Atlanta LGBTQ Activist, Dr. Jesse Peel talks with the Rose Library Assistant Director and Curator of Political, Cultural, and Social Movements Collections, Randy Gue, about his experiences during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s and his thoughts about the Coronavirus pandemic.
Show Notes
Jesse R. Peel (1940-) is an HIV positive Atlanta, Georgia, psychiatrist and activist in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. He was born in Everetts, North Carolina, to J. Woolard (1914-1984) and Helen Peel (1916-2005). He completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, graduating from medical school in 1965, completed his internship from 1965-66, and did his residency in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, in 1966-69. Peel served in the United States Navy Medical Corps as a lieutenant and did tours in Vietnam (1969-1970) and Okinawa, Japan (1969-1970). He moved to Atlanta in 1976 and was a founding member in AIDS groups such as AID Atlanta and Positive Impact. He also worked with the Lesbian and Gay Funding Initiative, Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation AIDS Fund, the Georgia Task Force on AIDS, and the AIDS Legacy project among other groups working to help those affected with the disease.
To learn more about his papers, which are collected at Rose Library, click
here.
What is Rose Library Presents: Community Conversations?
The Community Conversations series invites conversation about an historical person, event, or place. Rose Library staff interview guests connected to the archive to engage in conversation that connects the session with our collections. Audiences will learn from the insights of our guests and more about what we do and who we are as an organization and as a profession.