Articles written by Tom Rosshirt

Tom Rosshirt, Guest columnist|Updated Apr 19, 2018

My brother Matt died of AIDS 26 years ago, passing away in his bed in my parents’ home in Houston. It was a benighted time for people with AIDS. There were no antiretrovirals then. There was nothing much you could do for an AIDS patient but hold his hand. And many people still thought you could get AIDS by touching. My parents knew of individuals who’d been fired from their jobs for volunteering for AIDS organizations. That’s how crazy the fear was. As Matt was dying, we were befriended by a man named Lou Tesconi, a volun...