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7. Pandemics

"It's important to me to not say that there was a purpose to all the suffering" in white letters on a black background. In the bottom left corner is a red AIDS ribbon. The Accessible Altar logo is in the bottom right corner

**We recorded this episode in November, before the omicron wave came to North America and well before various jurisdictions began lifting restrictions. Had we recorded this later in the pandemic we would have spent additional time discussing the complexity of how vulnerable populations are affected by public health decisions.**

Robyn, Stephanie, and Gabe talk about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, some of the comparisons with the COVID19 pandemic, and Church responses to both.

The Rev. Gabe Lamazares serves as the Associate Rector at St. Phillip’s Church in Durham, North Carolina. Since his ordination as a priest in 2011, he has served congregations in Portland, Oregon, Manhattan, and Queens. He received his Master of Divinity from the General Theological Seminary and his Bachelor of Arts in Theology from Boston College. Gabe lives in Durham, North Carolina with his husband Terry and their dog Marley.

Full Transcript

Resources from and related to the episode:

A note that Gabe misspoke when he said it’s been 30 years since the first cases of AIDS showed up in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; it’s actually been 40 (such is the nature of time!). Here’s a reference to that report from the 20 years later: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5021a1.htm 

The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina

ACT-UP NY Historical Info website, Current website

St Luke-in-the-Fields NYC

For a look at the conversation in popular culture when effective anti-retroviral drugs first became available, see this Newsweek article from 1996 https://www.newsweek.com/end-aids-175200 

How to Survive a Plague: The Documentary (for more history of AIDS activism)

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