Action4Canada - June 12, 2025


Tender Hope


Episode Stats

Length

1 minute

Words per Minute

172.4752

Word Count

226

Sentence Count

22


Summary

In this episode I talk about my experience with the non-heterosexual community during the AIDS epidemic and how it shaped me into who I am today. I also talk about why I find myself drawn to people who are confused, concerned and concerned for them.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Now, I had my experience with the non-heterosexual community during the AIDS epidemic.
00:00:04.680 So that's when I cut my teeth in medicine.
00:00:07.060 And my job was caring for men mainly.
00:00:09.440 My age at the time, my 20s were coming in with all sorts of unusual infections and cancers and dying.
00:00:15.800 And they didn't die immediately like a heart attack kind of death.
00:00:18.080 They died slowly.
00:00:18.780 It offered me the opportunity to get to know them and to meet their communities, their families, their lovers, talk with them, hear their stories, walk with them through their illness.
00:00:28.200 At that point in time, there was no AZT.
00:00:30.620 There was only antiretroviral therapy.
00:00:32.320 My heart broke for them.
00:00:33.440 And they didn't agree with what they were doing, how they got there.
00:00:35.540 But I was caring for them and come alongside them in that.
00:00:39.080 And my heart broke for them.
00:00:40.360 And sadly, every single one of them died.
00:00:42.260 Not one survived.
00:00:43.460 And it was a hard thing.
00:00:44.560 I had to care for them and then pronounce them dead.
00:00:47.240 And that has never left me.
00:00:49.700 And so I find myself then on a certain level drawn to people who are confused in this fashion and concerned for them.
00:00:58.200 And I'll let's try again.
00:01:01.640 So I like to school and get myself then.
00:01:06.240 I'm I'm not going to belong to them.