AIDS in Pittsburgh: The Issue

Welcome to Pittsburgh, a not-so-diverse community of suburbs strung together within the Allegheny Valley. Our actual “city” is only about one mile wide, but our suburbs reach far past that. Why then, in an area so rich in medical research, with some of the top medical institutions in the country, is the topic of AIDS so hastily rushed over or even forgotten? I admit, I’ve never really closely looked at the issue before, but couldn’t that have easily been my surroundings ignoring it with me? It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I had realized AIDS was present in the Pittsburgh area. Even then, it was only one girl, and for god’s sake, she was a prostitute! I also knew nothing of a gay community until I met my internship director, Chris Oberdorf. Christopher was gay, and openly admitted it to anyone that asked. He solely introduced me to the hardships of homosexuality and the pressing issue of AIDS that was present in my community all along. This website will demonstrate the journey of knowledge which I have gone through in order to find out what exactly AIDS is, and how it is affecting my community of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.