The following version of the book was used to create this guide: Newson, Rasheed. My Government Means to Kill Me. Flatiron Books, 2022.

Rasheed Newson’s first-person narrative, My Government Means to Kill Me, follows the life of Trey Singleton after he moved to New York City in the 1980s. At the outset of the novel, Trey renounced his trust find to escape the strict expectations of his parents. He felt demonized for his sexuality throughout his adolescence and felt that New York would offer him more opportunities to explore his identity. Shortly after moving into the Chelsea Hotel, Trey met Gregory who introduced him to the gay scene in New York. At Mt. Morris Baths, Trey was delighted by the open display of gay sexuality that he had not experienced before. At the bathhouse, he met Bayard Rustin, who swiftly became a close friend. The older man was a critical activist during the Civil Rights Movement and mentored Trey on social activism and community organization. He encouraged Trey to participate in the Gay Rights Movement. Later on, Trey organized a tenant strike in his building. Their landlord, Fred Trump, assumed that they were backed by the ACLU and agreed to settle to ensure that his illegal governance of the building was not brought to the press.

At his mentor’s suggestion, Trey began volunteering with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. On his first day, Peter Chatsworth introduced him to Angela McBroom, who ran a hospice for gay men dying from AIDS. Angie, like other lesbians during the 1980s, was instrumental in providing support, care, and solidarity to gay men suffering from AIDS. When a patient, Walton, died at the hospice, Trey carried the younger man’s body to the park. Shortly after, they called in his death as an overdose, knowing that the family would honor their son’s wish to be buried if his death was not associated with AIDS, and vicariously homosexuality. During his time working with Angie, Trey heard about Larry Kramer, a gay rights activist. He attended a meeting at Larry’s house and was asked to participate in a proofing process. Trey and other volunteers were burned, kicked, and slapped to test their strength in the face of police violence. Shortly after, Larry spoke at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center and enacted a formal inception of the activism group, ACT UP.

When ACT UP staged its first protest, activists stormed an intersection near Wall Street. Their efforts brought national attention to the AIDS crisis; the FDA agreed to push forward drug trials and the pharmaceutical companies agreed to lower prescription costs. Later, Trey walked in on Angie injecting one over her patients with an overdose of morphine. He knew that her actions were motivated by a warped sense of love but made her promise never perform an assisted suicide again. Despite the promise, Angie called Trey a few weeks later saying that she gave Bruno morphine, and his brother was planning an autopsy. Rustin and Peter encouraged Trey to let Angie face prosecution, but Trey was not willing to sacrifice his friend to the cause. He blackmailed Leslie Galbreath, a Republican congressman he saw having sex with Gregory, into meddling with the autopsy. While Trey was relieved that the coroner declare Bruno’s cause of death AIDS, the decision cost him his friendship with Gregory. When he returned home, his roommates attempted to stab him with a pair of scissors. Trey dodged the attack and spent the night at Angie’s apartment, thinking about all the men in their community who had needlessly died of AIDS.