02/02/2021
We have reported on the story of Ruth Coker Burks before. A young Christian woman in 1980's Arkansas stepped over the threshold of a hospital room containing a young man dying of an AIDS defining illness. Her life would be transformed, as would the living and dying of the people whose lives she touched. She held the hands of those dying, when other nurses were too afraid. She became a family to many young men who had been completely disowned by their families, during a period of intense homophobia and HIV stigma. She even arranged for many to be interred in her family grave plots, bringing them into her family when their natural families did not wish to know. Now, Ruth tells her story in detail, in a new book, called All the Young Men. You can order it from Gay's the Word or any other progressive or community bookstore. If you want to learn a bit more about the compassionate work of Ruth, then she chats with Tim Murphy on the website for the international HIV community, The Body. Visit our website for a link.
https://www.thebody.com/article/ruth-coker-burks-memoir-all-the-young-men
