Lori Cannon got started as a caregiver at a young age. One of her brothers was born with a heart defect and died at 14. The other had a motorcycle accident that left him with brain damage. As a child, Lori helped her parents care for both brothers.
“At an early age I experienced tragedy,” Cannon said in a 2007 oral history. “I think it might have prepared me for something.”
That something was the AIDS crisis. Cannon, though not LGBTQ herself, was fired up by what she saw as social and government indifference to the suffering of sick gay men. She became known as the “AIDS Angel of Chicago,” delivering meals and providing solace to the sick. In later years, she worked to keep the focus on HIV/AIDS—and other gay-rights issues—through a food pantry and activism ...