Elton John memoir to raise money for his AIDS charity

Elton John performs in Zurich, Switzerland, July 13, 2012.

/ AP/Keystone

(CBS News) Rocker Elton John describes how he was recruited into the battle against AIDS in a new book, "Love is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS," published this week by Little Brown.

Proceeds from the memoir will go the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has raised more than $275 million since it was founded in 1992.

Pictures: Elton John at 60
Pictures: Elton John in New York

John tells his story through anecdotes about AIDS victims - and survivors - who have influenced his life, from the famous, like Queen rocker Freddie Mercury, to the ordinary, like Indiana youth Ryan White who was 18 when he died of AIDS in 1990.

Describing the stigma that once surrounded AIDS, John says Mercury, one of his closest friends, was so ashamed of his illness that he did not disclose it until the day before he died.

"I reached out to the White family to offer my help," he recalls. "It turned out, in the end, the Whites would do far more for me than I ever did for them."

He also calls on readers to join him in the fight. "This is a disease that must be cured not by a miraculous vaccine, but by changing hearts and minds, and through collective effort to break down social barriers and to build bridges of compassion," he writes.

[thehil]

To Illgranny.....as you know, the term "marriage" has been tainted and ruined by the new term of "gay marriage". There should be a new name for it so that it does not put a bad light on the real marriage of a woman and a man. Say what you want, but history will prove me correct in all that I have said to you. We are down the tubes as a country that other countries look up to and try to copy. We have been ruined by liberals who disregard the laws of our democracy and the laws of God and nature. Enjoy the rest of your life if you can.

[thehil]

If you would read the news, I am talking about the fact that the LBGT are trying and getting in some states, insurance benefits, retirement benefits of their partner, and are trying to get social security benefits of their partners also. Now, your insurance and everyone else's will go up tremendously and make it prohibitive almost to even have insurance. We should have two governments, conservative and liberals. However you vote should decide what you are responsible for paying. If you vote liberal, then you pay for the higher premiums to include the LBGT group, and if you vote conservative, you don't have to pay. You will be surprised to see people voting conservative and all these liberal bills would not get passed. Enjoy, and read up on the current news and learn what the consequences of bad policy leads to, and that consequence is the rapid downfall of the U.S. as we knew it about 25 years ago. The money will run out and we will have anarchy like you could never imagine.

[itgranny]

They pay in too. Currently they are paying in and not getting the same benefits from it as you. They pay in taxes too, in many cases, more because they are forced to file singly, They should be getting the same ability to choose a partner and have all the rights and privileges any other marriage gets. I'm single myself and know we get the shaft because we don't get any of the same breaks married couples do. Why do you think that gays should have to pay in and not get back the same as you do?

I guess I've come to the conclusion you're a troll because no one can possibly be as dense as you're coming off. You spout off about bills and how I should read up and yet bring nothing to the table why these people should be treated different. They should be treated the SAME as everyone else, that's all there is to it.

[thehil]

The one that I am talking about was a relative and I know the type of lifestyle that he lived and the problems he caused his mother. She lived a horrible life with all of his sickness. Also, why are there so many gays in the white house, with a transvestite the entertainment director. His comment was "I can't wait til there are hundreds like me in the white house. The problem I have is that they try to push their agenda like gay marriage, without worrying about the consequences of that burdening our social security and other services, and making us the laughing stock of the world. In my opinion, it is not right, and it should not be called "a marriage". The reason that it passes is because lawyers know it will be a windfall of cash for there business because of the divorce rate among them. I have a right to express my opinion and that is what I am doing. You have a right to yours too, but open your eyes now, because when the realization sets in that HIV is spread by a number of ways, it will be too late. Casto had the right idea on how to deal with the problem, but the liberals got to him and he caved in to their wishes, and now look at the problem in Cuba. You need to study the problem thoroughly.

[itgranny]

The gays are burdening our Social Security System. Wow! that's a new one to me and quite a stretch since LGBT's pay the same into Social Security as you and I.

Thank goodness people like you are dieing off. Someday the world will look at our history and won't be able to figure out how you could possibly come to the sick, prejudice conclusions you have on how the world is supposed to operate. Your opinions will seem just as strange and foreign as justifying slavery, eating shell fish and having women as chattel.

It's been fun chatting with you.

[itgranny]

And one more thing. There's a huge difference in definitions between LGBT and promiscuous and you seem to be confusing the 2. LGBT's are not the only ones that sleep around. There are plenty of straight men (and women) who do too. Promiscuity is not good for society no matter what persuasion you are.

[thehil]

How long will it take for people to realize that we are the ones who have been alienated by the LBGT community, in that they feel that everyone should honor and respect their lifestyle. No matter how votes are cast against them, they continue to force their way of life on us. It is time for us to stand up and fight for our rights instead of just being forced to accept. Remember we have rights too.

[itgranny]

Exactly how does the LGBT lifestyle hurt you? Do they rape you? it doesn't sound like you know any yourself because you need to refer to the son of a woman you once talked to.

[thehil]

to itgranny .... the person I am talking about told everyone he was gay and had aids like he was proud of it. Even called his grand parents up late at night and told them that he was gay and had aids. In my opinion, he was evil in that he knowingly exposed others to the disease. For your information, they put people jail for that today, because they are attempting to injure or kill people with the disease. Please think responsibly on this subject, or we will all suffer more than we have already with millions more infected. You are the type that would liberalize the world out of existance. Please quit closing your mind to better alternatives. And Elton John is partly responsible for the aids epidemic because of his lifestyle example to others, as normal.

[itgranny]

Alienating a segment of the population is NEVER right.

[thehil]

to ltgranny ... do you think what we have done to fight it is working? I think that it is time to take a different approach if we are to be successful in defeating aids. If we cannot use a different and more conservative approach, then the LBGT community will do as you suggest, and just go away and die, and take other unsuspecting people with them. A mother told me that before her son died of AIDS, he confessed to her that he did not know how many people he had infected with the disease. That, to me, is Murder.

[itgranny]

Exactly why do you think this son didn't tell anyone? Because people like you (and probably that mother) think they are evil.

[itgranny]

Exactly why do you think that guy didn't tell anyone he had aids? If he was sniffling and sneezing with something do you think he would have been afraid to tell his partner (or his mom)? it's the fear of being stigmatized. Plus if you think that gay sex is the only way to catch aids you better do some reading and catch up.

[thehil]

How does Elton think that "changing hearts and minds and breaking down barriers to build bridges of compassion" will cure the AIDS epidemic without a vaccine? That is what is wrong with the thinking that we have to accept HIV and AIDS carriers into our lives, letting them serve and cook food, and be in our schools interacting as though there was no chance of them spreading the horrible disease. That disease is spread by means other than the accepted "science" of spreading it. We have to accept that and take other means to fight it. Aids cannot be fought by love and compassion, and has to be fought with a miracle cure. Look at the number of Aids and Hiv people there are in our nations capital. Look it up and you will be surprised to find the truth. We do not have to accept the LBGT lifestyle if we do not choose. We have liberalized and politicalized our health and our country down the tubes.

[itgranny]

Until the rigid, up-tights like yourself die off, we're going to continue the AIDS and HIV nightmare because you just don't think the people are important enough to put forth the effort. You don't want there to be a prevention or cure, you want all the LBGT community to go away or die.