HIV/AIDS

Stephen Schiff reviews the film "Philadelphia."

Doctor Marcus Conant. In the early 1980's Dr. Conant was among the first doctors in San Francisco to treat AIDS cases. Now Dr. Conant heads the largest private AIDS medical practice in San Francisco. After his 1985 study on how condoms block transmission of the AIDS virus, condoms became a household word. Dr. Conant is the director of AIDS Clinical Research Center and the co-director of the Kaposi's Sarcoma Clinic at the University of California at San Francisco.

Today's first half is about children who are orphaned after losing their parents to AIDS. Studies estimate that by the year 2000, up to 125,000 U.S. children will be left parentless because of the fatal illness. AIDS workers are now beginning to realize their next step is to help these secondary victims by providing homes, food and counseling. We interview two people on the subject; a single mother with AIDS, and the head of a project designed to address the needs of orphaned kids:

Betsy Lieberman, Executive Director of AIDS Housing of Washington which has built the country's first nursing home designed for people dying of AIDS. It's called the Bailey-Boushay House. The House also offers adult day-care services and activities for people with AIDS. The House has been in operation for a little over a year now. Since then more than 130 people have died there. A new book about the project has been published, "Breaking New Ground: Developing Innovative AIDS Care Residences." (published by AIDS Housing of Washington, Original Trade Paperback).

Arnold Rampersad, professor of Literature at Princeton, biographer of Langston Hughes, is coauthor of tennis star Arthur Ashe's memoir, "Days of Grace." Ashe died this year at age 49 from AIDS he contracted during open heart surgery. He was the first African American tennis champion, winning the United States Open in 1968, and going on to capture three Grand Slam titles. He has remained a vital presence in the sport, and his autobiography features portraits of the great celebrities of tennis.

The film "Silverlake Life: The View From Here" was started by filmmaker and film teacher Tom Joslin to chronicle his and his lover's battles with AIDS. Joslin asked his former student Peter Freidman to complete the film after Joslin's death. We'll talk with Friedman about working on "Silverlake Life," which opens the sixth season of PBS' P.O.V. series on Tuesday, June 15.

Don Des Jarlais is an expert on AIDS and HIV infection among drug users. He's the Director of Research at the Beth Israel Medical Center's Chemical Dependency Institute in New York and the Deputy Director for AIDS Research, National Development and Research Institutes, New York. He's also a consultant on AIDS to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization.

Paul Rudnick is an essayist, novelist, and playwright. His latest play on off-Broadway is a comedy called "Jeffrey," about a man who swears off love and sex because of his fear of AIDS. Rudnick also wrote the Broadway play, "I Hate Hamlet," about John Barrymore's ghost. He writes a column in "Premiere," called "If You Ask Me," in which he adopts the voice of a quintessential Jewish mother who critiques movie stars' personal lives.

NPR correspondent and writer Frank Browning. He has a new book about gay culture, "The Culture of Desire: Paradox and Perversity in Gay Lives Today."

AIDS researcher and pioneer Dr. Jerome Groopman. He is chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the New England Deaconess Hospital, and director of an innovative AIDS program that combines clinical research and medical services to approximately 1000 HIV-infected people. As a cancer specialist, Groopman has been at the forefront of the battle against AIDS since the early 80s.

Kramer is considered the "voice of articulate rage," railing against the government for its indifference to AIDS. His plays include, "The Normal Heart," and the new "The Destiny of Me."Kramer founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) and the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). Terry will talk with him about being a writer, an activist, and a person with HIV.

Director of Harvard's International AIDS Center Jonathan Mann is also a member of The Global AIDS Policy Coalition which has just come out with it's first annual "AIDS in the World" report. Mann will talk with Terry about the findings in the report.

Preston is quickly emerging as a voice for gay writing; his work is being archived in many universities for new gay and lesbian studies departments. He has edited many anthologies including "Hometowns" and "Safe Sex." He is a former editor of "The Advocate," and occasionally writes for "Harper's" and "Interview." Preston also writes and defends gay pornography. He recently finished editing "A member of the Family: Gay Men Write About Their Families."

Maupin served in Vietnam and worked for Jesse Helms in his pre-Senate days. When he moved to San Fransisco, he came out of the closet. He was a journalist for several years before writing his "Tales of the City" series, which blended gay and straight storylines. His latest novel, "Maybe the Moon," expounds on Hollywood's hypocrisy, as seen through the eyes of a little person actress. His partner Terry Anderson joins him for the interview.

Lawyers Suzanne Goldberg and Mark Huvard. Both are contesting a recent federal court ruling which allows employers to slash insurance coverage for AIDS patients. Representatives of the American Medical Association, the Association of Retired Persons, and the American Bar Association have all written letters to the U.S. Solicitor General, stating that the ruling was wrong. The original plaintiff in the case has already died from AIDS complications.

In 1980, AIDS activist and former Jesuit seminarian Martin Delaney was suffering from life-threatening hepatitis. He treated it with drugs then unapproved in the U.S. In 1985, Delaney founded Project Inform--which gathers information and facilitates access to AIDS treatments. Delaney has helped bring Compound Q, an unapproved AIDS drug, out of China. His life and work are discussed extensively in Jonathon Kwitny's controversial new book, "Acceptable Risks."

Monette's book "Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir," published in 1988, was one of the first memoirs to be published about AIDS. It told the story of his lover's two year struggle with AIDS. Since then, Monette has watched another lover die of AIDS, and has been diagnosed with AIDS himself. Monette's new memoir about his life before he came out of the closet at the age of 25 is called "Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story."

In the first ten years of the AIDS epidemic, the Food and Drug Administration approved only two drugs to treat the disease. Yet a third drug, approved last month, took only eight months. Health economist Peter Arno's new book, "Against The Odds" tells how AIDS activists have sparked sweeping reforms of the drug approval process, and sped up access to drug development for all illnesses.

Composer John Corigliano, Composer-in residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His composition "Symphony No. 1" is Corigliano's personal statement about the AIDS crisis. The first three movements of the Symphony are dedicated to three of his lifelong musician-friends who died of AIDS. Corigliano was inspired to write the composition after seeing the AIDS memorial quilt. (Corigliano: Symphony No. 1, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim -- on the Erato Label, #2292-45601-2).

Reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer Vernon Loeb. He's been reporting from the Far East for the last several years. He'll talk with Terry about the problems facing the region like the explosion of AIDS in Thailand and especially Bangkok; the repression and ethnic fighting in Burma; and the amassing on the Thai/Burmese border of refugees fleeing repression in Burma.