Denise Edger: The Lesbian Rabbi Cared for AIDS Patients When No One Would

It was the late '80s, the height of the AIDS crisis. Rabbi Denise Eger was 28 years old—"a newly minted rabbi"—who would don mask, gown, and rubber gloves to visit members of her congregation in the hospital. Nurses were too afraid to enter the hospital rooms so they'd leave patients' meals outside. It was "the years when they thought you could catch it through the air," she recalls.

Rabbi Eger would feed those too weak to do it themselves, often removing her mask and gloves, providing a rare dose of human touch. Then she'd move to another patient, another hospital.  At the same time, she was coming out publicly. "If you're hiding and lying about who you are," she says, particularly for a rabbi, that's not a good thing. "It's not healthy...it's not good for the soul." She came out and has since become one of the most famous rabbis in the world. 

LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1