Carole LaFavor

Carole S. LaFavor (1942–2011) was an Ojibwe novelist, Native American rights activist and nurse. Known for her HIV/AIDS activism, she was featured in Mona Smith's 1988 film Her Giveway about her experiences living with the disease. Her two novels, Along the Journey River and Evil Dead Center were both published by Firebrand Books and her essay "Walking the Red Road" appears in the anthology Positive Women: Voices of Women Living with AIDS edited by Andrea Rudd and Darien Taylor.

Personal life

LaFavor was born in Minnesota on February 12, 1942[1] and identified as two-spirit and lesbian.[2][3][4]

In 1983, laFavor spoke of her rape by two white men during the proceedings of the Minneapolis Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance.[5]

HIV/AIDS work

LaFavor worked with the Minnesota American Indian AIDS Task Force and was a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1995 to 1997, where she served as the only Native American member. Diagnosed with HIV in 1986,[5] she was a founding member of Positively Native, an organisation that supports Native American people with HIV/AIDS.[6] LaFavor promoted the use of traditional medicine for Native Americans with HIV/AIDS and urged Native Americans to reintegrate into tribal nations and communities to help Native women receive culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS support.[5]

Death

LaFavor died on November 21, 2011.[7]

Bibliography
  • Along the Journey River (1996)
  • Evil Dead Center (1998)

References
  1. Ancestry.com. Minnesota, Death Index, 1908-2017 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
  2. "Carole laFavor". Tangled Web UK. 1998-11-16. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  3. Malinowsky, H. Robert (April 1994). "Her Giveaway: A Spiritual Journey with AIDS, by Minnesota American Indian AIDS Task Force". AIDS Book Review Journal. University of Illinois at Chicago. Archived from the original on 2008-01-21.
  4. "Along the Journey River".
  5. Tatonetti, Lisa (1 October 2016). "Detecting Two-Spirit erotics: The fiction of Carole laFavor". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 20 (3–4): 372–387. doi:10.1080/10894160.2016.1144426. ISSN 1089-4160. PMID 27254762. S2CID 21810961.
  6. "President Names to HIV/AIDS Advisory Council" (Press release). The White House. 1995-06-15. Archived from the original on September 24, 2004. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  7. "Carole (Nelson) LaFavor Obituary". Legacy.com. November 23, 2011.
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