“In the Can” from KS to TX
Cody Patton, talking about his work with the Care Coordination Team, now Positive Directions.
In the last two months I’ve been to Dallas, TX, and Wichita KS, gathering interviews. I also talked with Senior Attorney Jon Davidson, who flew in from Los Angeles to talk about legal cases that created change. Dr. Vicki Cargill from the Milken Institute drove in from Delaware to be included. She was very active in Cleveland back in the day. I can’t say thank you enough to all of the folks who had something to say about all this.
Jon Davidson
Jon Davidson, Senior Attorney, ACLU
For those in the “Legal World” Jon Davidson is considered a National Treasure. He is one of the nation's leading lawyers fighting for LGBTQ people and people living with HIV.
He joined the team at the ACLU in 1988 and in 1990 became Senior Staff Council and Director of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
From 1995 - 2017, he toiled at Lambda Legal and became the Legal Director and Eden/Rushing Chair by 2004, eventually returning to the ACLU in Southern California, in 2022.
Currently he is Senior attorney in the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project, litigating cases in federal and state courts, and working for LGBTQ people throughout the United States.
Wichita
Dr. Donna Sweet was and is known for her incredible determination and energy in treating those with HIV/AIDS for decades. She also wore incredibly high heels, endearing her further to many in her care.
Dr. Robert Minor is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at KU. He is the author of When Religion Is an Addiction. He talks about the radical right’s agenda in the Midwest and the effect on communities there.
Teresa Strunk is still working for Dr. Sweet, and taking care of people. She talks about the early days of caring for AIDS patients in Wichita, and how finally they began to survive.
Dr. Victoria “Vicki” Cargill
Victoria Cargill, MD, is a senior director at the Center for Public Health at the Milken Institute. Previously she served as a senior policy official and program director for 20 years at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Working at UH in Cleveland during the AIDS crisis, she began prevention programs on her own time to reach deeper into under-served communities under the campaign “Stopping AIDS is my Mission” (SAM).
She talks about disparities in health access and treatment, and early attitudes in many of the Black churches that made prevention education difficult to talk about.
Dallas
Chris “Landslide” Luna won his first seat on the Dallas City Council by 156 votes. He gave voice to both the large LGBTQ+ and Hispanic communities in his district.
Betty Neal was never “in” she says. Working at the gay clubs she became a strong organizer in helping and caring for people in under served communities with HIV/AIDS who had run out of options.
Robert Moore is a founder of the Dallas Voice, a strong LGBTQ community publication giving him a bird-eye view of the AIDS crisis and consequences in the community.