Making Connections discussion

“Walk Like A Man: a family’s walk with Clay and his walk with being gay and living with AIDS” by Ann Baker is a true memoir of the heart-wrenching days and years experienced by a beautiful, gay young man from the early days of “the gay man’s cancer”…a true chronicle of Clay Shear’s getting acquainted with its ‘certain and sure diagnosis of early death’, through his valiant, personal research of how to live with the yet unknown specter viciously killing his friends and colleagues, and becoming one of the brave humans to challenge the politics and cruel, judgmental actions and behaviors of the world. Instead of succumbing to the 18-month death sentence in 1983, he and thousands of others became caregivers and advocates for HIV/AIDS research and education and changed the landscape, giving hope and life to millions, and stayed alive and active until 1994. Clay’s walk with HIV/AIDs and being gay affected everyone he touched from the hills of eastern Oklahoma, to New York City, to the coast of Los Angeles and Long Beach and to the red dirt of Oklahoma City. The reader will experience the effects of ignorance and judgement on families, politics, and religion…while coming face-to-face with genuine love and forgiveness amid the unbelievable horror of a virus running wild. Our family will never be the same. We feel privileged to having been a part of the story of Clay, a true mixed blessing.