Thread by @wolfejosh

THREAD.

1/ With today's science news on HIV/AIDS reported cured in a patient––this is VERY powerful reminder of how VERY random life is...
nytimes.com/2019/03/04/hea…

2/ I was a HS sophomore in Brooklyn doing Westinghouse science competition––inspired to help advance science of HIV/AIDS by the book turned HBO movie "And the Band Played On"...

3/ This was my first published science paper in Cell Biology.
"Urokinase dysregulation and progression of HIV infection into full-blown AIDS in children"

4/ This was another published later
"Altered levels of urokinase on monocytes and in serum of children with AIDS"...

But 2 key things happened...

5/ My immunopathology mentor Dr Dominick Auci PhD was the first openly gay man I was friends with.

He traded futures + options while we waited for centrifuges to spin-down

I joined to learn science––but got obsessed with capital markets––leading to Lux

The other key thing––

6/ He + his then partner were amongst the earliest gay couples to adopt a child. They offered love that no straight family would. The kid was nicknamed "torch" b/c all the abuse he suffered thru his broken family + bad foster homes––manifested in pyro + he constantly burned stuff

7/ Taught me LOVE is LOVE.

When I got to college––first class I had was Comms/Speech.
We had to pick and debate a topic.
I argued passionately and persuasively––that gay couples should be allowed to marry + allowed to adopt––because you can't legislate LOVE.

8/ I wrote about parts of this before...

https://twitter.com/wolfejosh/status/957987836933832704