in her 80's now) still misses him terribly and has a shrine to his existence in her living room.

Unknown said...

Mike was my friend. I lived with h after all this b.s. I had no problems with him living with me.
He lived with me in California he was able to get a place of his own. We did lose contact for a while but we did find each other every time. So we started to hang around again. It was great to see him.
Sadly he passed.