The AIDS virus is not a political creature. It does not care whether you are
Democrat or Republican. It does not ask whether you are Black or White, male or
female, gay or straight, young or old. tonight I represent and AIDS community
whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American
society. Thought I am White, and a mother , I am one with a Black infant
struggling with the tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. Though I am female, and
contracted this disease in marriage, and enjoy the warm support of my family, I
am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind
of his family's rejection.
So said Mary Fisher in her historic speech at the 1992 Republican National
Convention. My Name Is Mary chronicles the emotional events
leading up to and following this momentous evening. In a memoir that exhibits
the same grace and unflinching honesty that moved the nation, Mary Fisher shares
the story of her life. Here for the first time Fisher talks about her
experiences as a child of divorce, as the daughter of an alcoholic family, and
of her own alcoholism. Mary was adept at being the bright, beautiful, perfect
child, which armed her for her stint as the woman "advanceman" in the White
House and for the job of television producer, but which made the admission that
she needed help with her own alcohol abuse even more difficult. As the adopted
daughter of Max Fisher, one of the country's most influential men, Mary traveled
easily in the highest social circles. But this label of rich, White Republican
woman was to be another obstacle to overcome in her battle to fight AIDS, both
personally and publicly.
from the liner notes of My Name Is Mary
