Our Story: Coming out in the time of HIV and AIDS

By Robert Hamilton

A story about friendship, love, loss, and drag told with humour and compassion.  In 1977, the author, then a naive young man, escapes his pulp and paper mill town in northern New Brunswick and goes in search of his gay self.  After two years studying in Toronto, he moves to Edmonton, begins his career as a prison guard and timidly comes out into the gay scene.  A lasting and sometimes tumultuous friendship develops with Joe, a drag queen and in the summer of 1982 they move to Vancouver in anticipation of fun times and promising futures.  Their world changes when they're swept into the eye of the AIDS storm, a time when testing positive for HIV was considered a death sentence.  Written in diary form, this is an unflinching account of Joe from before testing positive for HIV until his death.  This is an intimate look at the impact AIDS had on the author's family of gay friends and those around them.