Victoria Noe

Fags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the A.I.D.S. Community by Vitoria Noe Book Review 5/5/19

Victoria Noe was working with the gay community back in the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic started. She witnessed the illness and death of many gay friends and colleagues. She has tapped into the deep passion of these devastating losses to intensively research the role of straight women in this epidemic, especially when she could not find any reference to straight women in the literature. The focus was always on gay men. It was then that she vowed to give voice to these women who did so much behind the scenes. What resulted was a stunning array of women—health care workers, activists, artists, celebrities—whose tireless efforts have raised AIDS awareness and led to breakthrough research on treatment and improved community resources. You wiil meet many fascinating who have made a significant difference for those diagnosed with AIDS.

A well-written, extensively researched tribute to straight women in the gay community—a breakthrough work which has broken through the conspiracy of silence and shame surrounding AIDS.… (más)

In the fifth book of her award-winning series on friend grief, Friend Grief in the Workplace, Victoria Noe explores the provocative and universal question: what do we do when a co-worker dies? Noe brings her vast experience as a professional stage manager, a professional fundraiser for arts, education and AIDS service organizations and an award-winning sales consultant for children’s books to each of her books. The series is broken down into the death of a friend, the impact of the AIDS epidemic, 9/11, the military and,with this book , the death of a co-worker. Her sixth book will be about men and friend grief. The main impetus for Noe’s work was a promise to her best friend, Delle on Delle’s death bed to write their story.

As is characteristic of all her books, Friend Grief in the Workplace is meticulously researched and highlights the lives of both celebrities and non-celebrities, giving specific examples of how friends have been impacted by the loss of a co-worker who often becomes a friend. In exposing the realities of workplace death and a company’s lack of protocol for dealing with it, she has increased awareness for both workers and their companies which can lead to a call to action. Her writing is engaging and fluent and makes me feel I am in the room while she is interviewing the people.

Her work elevates her cause to bring awareness to all that the loss of a friend, in any circumstance, needs to be valued as much as the loss of a family member. I commend her for her valuable contribution to the grief work field and highly recommend her series. Since dealing with death is universal to all of us, her series will appeal to a wide range of people, including service providers, health care workers, clergy. Friend Grief in the Workplace would be a valuable resource for business owners.… (más)