What had seemed like a bright future, fighting for minority rights via the platform of academia, now looked like a bleak void. But suddenly, faced with a damning prognosis of HIV, his prospects looked bleak. He was a long way from his hometown of Taylor, Arkansas, with its conservative pedigree and modest population of approximately 500 people. His interest in race politics, queer discourse and literature had brought him to one of the most prestigious institutions in America. A three-letter diagnosis from a doctor in Northern California that, in his words, was “positive, yet anything but positive.” At the time, he was at Stanford University, writing his PhD in Modern Thought and Literature. In 1999 Tim’m T West received news that would change his life.