A Real Gem
“She empathizes so much with pain and suffering that it throws her off course…. Like, she walks out of Rivington House and literally wants to sit by a river and ponder why AIDS exists and maybe write a song about it.”
—Atlantic Records vice-prez Ron Shapiro on Jewel, Entertainment Weekly, January 15

Blind Faith
“[An HIV prevention] campaign is the wrong solution to the problem. The solution is that husbands should remain faithful to their wives, and then there is no AIDS.”
—Assistant Secretary-General of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, Los Angeles Times Online, January 1

Cash or Discharge?
“Senate candidate Robert Medley of Washington state called for homosexuals to be issued ‘Sodomy Club Cards’ and for banning gay sex for noncardholders…. Whenever a cardholder had gay sex, money would be deducted from his account and donated to AIDS research.”
—“Dubious Achievements of 1998,” Esquire, January 1999

2 + 2 = 5
“The more condoms you’re exposed to, the more likely you are to test HIV positive.”
—Kiedi Obi Awadu at the Harlem AIDS Forum, The New York Times, December 22

Hide the Zucchinis!
“I didn’t want those people walking around in our grocery stores, touching our meat and vegetables. AIDS is dangerous to everybody. AIDS people need help and they need a cemetery, too. Gosh, we don’t want that in our well-established community.”
—Fort Worth resident Essie J. Birdow on why he objects to an apartment building for PWAs, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 10

He Gives Me Heartburn
“People with AIDS can live with more joy than a supermodel living in a penthouse—it’s how we handle the information that comes to us.”
—Film director Mike Nichols, A&U, December 1998

Oral History
“I had, in fact, never had unprotected anal intercourse before my infection. In some ways, it would have been more of a relief if I had. I could have beaten myself up for a stupid lapse, and isolated the sense of failure and shame I felt.”
—Andrew Sullivan, San Francisco Examiner Magazine, January 10

Enemy of My Enemy
“What has the world come to when strident AIDS activists find that their calls for accountability from AIDS charities are echoed by the Family Research Council?”
—AIDS Accountability Project Director Michael Petrelis, after the FRC demanded that Congress audit all federal AIDS dollars, The Washington Times, December 9

We Eat Feces, Too!
“AIDS protesters should have the hoses turned on them because they put gerbils up their ass.”
—Subway gunman-cum-New-York-City-mayor-wannabe Bernhard Goetz, as overheard by HIV positive New York City councilmember Phil Reed, Midtown Resident, December 7

CLINTON INFECTIONS
1999 (as of January 31): 4,861  
Since January 1, 1993: 13,414