As per our current Database, Steve Pieters is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).
Currently, Steve Pieters is 70 years, 9 months and 22 days old. Steve Pieters will celebrate 71rd birthday on a Friday 5th of July 2024. Below we countdown to Steve Pieters upcoming birthday.
| Popular As | Steve Pieters |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Age | 70 years old |
| Zodiac Sign | Cancer |
| Born | July 5, 1953 () |
| Birthday | July 5 |
| Town/City | |
| Nationality |
Steve Pieters’s zodiac sign is Cancer. According to astrologers, the sign of Cancer belongs to the element of Water, just like Scorpio and Pisces. Guided by emotion and their heart, they could have a hard time blending into the world around them. Being ruled by the Moon, phases of the lunar cycle deepen their internal mysteries and create fleeting emotional patterns that are beyond their control. As children, they don't have enough coping and defensive mechanisms for the outer world, and have to be approached with care and understanding, for that is what they give in return.
Steve Pieters was born in the Year of the Snake. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Snake are seductive, gregarious, introverted, generous, charming, good with money, analytical, insecure, jealous, slightly dangerous, smart, they rely on gut feelings, are hard-working and intelligent. Compatible with Rooster or Ox.
The Rev. Dr. A. Stephen Pieters is a long-term survivor of AIDS. Diagnosed with AIDS-related complex (ARC) in 1982, and AIDS/Kaposi's Sarcoma and stage four Lymphoma in 1984. His remarkable story of recovery serves as an inspiring example of healing and hope.
He has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Sunday Times, Time magazine, Omni magazine, Life magazine, and numerous television talk and news shows including CNN, Headline News, Tammy's House Party with Tammy Faye Bakker, CBS This Morning, the Tom Snyder Show, America Talks Back, and Real Life with Jane Pauley.
He is featured in "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" (2000).In September, 1985, he was a featured speaker at the first entertainment industry dinner AIDS benefit, given by Elizabeth Taylor and honoring former First Lady Betty Ford.
In November, 1987 he presented the Buddy of the Year Award to Whoopi Goldberg at APLA's third annual entertainment industry benefit. In the summer of 1990, he appeared as himself in the hit 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.Rev. Pieters was born and raised in Andover, Massachusetts, where his father chaired the Mathematics Department at Phillips Academy.
Steve attended Phillips Andover in preparation for his theater studies at Northwestern University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Speech in 1974.In 1976, he joined Good Shepherd Parish Metropolitan Community Church in Chicago, where he decided to pursue a calling to the professional ministry.
He received his Master of Divinity Degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in 1979, at which time he accepted a call as Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford, Connecticut.In Hartford, he served on the Board of Directors of the Hill Center, Inc.
, and Center City Churches, and on the Executive Committee of the Sexual Minorities Task Force of the Capitol Region Conference of Churches. The Gay Switchboard for the region was kept in his home, and he was interviewed in the print media, as well as on many TV and radio shows as one of the few local gay activists.
In April, 1982, Steve began experiencing the first symptoms of what we now know as HIV infection, but then was called GRID: Gay Related Immunodeficiency. Steve resigned his position in Hartford, and moved to Los Angeles, where he experienced a series of illnesses, including hepatitis, cytomegalovirus, mononucleosis, and pneumonia.
That led to his diagnosed with ARC: AIDS-related complex. In April, 1984, he was diagnosed with AIDS/Kaposi's Sarcoma and stage four lymphoma, and he was told by one health professional that he would not live to see 1985.
There were no treatments available, and his doctor, Alexandra M. Levine, M.D., told him, "You in the church have more to offer at this point than we do in medicine." She also challenged him to "do everything you can to create the conditions for medication to work when we find something," adding, "If 0.
001% end up surviving AIDS, than why not believe that you will be among that 0.001%, and act accordingly?"Not only did he live to see 1985, but during that year he became "patient number 1" on the first anti-viral drug trial to treat HIV.
He took suramin for a total of 39 weeks. Within six weeks of treatment with suramin, both cancers went into complete remission. Due to toxic side effects, the drug was discontinued for use against AIDS.
However, Rev. Pieters continues to enjoy a complete remission of his cancers, according to his physician, Alexandra M. Levine, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of City Of Hope.Since his diagnosis, Rev. Pieters has served on the Boards of Directors of AIDS Project Los Angeles, the AIDS Interfaith Council of Southern California, the AIDS National Interfaith Network (USA), and the first Los Angeles City/County AIDS Task Force, and was Field Director for the AIDS Ministry of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches from 1987 to 1997.
He has written a series of articles for Journey magazine about his experiences with AIDS, which have been collected with other writings of Rev. Pieters' in the book, I'm Still Dancing.Rev. Pieters was one of twelve guests at the first AIDS Prayer Breakfast at the White House with U.
S. President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and National AIDS Policy Coordinator Kristine Gebbie on November 30, 1993. The President talked about Rev. Pieters in his World AIDS Day speech on December 1, 1993.
Rev. Pieters has received awards for his ministry in the AIDS crisis from the Board of Elders of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches; Evangelicals Together, Inc.; the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles; The Lazarus Project of the West Hollywood Presbyterian Church; and the West Hollywood City Council.
In 1989 he received an Honorary Doctor of Ministry Degree from Samaritan College, the seminary of the Metropolitan Community Churches. In 1990, he received the prestigious Sheldon Andelson Award from the Stonewall Democratic Club, and the Sandra L.
Robinson Award from Community Unity in Dayton, Ohio.Rev. Pieters received an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University in 2003, and subsequently worked as a psychotherapist for the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center; Alternatives, Inc.
; Teen Line; and the Westminster Counseling Center.Reverend Pieters has been a singing member of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles since 1994. From 1994-99, he served on their Board of Directors, and as Chair of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles Board from 1997-99.
With the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, he has performed in some of the great concert halls of the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York (in 1994 and 2019), Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Reverend Pieters has served as Staff Clergy at Founders Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles. He has traveled the world, teaching, preaching, and sharing his belief in God's healing and sustaining power while living with HIV/AIDS.
Everywhere he spoke, he carried a fairy wand to teach about the importance of believing in fairies when so many good fairies were dying, of believing in each other and in ourselves, enough to do the work of healing, whether that be healing into life, or healing into death.
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. Included in that collection is his fairy wand.
