Love is Greater than AIDS: A Memoir of Survival, Healing, and Hope
is Rev. A. Stephen Pieter’s inspiring story of surviving AIDS and the notorious Suramin antiviral drug trial to lead a life of ministry, celebrity, LGBTQ+ and AIDS activism, and hope.
The story begins with Pieters’ 1985 interview with Tammy Faye Bakker on her TV show, Tammy’s House Party, which made him a national celebrity and spokesperson for the AIDS community.
He reflects on his childhood and college years, leading up to his coming out story. Soon after, he responds to a call to the ministry by attending seminary and then serving in Metropolitan Community Churches, a primarily LGBTQ+ denomination.
In the late 1970s, Pieters became the gay activist pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford, Connecticut. There he helped settle gay Cuban refugees from the Mariel boat lift, and aided police investigations of the murders of two gay men.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1982, Steve then experienced a long series of illnesses that led to his diagnosis with stage four lymphoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and AIDS in 1984. He was not expected to survive, but he defied his prognosis and became a well-known AIDS activist, participating in several AIDS organizations in Los Angeles and across the country. He spoke on behalf of people living with AIDS at both the first AIDS Walk in the world, and at Elizabeth Taylor’s Commitment to Life event, the first film and television industry fundraiser for AIDS. He also become Patient Number One on Suramin, the first antiviral drug trial to treat HIV/AIDS. Although his cancers go into complete remission, the drug very nearly kills him. Steve is one of only two survivors of that notorious drug trial.
Having fully recovered from AIDS by 1987, Steve made AIDS ministry his life. For the next eleven years he traveled the world, preaching and teaching about AIDS and giving hope and joy in the face of all the hopelessness and grief. Knowing what it’s like to be on a death bed, he volunteered as a chaplain at the Chris Brownlie AIDS Hospice, where he discovered his gift for helping people heal into their deaths.
Thanks to advances in treatment, HIV disease became a manageable condition in 1997. Realizing he was burned out on ministry, and with AIDS social services agencies all downsizing, Pieters began to work for, of all places, Playboy, becoming close friends with Christie Hefner He then describes how the stress and grief of the AIDS years manifested itself in addiction issues. After he began to recover, he had a brief career as a psychotherapist. He experienced brushes with death in 2012, describing how dancing in the spirit and singing with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles helped him stay alive through it all.
In the years that followed, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History invited Pieters to donate his AIDS ministry artifacts and papers.
The 2021 feature film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, starring Academy-Award winner Jessica Chastain, includes part of Steve’s 1985 interview with Tammy Faye Baker, a pivotal turning point in the movie, brings his memoir full circle. His remarkable life, which ended in 2023 at the age of 70, is proof that love is indeed greater than AIDS.