Longtime Exposure: A Memoir of Strife, Sex, and Love

Part searing memoir, part insider’s account,  Longtime Exposure presents a teenage boy’s rejection of gay shame from family and faith, government and society that nearly suffocates him. He believes he’s an outsider in a world that makes little sense until he escapes to San Francisco, where he must fight for the life of his community. His groundbreaking writing as a journalist confronts the plague and its politics from a deeply personal perspective seldom written. His stature soars to the pinnacle of the global battle to save millions.  But nothing exists to protect him from the grip of AIDS.

Advance Praise
Michael Helquist's Longtime Exposure: A Memoir of Strife, Sex and Love is the definitive account of the early years of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, told through the life and groundbreaking work of one of the first journalists covering--and surviving--the epidemic.  What Randy Shilts' And the Band Played On left out, and where it left off, is found in Helquist's detailed, powerful, and deeply personal account.  No understanding of the epidemic's history is complete without reading this book.
Sean Strub, writer, activist, politician, founder POZ magazine, author, Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS and Survival.
 
Helquist counteracts any perception that same-sex attraction is purely sexual. His is an insightful exploration into the roots of sexual and emotional confusion for young men during the pre-Stonewall age. It invokes in me a desire to reflect on my own racial and gay awakenings and discoveries as a Black American gay man as poignantly as he does.
Rupert Kinnard, Cartoonist, created the first gay/lesbian African American comic strip characters. Featured in the PBS film “No Straight Lives: The Rise of Queer Comics.”
 
Michael Helquist’s memoir resonates with the elation of gay liberation and the terror and tragedy of AIDS. As a journalist, he captured the epidemic from the inside, making it a courageous personal account and a historical record. His words ring true to my own experience during the epidemic as a lesbian and a nurse. I found Longtime Exposure a gripping read.
Helen Schietinger, R.N., M.A. Coordinator of the first AIDS Clinic; Technical Consultant, World Health Organization.
 
Histories of the earliest days of AIDS have rarely captured what it was like to live through that time firsthand. Michael Helquist does that in his new memoir Longtime Exposure: A Memoir of Strife, Sex, and Love.  His account is intensely personal and revealing, making it invaluable.
Richard Berkowitz, Author,  Stayin’ Alive, The Invention of Safe Sex, A Personal History, 2003.