ABSTRACT
I returned to Washington, DC, the week after the Fourth of July of 1990 from a twenty-six–city speaking, canvassing, and organizing tour of the Southwest and Southeast. I was exhausted but very satisfied with a venture that went better than I could imagine. I noticed that within a very short time I had begun to lose weight, but given my historic battle of the bulge, at first I wasn't too troubled by the slimming process. However, it quickly became clear—and my doctors confirmed—that this wasn't just normal weight loss but part of the wasting syndrome that was common in AIDS. Since I had been HIV positive for seven or eight years, I wasn't shocked by the development.
