( Chicago, April 13, 2018 ): Howard Brown Health on Thursday, April 26, 6 p.m., will present
a book reading and community discussion with John-Manuel Andriote, author of Stonewall
Strong: Gay Men's Heroic Fight for Resilience, Good Health, and a Strong Community.
Echoing the themes of his recent talk on the subject in New York City for SAGE, the nation's
oldest and largest advocacy and services organization for LGBT elders, Andriote will offer a
new take in "Defining Aging for Ourselves."
"We have the ability to age well," said Andriote in his address to SAGE on March 26,
"because we've had to confront other things in our lives that are stigmatized, that the world
tells us we should be ashamed of. It seemed to me that aging and getting older is very much
like that. How we feel about ourselves, about our aging, our advancing years, really has a lot
to do with what we let it mean to us, how we describe it to ourselves, what our self-talk, the
voice in our minds, tells us it means."
Hailed as a "tour de force," and garnering superlatives across the country, Stonewall Strong
examines the lessons in courage and survival spawned by the HIV-AIDS epidemic, and other
traumas, that fuel gay men's powerful resilience. Instead of the familiar tale of medical and
social victimization, the book reframes challenging personal and community experiences as
tales of heroism with much to teach anyone interested in strengthening their own resilience.
Stonewall Strong draws from Andriote's personal story, nearly 100 interviews he conducted
with men and women across the United States, and leading-edge research.
Andriote writes the "Stonewall Strong" blog on resilience for Psychology Today. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, the Advocate, Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and other
print and online publications.
Andriote began to report on HIV-AIDS in 1985-86 while working toward a master's degree at
Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Windy City Times published his first
article on the epidemic in 1986. Andriote has been open about his own 2005 HIV diagnosis
since 'coming out' about it in a 2006 Washington Post article and NPR interview.
Kirkus Reviews called Andriote's 1999 book Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life
in America ( University of Chicago Press ) "The most important AIDS chronicle since Randy
Shilts' And the Band Played On." It garnered widespread critical acclaim, won a 2000 Lambda
Literary Awards "Editors' Choice" award, and was a finalist for the Publishing Triangle's
Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, and for the American Library Association's Stonewall
Book Awards. The hundreds of interviews and other research materials used to develop the
book are part of a special collection curated by the Smithsonian's National Museum of
American History in Washington, D.C.
"I call Stonewall Strong the 'bookend' for Victory Deferred," says Andriote. "Where Victory
Deferred documented the impact of HIV-AIDS on individuals, government institutions, and the
LGBT political movement for equality, Stonewall Strong celebrates what our history has taught
us about our own courage, resilience, and strength."
Howard Brown Health exists to eliminate the disparities in healthcare experienced by
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people through research, education and the provision
of services that promote health and wellness.
