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SPEAKER: Several years ago, Brian Coyle found that he was HIV positive and is likely to get AIDS, although he doesn't have the disease now. Coyle's story is different from that of some 4,000 other Minnesotans battling the life-threatening virus because he's such a public person.

You see, Brian Coyle is Vice President of the Minneapolis City Council. He tells his story in the May issue of Minnesota Monthly, the MPR magazine that will hit the stands today. Mr, Coyle joins us now by telephone to talk about his decision to go public with this issue and what lies ahead. Good morning.

BRIAN COYLE: Good morning. Hello.

SPEAKER: When did you first test positive for the HIV virus.

BRIAN COYLE: In January of 1986. I literally found out the information in the first week of the new year.

SPEAKER: Why did you wait until now to tell the story?

BRIAN COYLE: Well, I frankly wanted to be a survivor and I still do. I figured that I had already lived with the virus for many years and had intuited that and felt that disclosing the information might jeopardize myself and my health and frankly my work.

But I over the last few years have had a real internal debate with myself. And I've been very inspired by the many other people around the country that have come out with the information and told their story.

And last July, after hearing a panel of people at a health conference in Washington, I basically decided to come out and have been preparing to do so with David Carr, the writer for the Minnesota Monthly, for many months now.

SPEAKER: You said you intuited this. You mean you had a feeling that you had the AIDS virus even before you knew you did?

BRIAN COYLE: As early as 1982 or '83, I visited a doctor looking at skin rashes and so on that didn't seem to have a basis other than maybe stress. And at the time, we knew next to nothing about the virus. We really didn't know it was in our midst. And there wasn't even a name for it if you remember at the beginning.

SPEAKER: Anybody counsel you to keep the lid on this, not tell anybody about it?

BRIAN COYLE: Well, many people who I've disclosed to, whether it's been my family, or my doctor, or gradually my friends, have many times said, why go and tell people? And even when I made the decision last summer to start working on the story with David, I got the same response from many people.

But I think if you look at the coverage in the last 24 hours and the overwhelming positive response that I've received back from constituents and friends and colleagues, I think it's been worth coming out and telling the story.

SPEAKER: Tell me what some of the people have been telling you in the last few hours.

BRIAN COYLE: Well, in the last few hours, I've had phone calls from everything, from people with AIDS that live next door, to other council members, to people, heterosexual couples who did not support me in the first election and later supported me and have called me up and said, it makes no difference what the status of your health is. You're a great council member.

I've just had beautiful phone calls from people. And I'm sure I'll get some real negative ones. But I've lived with that before. And I can live with it again. The most important thing is that people are responding in a positive way to the story.

And I think it's because by using Minnesota Monthly and KSTP, I witnessed news. We've basically done the story in a quality way. It's hard these days in an era of 30 second media spots to tell a substantial story in a meaningful way. But I really want to thank those two news agencies for working with me.

SPEAKER: Has coming out and telling people that you're gay made your life more difficult as a public person?

BRIAN COYLE: Well, I came out as gay before I ever ran for election. And it has been difficult in certain ways. But it's also been liberating to be honest about who you are. In fact, that's been the hardest thing of living with this kind of a second secret and being in the closet again. And it just hasn't felt comfortable. And it's led to stress. Although I use a wide variety of meditation, prayer, and yoga and other things to alleviate stress and has seemed to have survived for many years. So I hope to--

SPEAKER: What about your future? What about your future for political purposes? What are you going to do?

BRIAN COYLE: Well, I don't know yet. I'll see how people respond. I'll see if I continue to enjoy the job as much as I do because it really is wonderful and gives me a sense of purpose. And I don't really think I have to determine one way or another what I'm going to do politically for a little while here.

SPEAKER: How do you think coming out, making this public at this time might affect your chances of surviving, succeeding in the battle against AIDS?

BRIAN COYLE: I think it can only help me. I already have done pretty well with it all. And I think that it can only help me to simply deal with people in an honest way and with myself. And of course, facing any terminal, potentially terminal disease brings you face to face with the reality of death and yet that can be a very life-enhancing thing.

I mean, you learn to live every day, one day at a time, and enjoy the preciousness of life. If anything, it heightens your appreciation of every little thing, every day. And I've had hundreds beautiful things in the last 24 hours happen to me, so it's been worth it.