One of my favorite dance songs in the mid-80's was "We don't have to take our clothes off" by the gorgeous Jermaine Stewart. At the time, the only thing I knew about the song is that it was fun to sing and dance to. I recently learned that the lyrics referred to the AIDS scare of the 1980's. The first time I heard about AIDS was at a party in Chicago in 1981. A social worker was describing to us what it was, and telling us about her work with some of the affected patients. Moving forward from that point, I would watch many of my male friends die from the disease. Some friends told me that they had literally lost all of their friends.


Jermaine Stewart died in 1997 of Liver Cancer caused by AIDS. He was 30. RIP