After my book, Body Counts, was published, Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked by the Washington Post about his failure to help make PCP prophylaxis available to people with AIDS, which I wrote about in my book. Thousands of people died unnecessarily. Fauci’s explanation to the Post was incomplete and factually incorrect, so I wrote this column for the Huffington Post. In 2009, Dr. Joseph Sonnabend wrote his account of the same episode, for POZ.

Now, Dane Stewart, a Canadian writer/producer and queer history enthusiast, has done a deep dive and uncovered a lot more information and context about this shameful chapter in the latest episode of his Resurrection podcast series.

I can’t recommend Dane’s podcasts strongly enough. It is well-researched, including uncovering context previously unfamiliar to me. If you want to understand the intensity of the community’s 1980s anger at the federal government in general, and Dr. Fauci in particular, this podcast is essentially Exhibit A.

If we don’t tell the truth about the history of the AIDS epidemic, it will be subject to more historical revisionism, whitewashing and distortions to suit the legacies of those trying to clean up their own history. These are typically the same officials who seem incapable of ever acknowledging or taking responsibility for mistakes they made -- mistakes that cost our community thousands of lives.