The founder of POZ magazine shares âa captivatingâŠeyewitness account from inside the AIDS epidemicâ (Next) and âa moving, multi-decade memoir of one gay manâs lifeâ (San Francisco Chronicle).
As a politics-obsessed Georgetown freshman, Sean Strub arrived in Washington, DC, from Iowa in 1976, with a plum part-time job running a Senate elevator in the US Capitol. He also harbored a terrifying secret: his attraction to men. As Strub explored the capitalâs political and social circles, he discovered a parallel world where powerful men lived double lives shrouded in shame.
When the AIDS epidemic hit in the early 1980s, Strub was living in New York and soon found himself attending âmore funerals than birthday parties.â Scared and angry, he turned to radical activism to combat discrimination and demand research. Strub takes you through his own diagnosis and inside ACT UP, the organization that transformed a stigmatized cause into one of the defining political movements of our time.
From the New York of Studio 54 and Andy Warholâs Factory to the intersection of politics and burgeoning LGBT and AIDS movements, Strubâs story crackles with history. He recounts his role in shocking AIDS demonstrations at St. Patrickâs Cathedral as well as at the home of US Senator Jesse Helms. With an astonishing cast of characters, including Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Keith Haring, Bill Clinton, and Yoko Ono, this is a vivid portrait of a tumultuous era: âA page-turnerâŠ[with] the suspense and horror of Paul Monetteâs memoir Borrowed Time and the drama of Larry Kramerâs play The Normal HeartâŠ.What a lot of actionâand lifeâthere is in this gripping bookâ (The Washington Post).