When the HIV/AIDS epidemic reached Utah in the early 1980s, fear and stigma swept through the state. With the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shaping much of the cultural climate, homosexuality was condemned, and those living with AIDS were often rejected by their families, faith communities, and even healthcare providers. In that environment of silence and fear, two women—Dr. Kristen Ries and physician assistant Maggie Snyder—stood almost alone in offering care, compassion, and dignity.

Ries, an infectious disease specialist, had just arrived in Salt Lake City in 1981—the same day the CDC first reported on what would come to be known as AIDS. Where many physicians turned patients away, she opened her practice at Holy Cross Hospital to them. By the mid-1980s, she was caring for nearly all of Utah’s HIV patients. Recognizing the overwhelming need, she recruited nurse Maggie Snyder, helping her train as a physician assistant so they could take on the growing caseload together.

Their approach went far beyond medicine. At a time when people feared even touching AIDS patients, Ries and Snyder insisted on hugs, hand-holding, and skin-to-skin contact. They worked after hours to secure medications, sometimes using their own money to cover costs so that no one went without treatment. Together with the Sisters of the Holy Cross, they built a small but determined community of caregivers who provided not just medical attention, but family to those dying alone.

The two women also became life partners, though their personal relationship was kept quiet in conservative Utah. To many of their patients, however, they were simply “Kris and Maggie”—a pair whose clinic became a sanctuary when no other doors were open. They also helped launch what became the Utah AIDS Foundation, educated schools and churches, and even trained funeral directors on how to respectfully handle the dead.

By the time they retired in the 2010s, HIV treatment had become mainstream in Utah, thanks in no small part to the path they had carved. Today, Ries and Snyder are remembered not only as medical pioneers but as healers who put compassion above fear, and humanity above stigma. Their legacy endures in every patient who found care, hope, and dignity when the world turned its back.