1985 Life magazine 'AIDS victim' is still living

To have a gander at the offensive Life magazine cover from 1985, along with a link to the full text of the biased article, pay a visit to my blog.

During the truly dark early years of the AIDS epidemic in America, the now-defunct Life magazine ran a controversial cover in July 1985, after years of ignoring homosexuals contracting the disease, that focused on the other "victims" of AIDS -- heterosexuals. On the cover were some of those people living with AIDS, and I believe the center image, of a man and woman holding a child, is the Burk family, and Lauren Burk is the woman.

Back in June 2005, when I couldn't locate the text of the article online, I found hard copy at the public library, typed it up and shared in on my blog. Click here to read it.

Today I received an anonymous comment on that old blog entry, from Lauren's sister, sharing some very good news:

   I am Lauren Burk's sister, and I am happy to announce, she is still alive. Dwight was my Godson, and not one day passes that I don't see him, hooked up to IVs, feeding tubes and crying uncontrollably. AIDS is a dreadful disease. I agree, the homosexuals were the true victims. We were able to get doantions and support, while the homosexual victims only got shunned. Thank you for keeping my sister's story alive. God Bless!!!

Of course, I was beyond happy to read this comment, quickly posted on that old entry, then wrote a thank you note, which I hope Lauren's sister, and Lauren herself, read.

Lauren's story is one of longtime AIDS survival and must be shared with a wide audience, because she is a shining light of how some people with AIDS managed to beat the odds in 1985.

Lauren, if you read this, please know that I extend much love and best wishes for continued good health and lots of living!

•  There are other long-term HIV survivors

  NOVA did a special on it a while back.

  by TrueBlueMajority on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:20:35 PM PDT

  •  Yes - I know quite a few 25+

    there's a wonderful retreat here in NY called "Do not Fear to Hope" and long termer's often attend to talk to the newly diagnosed.  

    by Deoliver47 on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 06:21:11 PM PDT

•  Don't know how long I've been positive

  but it's been since before there was a test for it. I was very naughty in the '80s. I'm still healthy, without treatment. Just one of the lucky ones, I guess.

  by MyBrainWorks on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:24:44 PM PDT

•  In 1990

  I met a guy and we fell in love. On the second date he told me he was HIV+. His T cell count was low and he had some symptoms, just short of the AIDS diagnosis though. He'd been fighting it for a couple years already. But that did not stand in my way of being with him.

  I was, however, very scared and very young. I imagined constantly that he would soon die. I worried endlessly about his health, what he ate, how much he slept, how much he smoked.

  After two years he broke up with me when I had to move to a different city. I felt sure that, without my support, he would die even more quickly.

  Well, he's alive today, professionally successful and healthy.

  This taught me a number of lessons. Principally, humility. I wasn't that important after all. But second, optimism. All that worrying, all that imagining the end was near.

  It wasn't near at all. Thank God anti-retrovirals were refined to make survival times so much longer. Who would have forseen that? In the 1980s everything was so dark and so sad. Too many people died. Too many people are still dying.

  So thank you for your diary. It shows both the pain of loss and the amazing miracle of survival.

  by rilkas on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:26:17 PM PDT

•  Hey

  I have a friend who lives in Oakland.  He was out and very sexually active during the hey day of the Gay Utopia in 1970's San Francisco.

  In 1977 the San Francisco Department of Public Health did a survey of gay men in the Castro.  My friend was one of those who volunteered for the study. The survey took blood samples and tested them for Hepatitis.  This was before AIDS had ever come to light.  The blood samples were tested, then frozen and forgotten.  

  Once AIDS burst onto the scene, the Department of Public Health remembered the blood samples and went back and analyzed them for HIV.  They discovered that my friend was HIV positive in 1977.

  He is still alive and healthy and broadcasting the news for KPFA Radio.

  That makes being HIV positive for at least 31 years and counting.

  by kaleidescope on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:40:25 PM PDT

  •  That is really remarkable. n/t

    by LauraC on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 06:09:05 PM PDT

•  I remember that cover

  Thank God Lauren Burke didn't fall to the 20th Century Black Death.

  by Gemina13 on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:50:22 PM PDT

•  The Real Reagan Legacy

  I don't remember some mythical great leader who supposedly crushed communism. I remember a doddering, prejudiced old fart who fiddled while AIDS swept through the American population.

  This should have been the last clue we needed that Republicans are hypocrites when they pontificate about a "culture of life".

  by jpspencer on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 05:56:58 PM PDT

  •  "Culture of Life"

    When Bush took office in early 2001 I remember his first order of business was to scrap funding that provided condoms in Africa.  Allowing poor black people to die while gaining points with the fundamental nut-jobs is about all one can expect with a republican president.

    by LauraC on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 06:13:21 PM PDT

•  The AIDS fear

  and prejudice of the early '80s makes me think how 20 years later, we fear Muslims and impending demise at the hands of terrorists.   People have a scary capacity for hatred and violence when they feel they can't control their worlds.

  by LauraC on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 06:07:57 PM PDT