Rev. Steve Pieters Dies: HIV/AIDS Advocate Interviewed By Tammy Faye Bakker, Portrayed In Jessica Chastain Film Was 70

Greg Evans
·4 min read
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Rev. Dr. A. Stephen Pieters, the AIDS activist and longtime HIV survivor known informally and widely as Steve Pieters following his groundbreaking 1985 interview by televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, died July 8 in Los Angeles after a two-week hospitalization with an infection. He was 70.

His death was announced by spokesperson Harlan Boll.

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The historic Bakker-Pieters interview, one of the earliest sympathetic presentations of a gay man with AIDS made all the more remarkable by Bakker’s then-elevated status in the evangelical community, was depicted in the 2021 feature film The Eyes of Tammy Faye starring Jessica Chastain as Bakker and featuring Randy Havens of Stranger Things as Pieters.

In a statement, Chastain, who won an Oscar for her performance, said, “Steve Pieters was an inspiration and advocate for those living with HIV/AIDS for over 35 years. He was a constant reminder that God is LOVE. Rest in Peace sweet angel Steve. You made a difference in the lives of so many and you will be missed.”

The 1985 interview also was depicted in Elton John’s 2022 West End musical Tammy Faye.

Pieters was a long-term survivor of AIDS, having been originally diagnosed in 1982 with what was then called GRID, or Gay Related Immunodeficiency. In April 1984, he was diagnosed with AIDS/Kaposi’s Sarcoma and stage four lymphoma, and was told by one health professional that he would not live to see 1985.

But in ’85 he became the first patient in an anti-viral drug trial to treat HIV, and within the first six weeks of treatment with the drug suramin his cancers went into remission. Toxic side effects caused the drug to be discontinued for use against AIDS, but Pieters’ cancers remained in remission.

His memoir LOVE is Greater Than AIDS: A Memoir of Survival, Healing, and Hope will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in the spring of 2024. The book details Pieters’ story of recovering from AIDS in the 1980s and his health challenges and adventures in Hollywood since that time.

Regarding the Bakker interview, Pieters said he was “amazed at how those 25 minutes” reverberated throughout his life, “more than almost anything else I’ve done. So many people have said my interview with her helped them come out or even saved them from suicide, by helping them realize they could be gay and Christian, or that God was not punishing them with AIDS for being gay.”

Born in Andover, Massachusetts,, Pieters joined Good Shepherd Parish Metropolitan Community Church in Chicago in 1976, where he decided to pursue the professional ministry. He received his Master of Divinity Degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in 1979 and accepted a position as Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford, Connecticut.

The Bakker interview gave Pieters a national profile and is regarded as a milestone in the country’s perceptions of AIDS sufferers. In 1985, he was a featured speaker at AIDS Project Los Angeles’ Commitment To Life, the first entertainment industry dinner AIDS benefit given by Elizabeth Taylor.

In November, 1987 he presented the Buddy of the Year Award to Whoopi Goldberg at APLA’s third Commitment to Life benefit, and in the summer of 1990, he appeared as himself in the play AIDS US/II. His story also appears in the books, Surviving AIDS by Michael Callen, Voices That Care by Neal Hitchens, and Don’t Be Afraid Anymore by Rev. Troy D. Perry.

In October, 2019, examples of his work in AIDS Ministry and of his life as a person with HIV/AIDS were placed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and he was featured in the 2023 documentary feature film Commitment to Life.

Just prior to his death, Pieters provided the opening invocation for the second year at the Hollywood Museum’s annual “Real to Reel: Portrayals and Perceptions of LGBTQ+s in Hollywood.”

Funeral services and memorials have not yet been announced. Donations in his honor can be made to AIDS Project Los Angles, City of Hope, The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and Project Angel Food.

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