Coins2Day Archives: The AIDS activist and the banker

The 37th annual World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 came in the wake of some good news in HIV/AIDS research: a seventh case of HIV cure reported in Germany over the summer, and promising new research on shots to prevent HIV infection in women.

It’s also a time of deep angst about what looks likely to be a major setback in efforts to eradicate the deadly infection: President-elect Donald Trump’s likely Health and Human Services head, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has glorified the remarks of an infamous AIDS-denialist, and has questioned whether HIV even causes AIDS (it does)—suggesting at one point that poppers, a popular drug in the gay party scene, might actually be the culprit.

What better time to look for activist inspiration? An excellent place to find it is in this 2016 Coins2Day interview by Patricia Sellers. The conversation between brothers Jes Staley, then the CEO of Barclays, and Peter Staley, a famed AIDS activist best known for shutting down the New York Stock Exchange in a 1989 ACT UP protest over drug prices, was the first time the siblings sat down for a joint interview. The result is a poignant discussion about homophobia, bravery, and brotherly love.

Peter told Sellers about going home for Thanksgiving in 1985, when he was working as a bond trader at J.P. Morgan, with a plan to come out as both gay and HIV-positive to his family.

“It was within 10 days of the diagnosis,” he explained. “I knew I had to build a support system around me, that I couldn’t do this alone.” He was particularly nervous about telling his brother, the head of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, who was, according to Peter, quite homophobic.

Jes recalled that the news of his brother’s diagnosis—understood at that time to be essentially a death sentence—was “shocking.” He spoke candidly about anti-gay sentiment in Wall Street’s culture—and also how watching Peter’s bravery changed him profoundly.

“Just to watch Peter go through that whole process and what his friends were going through, it was the beginning of a long march that changed my life,” Jes said, “and I think changed the world in some ways.”

Just three months after the interview, Donald Trump would win the presidency for the first time. In 2021, Jes would step down from his role at Barclays following revelations about his ties to the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Peter remains an activist and has since published a memoir.