Conversion

Episode 8

Rev. Jim Mitulski. Date unknown. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco collection, San Francisco Public Library. 

In 1995 Rev. Jim Mitulski became HIV positive—what's known as seroconversion. It was 14 years into the epidemic and people knew what HIV/AIDS was, how you got it, and how you could prevent it. And when Jim got sick, he got very sick. What was it like to become ill so publicly? How would the church and the community respond? And what could Jim possibly preach about on his first Sunday back?

NOTES:

NOTES 

Gay psychologist Walt Odets was one of the first to study the way the epidemic impacted HIV-negative men. He wrote about it in In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS (Duke University Press, 1995).

Eric Rofes was gay AIDS activist who wrote extensively about gay male life in the 1990s. He saw it as an optimistic time and sensed a community about to be reborn. He was also a friend to MCC San Francisco and preached there on occasion. His books include Reviving the Tribe: Regenerating Gay Men’s Sexuality and Culture in the Ongoing Epidemic (Routledge, 1996) and Dry Bones Breathe: Gay Men Creating Post-AIDS Identities and Cultures (Routledge 1998).

The biblical story of the death of the prophet Elijah is in Second Kings, chapter 2.

Music:

“My Soul Doth Magnify” is from Camille Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio, Op. 12, 1858.

“The 23rd Psalm (Dedicated to My Mother)” is by Bobby McFerrin. 

THANKS

Thanks to Ed Wolf and Frank DePelisi for talking us through the issues around HIV status and sero-sorting in the mid-1990s. 

And thanks to Bobby McFerrin and Linda Goldstein for use of “The 23rd Psalm (Dedicated to My Mother).” You can see McFerrin conducting his VOCAbuLarieS singers singing the piece here. 

Resources:

National Resource Center on HIV and Aging – resources for older adults living with HIV. 

Surviving Voices – an oral history documentary project on how different communities have experienced HIV and AIDS. The most recent focuses on lifelong and long-term HIV survivors. 

Let’s Kick Ass – AIDS Survivors Syndrome – support for long-term HIV survivors. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Episode 08 – Conversion

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Transcript coming soon.