The Plague Years

We had to put the John Musker question countdown on hold this week since he's on deadline, but he'll be back next week. While we’re waiting for John, though, I want to share with you a great essay by Frank Bruni that was in Sunday’s New York Times.   It’s about AIDS and the deepest, darkest days of the plague that hit us all in the 1980s.

One thing that really struck me was his point that AIDS brought homosexuality, finally and fully, out of the closet.  When your sons and brothers and uncles and friends are dying, it’s kind of hard to get too tied up in worrying over whom –or how – they love.

The day Howard died, his friend Kyle called.  He wanted to write Howard’s official obit and give it to the Times.  Kyle’s concern was that they get the facts right.

“I’m going to say he died of AIDS,” Kyle said.  “Is that going to be okay?”

You know the answer, of course.

Here’s the article.