"Oprah" Revisits a Painful Story of AIDS and Homophobia

On today's episode of Oprah, the talk show host revisits a fieldhouse in Willamson, West Virginia where she held a symposium of sorts in 1987. The topic, then, was AIDS, and revolved around Mike Sisco, a gay man who, at the time, was living with AIDS and had been shunned by his community. The nation learned of their behavior when his visit to the public swimming pool made headlines, as the town was scared of how he had "contaminated" it.

It's evident in the clips they showed of that 1987 episode that Mike was a brave man, one who only sought compassion from his neighbors and the right to enjoy the rest of his life with his family. But, back then, the town had nothing but repulsion and ill feelings toward Mike, gay people and AIDS victims, and they took turns stepping up to a microphone to share their feelings. Ideas were shared about quarantining AIDS patients, and how nature had given them the disease to wipe them all out.

But today, Oprah's revisit had these people apologizing to Mike's family, including Mike's sisters Patricia, Tina, and Anna (center below), who said she is now an out lesbian.

Anna now lives in Louisville, and the local news had her on their show last night to talk about her Oprah experience.

At the beginning of the show, Oprah asked the sisters about Mike not being able to be buried by his parents initially, and wondered if it was because the extended family thought his AIDS might reach people through the ground.

Anna said:

I think a lot of the reason as well they didn't want him buried there was because he was gay. [It's] a bigger part that what anybody would ever admit to.