The next day, Earle ran the New York City Marathon to carry the message that although the A.R.E.A. run was finished, the race against AIDS was not.
As the epidemic continued to accelerate, Earle threw himself into the newly formed ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, demanding urgent government action to develop treatments. In 1989, he was arrested during a notorious demonstration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“It was absolutely freezing that day. I’d never been so happy to get locked up,” he joked. From 1988 through the early 2000s, he was arrested 12 times for his activism.
Then came his own diagnosis. After testing negative in 1987 and 1988, Earle tested positive in 1989.
“I was horrified,” he said. “But I wasn’t surprised.”
The virus came from a long-term partner he loved deeply, a man who would later die of the disease.
Treatment options were grim. He began an AZT cocktail, enduring nausea, fatigue, and toxicity. Meanwhile, hospital visits and funerals of friends blurred together. In 1991 alone, Earle lost 42 friends to AIDS. Around the same time, he lost his mother, the woman who had spent thousands of miles protecting him on the road.
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