Publishers Weekly
07/08/2019
In this well-researched but somewhat aggrieved history, Noe, a writer and AIDS activist, recounts the history of the AIDS epidemic with a focus on the unsung contributions of straight women. Noe writes, “Straight women have entered the AIDS community throughout the epidemic for various reasons, but all with the same intent: to make a difference.” Noe traces “the battle lines drawn in the first years of the epidemic” and identifies key players such as Elizabeth Taylor (“She was hands-on when it counted, because the epidemic was always personal to her. Friends were dying”) and Princess Diana (who, in 1987, at the first HIV/AIDS hospital unit in London, “shook hands—no gloves, no hesitation—with a man with AIDS... to prove that the virus could not be passed through casual contact”). Noe also includes “stories of women who were largely unknown, but whose influence affected thousands,” including volunteers, educators, activists, nonprofit executives, doctors, researchers, spiritual leaders, artists, mothers, caregivers, and “fag hags” (“denoting a straight woman who associates with gay men”). In telling her own story (she writes of being antagonized and resented by gay colleagues as a social worker), Noe takes a somewhat resentful tone, but in general, this lucid and detailed account provides a valuable timeline for those interested in and impacted by the AIDS crisis. (BookLife)Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the book's title.
From the Publisher
Noe's book celebrates one sector of this compassionate network of caregivers with empathy, appreciation, solidarity, and immense pride. An obvious labor of love for the author and a moving tribute to the unsung heroes of the AIDS crisis. - Kirkus Reviews
Offering a new and long overdue perspective on the AIDS epidemic (and one that is still very much on-going within the gay community and around the world in the general population), Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community is an extraordinary compendium of information and illustrative personal stories. Exceptionally well-written, organized and presented, Fag Hags, Divas and Moms is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic libraries. - Midwest Book Review
This lucid and detailed account provides a valuable timeline for those interested in and impacted by the AIDS crisis. - Publishers Weekly/BookLife
Kirkus Reviews
2019-06-06
Public speaker and activist Noe (Friend Grief and Men, 2016, etc.) chronicles the sometimes-overlooked efforts of women who helped battle the AIDS epidemic.In 2014, the author attended a panel discussion that featured gay and straight women who played prominent roles in the fight against AIDS. She felt that their impassioned stories needed more widespread attention. In this book, she informatively writes about tireless support workers, such as Terri Wilder, who dedicated her life to AIDS activism and awareness, and the late activist Iris De La Cruz, as well as more famous public figures, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana. Other chapters focus on other women who were hospice volunteers, caregivers, mothers, pioneering researchers, and medical educators who were trained on the front lines of the epidemic. Many of these women were HIV-positive themselves and found that the system, with its consistent "lack of accurate, stigma-free sex education," failed them, as it had the gay male community in the 1980s and '90s. Noe writes proudly and engagingly of her own social and political advocacy and activism, including her work at a residential program for AIDS survivors,lobbying on Capitol Hill for the Ryan White Care Act in 1990, and joining ACT UP/NY in 2013. She remembers being known as a "fag hag" then, but she tells of how she learned to embrace that moniker. This essential book is most poignant when Noe channels the pain, loss, and helplessness of the 1980s, when AIDS-related hospital programs "did not have unanimous workplace support" and half of most primary care physicians refused to treat AIDS patients. Instead, she points out, men and women with AIDS had to rely on the kindness of strangers—people who nursed the ill, defended them, and, above all, loved them unconditionally. Noe's book celebrates one sector of this compassionate network of caregivers with empathy, appreciation, solidarity, and immense pride.
An obvious labor of love for the author and a moving tribute to the unsung heroes of the AIDS crisis.
