School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Following Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, Bausum chronicles another chapter in queer history: the HIV/AIDS crisis. Her three-part investigation begins before the epidemic, describing scenes of queer liberation in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall Riots. The "hedonistic crescendo" of the 1970s brought bathhouses, dance clubs, drugs, disco music, and free love. For gay men, the sexual freedom also introduced a mystery disease. Initially diagnosed as Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-a slow-progressing cancer-the disease shook the queer community and beyond when it began to rapidly spread. Activist organizations like ACT UP and its predecessors pushed the Center for Disease Control and multiple presidential administrations to research an affordable cure, arguing that "SILENCE = DEATH." Bausum details the revolution while honoring some of the hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Expertly interweaving quotes from a variety of firsthand sources (medical professionals, writers, activists, etc.), Bausum's precise journalism takes on an engaging narrative quality. Occasional black-and-white photographs or images highlight key figures. Though her focus, like history's, tends to prioritize the white gay male experience, Bausum adds context to shift the focus onto other marginalized groups (particularly people of color) who were victimized in the HIV/AIDS panic. The structure paves the way for plenty of dramatic tension, resulting in a rousing, sympathetic account of a community's pain, fear, rage, and resiliency. A time line, source notes, and bibliography are appended. VERDICT Well-researched and expertly paced, this compelling title deserves a place in all teen collections.-Alec Chunn, Eugene Public Library, OR © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bausum (The March Against Fear) commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots with this powerful history of AIDS in America, from its first appearance in the U.S. to the present. The 1970s sexual revolution may have liberated many gay men from living closeted lives, especially in cities, but sexually transmitted infections remained pervasive, condom use rare, and discrimination against homosexuality widespread. The volume shows how the U.S. government's failure to provide adequate early funding for HIV- and AIDS-related care, education, and research contributed to the epidemic as annual deaths from AIDS soared from 130 in 1981 to over 37,000 a decade later. Interweaving stories of individuals, activism, and medical research, Bausum illuminates the epidemic's tragic scale as well as the effort required to survive an HIV-positive diagnosis-despite continuing medical advances, some American groups retain the world's highest risk of infection. Bausman writes with frank clarity, humanizing the urgent, ongoing crisis with great sensitivity. Photographs, a summary of key events, and additional resources close this moving, essential account. Ages 12-up. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
The first to die left behind little more than their names and brief stories of chaotic, terrifying deaths. Individual by individual, they went from being seemingly well to perplexingly ill in a matter of months. When this mysterious illness struck a handful of gay American men in 19801981, nobody could know that the AIDS epidemic would ultimately kill more than 700,000 people before, in the late 1990s, medical advances made the dreaded disease something other than an automatic death sentence. Even so, more than one million Americans currently live with HIV/AIDS, with more being diagnosed every year. In a tightly written chronological narrative focusing on the bleakest years of the pandemic, Bausum writes compellingly, heartbreakingly, about the earliest days of panic in the gay community, the swiftness and relentlessness of the diseases progression, disturbing federal government inaction and indifference, grassroots AIDS research and activism, the poignant legacy of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and breakthrough scientific research. While the narrative is chock-full of informationnames, dates, acronymsBausum never allows these details to obscure or overwhelm the humanity of the story. Interspersed captioned black-and-white photographs, too, underscore the storys emotional impact. With Stonewall (rev. 7/15) and now Viral, Bausum has proven to be an impassioned and empathetic historian of gay rights for young adults. A moving authors note, a timeline, a resource list, thorough source notes, a bibliography, and an index are appended. jonathan hunt (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
From the front lines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the front lawn of the White House, how the reaction to an epidemic evolved from mystery and ignorance to knowledge, bravery, and activism.The 1969 Stonewall uprising lifted a shroud of secrecy from the marginalized LQBTQ community. Suddenly there was empowerment to live more freely, albeit within coastal, cosmopolitan microcosms. Liberation from centuries of closeted lives manifested in a revolution of sexual freedom. A decade later, an unknown malady swept through this liberated landscape, mystifying, terrifying, and baffling insiders and outsiders alike: AIDS. The LGBTQ community was fearful and angry, while a conservative collective was reassured that sexual deviants were deservedly being punished. However, research dissolved rumor, and boundaries clung to by the ignorant were pierced with fact. Bausum's (The March Against Fear, 2017, etc.) journalized account is divided into three sections: 1969-1983, 1983-1992, and 1992-today. The objectivity of her research is colored by the kind of compassion that can only come from having lived through a dark era and fully recognizing the breadth of tragedy. As frustrating and frightening as this political and social timeline is, and susceptible though we all are to this disease, we're also all able to do something that unites rather than separates in a time of tragedy: love. A critical account for today's youth.Read to remember, remember to fight, fight together. (author's note, timeline, resources, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
AIDS arrived in 1981 like a thief in the night, robbing people first of their health and then, inevitably, of their lives as the fatal epidemic blossomed into a global pandemic. Since then, as revealed in this well-researched book, some 700,000 Americans have died from HIV/AIDS and more than one million are living with the disease, many of them teenagers and young adults. The global statistics are even more staggering: 35 million people worldwide have died of the killer disease and a similar number, as of 2016, are living with it. Unfortunately, there has been little current information about this crisis available until the welcome arrival of Bausum's offering. The whole story is here: not only current conditions but also the history and evolution of the disease. Adults who lived through its early and middle years will recognize familiar names Rock Hudson, C. Everett Koop, Ryan White, Larry Kramer, and more and organizations: Gay Men's Health Crisis, ACT UP, NAMES Project, amfAR, TAG, and others. Activism continues today, though its presence remains largely unremarked, which is why Bausum's book is so important: it is imperative that teens and young adults be made aware of the continuing dangers of unprotected sex and the misguided notion that AIDS could never happen to them. Bausum's work provides an essential corrective. It is not to be missed.--Michael Cart Copyright 2019 Booklist
