Dr. Cyril Goshima
Below is a summary of an interview between Lani Teves and Dr. Cyril Goshima conducted in May 2024.
Dr. Cyril Goshima grew up in Pālolo with his parents and two sisters in the 1960s. A practicing Catholic, Dr. Goshima attended Maryknoll School before enrolling at the University of Washington. He returned home to Hawaiʻi and trained at the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine. After completing medical school he took an internship at the US Public Health Service in Staten Island, NY. He then continued his public health service working at Indian Health service in Arizona with the Navajo tribe. He returned to Hawaiʻi and completed his residency in internal medicine and started working at a clinic in Waikīkī while he was building his own practice in Kaimukī.
As Dr. Goshima was putting his practice together, an unknown virus began to spread. As the chairman of the Hawaiʻi Medical Association Infection Control Committee, he was vocal about new illnesses impacting the local community. Fear and ignorance were common around the topic of HIV/AIDS. On September 19, 1986 Dr. Cyril Goshima testified before the Board of Education against a proposal to ban children with AIDS from attending public schools in Hawaiʻi. Despite testimonies by parents who feared their children would be exposed, the Board rejected the proposal. Physicians like Goshima and Dr. David McEwan were vocal in educating the Department of Health and Department of Education on how AIDS was transmitted. In October 1987, he was appointed to Governor Waiheʻe’s Committee on AIDS. The committee was tasked with doing the difficult work of establishing guidelines and support systems during the AIDS crisis. As a result of this committees’ work, Hawaiʻi was a leader in AIDS prevention and education. He remained on the Committee for over a decade and served as chairman throughout the early and mid-1990s.
“There were many [people] that we had to consult on during that period of time, not only them, but their families. I met some of the best families in the world and some of the worst. The ones that were the best, I just could not believe how much they cared for the person that had AIDS. A lot of times they were actually their spouse. They didn’t know that they were gay. They only knew they were gay because they had to know to get tested and they were getting sicker and sicker and taking care of them. When they died, some of them stayed with them, married to them until the very end. It still breaks me up because you can find that much kind of love in the world, that you can deal with adversity with that. I think that’s for me, why I really value that. I feel like I’ve been blessed in many ways. Dealing with a lot of that…especially some of the gay local people.”
Across the span of his life, Dr. Goshima observed the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ individuals to find supportive and knowledgeable healthcare providers, especially in primary care. He worked as an advocate for all his patients and especially for those impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis. He describes that he “grew up in AIDS” as the HIV/AIDS crisis pushed him into leadership roles and in some ways “out of the closet” and into being a prominent member of government committees and medical associations. On a personal level, Dr. Goshima balanced his personal identity as a gay man with how his patients may have perceived him and how to best provide care for people who were struggling. In the interview, he recalls:
He notes that it was very difficult for many years because of fears within the local community and strong religious influences, making HIV education and support challenging, and local people especially felt like they did not have anyone or anywhere to turn to.
Listen to the full oral history interview above to learn more about Dr. Cyril Goshima and his experiences as a local physician and gay man who was a key actor in the response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Hawaiʻi. During the course of his career, he became the Executive Director for the AIDS Education Training Center of the University of Hawaiʻi and he helped countless physicians and nurses across the Pacific to treat patients living with HIV/AIDS. The training center later became the Pacific AIDS Education & Training Center - Hawaiʻi & US-Affiliated Pacific Islands that continues to provide clinical training for under-resourced Pacific Island nations. Dr. Goshima was recognized by the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health with the Suzanne Richmond-Crum award in 2006 for his contributions to HIV/AIDS care and after retiring in 2022, he was awarded the “Kahu Mālama” award from Gregory House for his early work in treating HIV/AIDS patients when no other doctors would. In the oral history, he also describes what it was like growing up in a local Catholic family, how he met his life partner and future husband, and what the gay scene was like for local people in the late 1970s Hawaiʻi.
Image Credits:
Banner - Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 3/3/88
1) - Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 10/16/87
2) - Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7/9/96
3) - Hawai’i Health and Harm Reduction Center