logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2022
50m 8s

LGBT history special

Bbc World Service
About this episode

In the 1990s, doctors in Berlin began a cutting-edge treatment programme that led to a patient being cured of HIV/AIDS. The so-called "Berlin patient" was Timothy Ray Brown: he was suffering from leukemia as well as HIV/AIDS, and was given a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation which killed off the HIV virus. We find more about Timothy Ray Brown's story and the latest research on an HIV cure.

Also, in a special edition on LGBT history, how Bollywood lesbian drama "Fire" raised awareness of LGBT issues in India; the trans film star who made headlines in Yugoslavia during a time of war; and the first couple in the world to celebrate a same-sex civil union.

PHOTO: Timothy Ray Brown in 2012 (Getty Images)

Up next
Nov 22
Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain and ending the Bosnian war
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mercedes Peñalba- Sotorrío, a senior lecturer in modern European history at Manchester Metropolitan University, England.</p><p>We start with the death of General ... Show More
1 h
Nov 15
Speed of Sound and prosecuting Nazis
<p>Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor.</p><p>We start with an archive interview of American Chuck Yeager who became the first pilot to fly faster than the speed ... Show More
1h 1m
Nov 8
The largest dinosaur and creating Miffy
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Darja Dankina, who's a palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. We start with the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever, uncovered by ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2022
The Berlin Patient
In the 1990s, doctors in Berlin began a cutting-edge treatment programme that led to a patient being cured of HIV/AIDS. The so-called "Berlin patient" was Timothy Ray Brown: he was suffering from leukemia as well as HIV/AIDS, and was given a bone marrow transplant from a donor wi ... Show More
8m 59s
Dec 2021
40 years later, stigma still overshadows HIV prevention
In 1981, the first case of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was diagnosed. The virus that causes AIDS, became a thing to be feared for people in the LGBTQ+ community, who also became a scapegoat for its existence. On World AIDS Day, we remember that even when things have ch ... Show More
23m 18s
Feb 2022
Bollywood's pioneering lesbian drama
The Bollywood film "Fire" was the first in Indian history to depict a lesbian relationship. Released in 1998, the movie sparked a row over censorship and then a wider debate about LGBT rights in a country where homosexuality was then illegal. In 2015, Lucy Burns met Bollywood sup ... Show More
9m 1s
Dec 2023
AIDS Epidemic: Life & Death On The Frontline
<p>How do we understand something as huge as a global epidemic?</p><br><p>Similarly to Covid, the AIDS epidemic, which was most destructive in the 1980s and 90s, had such universal reach. Yet within that, there were millions of personal experiences.</p><br><p>What was it like to ... Show More
59m 33s
Sep 2019
A conversation with the 'Berlin patient,' the first person cured of HIV
In 2007, a man known as the "Berlin patient" was cured of HIV through a stem cell transplant. It was an incredible accomplishment that researchers all over the world scrutinized for years to come. He was the first and only documented case of a person who has been cured of HIV unt ... Show More
18m 16s
Jun 2022
HIV/AIDS Advocacy | 72
In 1992 HIV/AIDS hit a grim milestone in the United States when it became the number one cause of death among men ages 25 to 44. Since there was still so much stigma attached to the illness, people were often dying without even telling their closest friends and family that they w ... Show More
42m 47s
May 2023
AIDS
In the 1980s, the world was gripped by a virus that was killing people in their thousands; savaging communities and creating a climate of fear, blame and ignorance. That virus was HIV, and here to sift the facts from the fiction and explain how the AIDS crisis transformed everyth ... Show More
40m 4s
Nov 2021
The Aids 'patient zero' myth
In the early days of Aids, a misunderstanding made one man the face of the epidemic. Canadian air steward Gaetan Dugas developed the symptoms of HIV/Aids in the early 1980s, but a misreading of scientific data led to him being identified as 'patient zero', giving the mistaken imp ... Show More
10m 3s
Nov 2023
Section 28: The Anti-Gay Law That Sparked A Movement
<p>The 1980s have a lot to answer for - spandex, for one.</p><br><p>It also saw the first new anti-gay law in Britain for over a century.</p><br><p>Against the backdrop of the HIV epidemic, and increasing homophobia across the media and politics, the law Section 28 was passed in ... Show More
38m 44s
Feb 2024
There Was Love Here
In this final episode, we turn to people living with HIV today — longtime survivors of a plague who, despite their pain, frustrations and desires to just be done with it, realize they can’t be done with it. These are people like Kia LaBeija, an artist born HIV-positive, who turne ... Show More
38 m
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami