
“How What Happened in San Francisco Led to World AIDS Day,” November 29, 2013 for KQED News.
Within the last few weeks and months, the ABC-TV series “When We Rise” and the new book “How to Survive a Plague” by David France have illuminated the struggle and enormous loss during the fight against AIDS in the United States. It’s essential to get this history right – for the public record, to inform future activism, and to inspire activists and agitators for justice in health care.
I had the privilege to work with Jim Bunn while he served as the Communications Director for the United Nation’s Global Programme on AIDS. At the time I was stationed in Washington, DC while helping develop the U.S. AIDS Communication Project for developing countries. I appreciated Bunn’s strong voice for AIDS awareness, his journalistic expertise, and his down-to-earth, cut-through the crap maneuvering through the UN bureaucracy continually pushed the needle forward for effective activism.