| News Item | |
The following is taken from remarks by Larry Kramer when presenting the American
Foundation for AIDS Research Award for Courage to Sister Mary Elizabeth on June 2nd, 2003.
------------------------------
Sister Mary Elizabeth, for those who have not heard of her, served 17 years in the Navy as
a man, in the Army as a woman, and is now a nun in the American Catholic Church. Her life
experiences include military training in electronics and scuba diving, two marriages as a
man and a son, a sex change operation, a successful lawsuit defending her rights as a
transsexual to be honorably discharged from the military, founding the Transsexual Rights
Committee for the ACLU of Southern California, the establishment of her own religious
order, and a stint in Missouri raising cattle to help feed the homeless.
She is the first person to serve in our armed forces as both a man and a woman. When this
was discovered, she was of course excommunicated by her church but determined to carry on
anyway on her own. "I made my vows to God, not to a church," she says.
It was in Missouri that she saw her first HIV+ men and determined to help them get
information in their isolated community. Sister Mary conceived, founded, and serves as the
driving force for AEGIS, the AIDS Education Global Information System. Aegis was launched
in the mid-1980s on a homemade computer in her legally blind now 92-year old father's
24x60 mobile home in a trailer park in San Juan Capistrano, California, which it still
calls home, albeit now on fourteen computers. These generate enough heat to heat the place
in winter, to the tune of $645 a month in electricity bills. A one ton wall
air-conditioner runs around the clock to prevent meltdown.
AEGIS is the definitive web-based reference for information on HIV/AIDS and the global
plague. And it's FREE. Its vast database contains well over 1 million files, including
court decisions, fact sheets, treatment information, and articles gleaned from medical
journals, magazines, news services, and newspapers across the globe. 3000 new files are
added every month. The only site larger is the US National Library of Medicine, with a $33
million plus budget. Last year Aegis managed to raise only about $25,000 in personal
appeals. It subsists mainly on small grants from a very few places like the drug company,
Boehringer Ingelheim, and Elton John's Foundation, which will bring their total income up
to about $250,000 a year.
Seven million plus users accessed the AEGIS website last year. This past April alone one
million visitors signed on to Aegis. These include patients, caregivers, healthcare
professionals, and policy makers, and the White House. For people in isolated areas with
little access to medical care and information, AEGIS is a godsend. Its "Ask the
Doc" feature enables people all over the globe to ask physicians in the U.S.
questions and receive answers to HIV/AIDS-related medical questions.
Sister Mary's own health is gradually beginning to go downhill, but despite Rheumatoid
arthritis, macular degeneration, peripheral neuropathy, a tendency to form blood clots in
her legs, she still works 16 hour days. She will be 65 on June 16th. She has not had a
vacation in 12 years.
It is her dream that aegis can become so financially independent that it will be able to
continue should anything happen to her. Sister Mary Elizabeth's contribution to our
community and to the fight against AIDS and to the world is nothing short of
extraordinary. She is miraculous. She is inspirational. She is a sterling and shining
example of what one gay person can accomplish, and alone.
