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‘Three Little Words’ bonus content for Chapter 2

Learn about the Michigan communities where Mick and Jane Morse lived before moving to Brazil, plus more information about the drug AZT.
 
Published Nov. 30, 2021|Updated Nov. 30, 2021

Mick Morse’s hometown of Fennville, near Saugatuck, and Janie Brandt’s hometown of Union City:

Map showing locations of Fennville and Union City, Michigan.
Map showing locations of Fennville and Union City, Michigan. [ MARTIN FROBISHER | Times art ]

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A Michigan Radio story talking about the gay-friendly community of Saugatuck, Mich.:

How the largest gay resort in the Midwest is in Michigan’s “Bible belt” — Michigan Radio, Jan. 11, 2016

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Michigan law equated homosexuality with drug users, vagrants and prostitutes:

1968 Michigan Liquor Control Act (courtesy of Michigan Radio and the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society Collection)
1968 Michigan Liquor Control Act (courtesy of Michigan Radio and the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society Collection)

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Michigan Penal Code still describes sodomy as a crime against nature punishable by life in prison — Michigan Compiled Laws

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Excerpt of the 2003 Supreme Court case that invalidated state laws criminalizing homosexuality:

2003 Supreme Court case (Lawrence v. Texas) that decriminalized sodomy.
2003 Supreme Court case (Lawrence v. Texas) that decriminalized sodomy.

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Out of DSM: Depathologizing HomosexualityBehavioral Sciences, (U.S. National Library of Medicine/ National Institutes of Health) Dec. 4, 2015

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The Morse family moved to Leblon in 1975 so Mick can take a teaching job at the Escola Americana (American School):

Location of the American School of Leblon, Brazil
Location of the American School of Leblon, Brazil

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Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services Dr. Robert Windom discusses AZT, or azidothymidine, at a 1986 news conference:

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The Food and Drug Administration would later approve AZT in only four months’ time:

AIDS TEST DRUG PROLONGS LIVES IN SOME CASESThe New York Times, Sept. 20, 1986