Charlie Pakluck, Campus Carrier guest columnist

Earl “Trey” Singleton III left his Indianapolis home at seventeen to live in New York City. He starts with nothing and meets Gregory, a wild man who changes the course of Trey’s life forever. They are immediately best friends and live together for years, though their relationship never moves past friendliness.

Gregory takes Trey to a local bathhouse where he meets all kinds of people. From tourists to critical activists and even a serial killer, Trey meets people who teach him critical life lessons. One of these people is Bayard Rustin, an activist who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin becomes Trey’s unofficial mentor and eventually leads him to Angie, a lesbian who has turned her home into a hospice for gay men dying of AIDS. She is a tough woman, but her care for the men reveals a softer interior that Trey is drawn to. He ends up working for her at AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP. The organization was formed to speak out against the government’s disregard of the AIDS crisis and to take care of people impacted by the disease. In his work with ACT UP, Trey realizes how extreme AIDS is and changes to take better care of himself. 

At the time that he is working with Angie, Trey and Gregory are struggling with housing. Their apartment building is severely neglected despite the rising rent price. Trey and Gregory convince their neighbors to start a rent strike, and while organizing, Trey finds his landlord, Fred Trump. Trump owned apartment buildings in predominantly Black areas and inflated rent prices to take advantage of his tenants who are typically ignored by higher-ups. In the end, Fred Trump is investigated for his unjust actions.

Despite the novel being historical fiction, the things Trey experiences are very real. The people, places and cruelties are completely true. Coming away from the book, readers learn the harsh reality of being a Black gay man in the 1980s. They discover the vicious realities of the AIDS crisis and how racism and homophobia are rampant in both queer and Black spaces. “My Government Means to Kill Me” is the perfect combination of funny, serious, sad and educational. It has been nominated for numerous awards and noted by the New York Times, all of which are well deserved.