The Oprah Winfrey Show

AIDS in West Virginia (2x10)

Air date: Nov 16, 1987

This show was about the reaction to AIDS in small town, America in the years after the disease began to make itself known. The whole thing was about an incident at the community swimming pool in Williamson, WV, a coal mining town, the county seat of Mingo County in the southwestern part of the state. A young man from that area, who was gay, had left his home and moved to Texas, where he contracted AIDS by engaging in unprotected sex. He had come back home to die, and was, he alleged, discriminated against in every manner. It was through sheer desperation that he went to the swimming pool to cool off from summer's heat, when he was noticed by some other swimmers who then notified the pool's manager. Not knowing what else to do, the manager declared a chlorine emergency, the pool was emptied, drained, and scrubbed with disinfectants. The story was first reported locally, then nationally. It was the overreaction by the locals that gave this story legs. Oprah had been wanting to do a story about AIDS, and once she became aware of this story's circumstances, decided to do her show from Williamson some five months later.