John Bone's Oral History and LGBTQ Seattle

 

Edward John Bone was born on October 15th in 1961 in Tacoma, Washington and goes by his middle name, John. He was raised as an only child with traditional, mid-western parents. He describes his early life to be stable and typical of a middle-class family in the 1960’s. John moved from Tacoma to Seattle in 1986 for a new job opportunity. This move introduced John to the Seattle gay community and enabled him to find his own sexual identity as a gay man. Having not been exposed to the possibilities of gay life, he had spent his youth knowing he was different from the hetero-normative culture around him but did not have the understanding to self-identify. Through John’s coming out process, he became active in the gay nightlife scene in Seattle and spent most of his time there, living in one of the city’s LGBTQ neighborhoods, Capitol Hill. Today, John lives in Eugene, Oregon, and spends his free time on his many hobbies including comic books, art, science fiction, and paleontology. 

John describes his coming out process as simple and relatively easy, finding acceptance from his friends and, eventually, family members. He does, however, describe his experience of coming out during the AIDS epidemic to be challenging and confusing. John was diagnosed with HIV in 1990 when the disease was still new and treatment options were limited. John himself described that an HIV diagnoses, at this time, was considered a “death sentence”.  He himself was told that he would most likely lose his battle with the virus within a year of his diagnosis. Luckily, John surpassed his doctor’s expectations and has been managing his HIV for over three decades. After moving to Eugene, Oregon in 2006, John became a client and volunteer with the Eugene HIV alliance and has been working to improve the lives and treatment of Lane County community members who live with HIV.John is an active volunteer with the Eugene HIV Alliance. He helps create quarterly newsletters and has helped organize fundraising events over the years. 

 

In 2016 John did an interview with local Eugene news station, KVAL, titled I Have HIV And… In this interview he discusses his struggles with treatment and balancing his day-to-day life with his health care needs.