Sophie Vershbow dug through years of letters, diaries, and ephemera to profile her cousin Jeffrey Bomser, who died at age 38 of complications related to AIDS. Bomser was a ray of light in the community; he used his privilege to speak out against stigma and advocate for clinical trials, but above all, took every opportunity he could to help others with HIV and AIDS, bringing comfort and support to others who shared his disease.
“Jeff believed that the more people who knew about AIDS and people who had it, the better chance there would be of finding a cure. He was aware of his privilege as a charismatic, straight-passing, sober, middle-class white man dealing with a diagnosis mostly shared at the time by gay men and disadvantaged IV drug users who were being systematically ignored. For so long, Jeff’s privilege had been used to feed his ego and drug addiction, but in the final years of his life, he used that privilege and charisma to contribute to a movement.”
Throughout his time as an activist, Jeff stuck ACT Up’s silver “Touched by a Person with AIDS” stickers on any public surface he could find. Jeff’s goal as someone living with AIDS was, metaphorically, to touch as many lives as he could every day, whether it was opening someone’s mind or opening someone’s access to treatment. The impact he made in such a short time makes me even more regretful that his life was cut short, knowing how much more he could have done if he’d lived longer.
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