God Doesn't Make Trash Author:Barbara Rose Brooker "Homophobia is Americas leading hate crime", writes Barbara Rose Brooker, "and HIV/AIDS is its target. Homophobia and indifference are two of the factors in the spread of AIDS." In the mid-1980's Barbara Rose Brooker found herself in the midst of the AIDS epidemic when Joe, her neighbor and friend, died from AIDS. Knowing she was an aut... more »hor, Joe asked her to write about him. "Write that I'm afraid. Not of AIDS, but of humanity". So began the 15 year journey of the author/narrator and her book, God Doesn't Make Trash. God Doesn't Make Trash isn't about HIV/AIDS itself; it's about the devastating effects of homophobia. It's about people who transcend adversity, who break the emotional barriers of judgement, labels and exclusion, and evolve to a place of spirituality. The stories follow a writer's personal journey with men and women of all races and sexuality who have AIDS, a journey that reveals the extent of homophobia in contemporary American life. From Ward 86 of San Francisco General Hospital in the 1980's to the San Francisco AIDS Walk of 1999, these oral histories provide moving accounts of what it was like to live and die from AIDS in the early 1980's, when AIDS was known as the "gay disease", and what it is like now, in the millennium, for the second generation of AIDS patients. The men and women in this book are young and old, mothers and grandmothers, make-up artists and educators. Their stories have put a human face to AIDS. They have learned lessons we all should learn, and they shared their knowledge and insights with the narrator. Woven through the interviews is the narrator's own story during this period of time and how her experiences with AIDS and homophobia have changed her life. When unable to interest a publisher in her book in the 1980's she has to shelve it. In the 1990's, finding homophobia still rampant, she interviews the second generation of AIDS patients, and when once again unable to find a publisher, decides to publish the book herself. She will keep her promise to give voice to those who gave her their stories years ago and who have now died, and to those suffering from HIV/AIDS today. Proceeds from the sale of the book to go to Shanti and UCSF AIDS Project« less