I don't know if any of you have sewn a quilt for a friend who was dying of AIDS (I suppose East will have seen this big time), but this gigantic exhibition is going back to Washington...
In Memoriam of the so many that are suffering of AIDS related diseases, who are living with HIV but also all of those who have already departed... This article reminds us.
Note that they're setting up an application that will allow you to find a specific quilt with a specific name and you'll be able to leave a comment etc... I find that interesting and noble.
I lived in San Francisco from 1976 to 1981. I not only remember AIDS, I remember coworkers disappearing from work. One day Al's sister called and said Al was sick and wouldn't be in that day. I was his boss and very annoyed. Al often told me how much fun he had with 12 different partners per weekend. I would often remark to Al as his annoyed boss, I am surprised your fucking dick doesn't fall off. As usual as I was in love with one guy at a time, not a new gay football team every weekend. I felt no sympathy for Al. I was considering firing his gay ass. Al thought a gay boss would not fire a gay worker. I would.
For several weeks Al's sister kept calling telling me Al was getting worse not better. Are you sure he has the flu I asked. His sister said the doctor's had no clue what he had. His immunity system wasn't working and he was getting worse. Four weeks later, his sister called to say that Al had died from some mystery disease. This was 1979. About a year later someone came up with the name AIDS. At first it was the mystery disease killing gay guys in San Francisco. I watched San Francisco go from the most gay friendly city on the planet to jeering mobs of homophobes who liked to spit on the quilt people were making. I returned to NYC a more open city and continued to be gay. SF has never recovered its former status. I still miss Harvey Milk and his camera shop. I walked in and asked him what lowlife part of Brooklyn did he come from. Harvey grinned and said, "Let's see, John. You are from the Heights or Inwood are you not?" "Harvey I was raised in the Heights but I hung out in Irish bars in Inwood." Any guy who could pick up on the different borough accents of New York City was my kind of guy. He was sensitive and outrageously funny. I hoped Harvey would run for President, he appealed to everyone with a sense of humor gay or straight.
Young guys do't remember how dominant the gay community was becoming. Many nights Tom Snyder [after Johnny Carson] would open his show from the Continental Baths in New York City. A great place to go because Bette Midler starred there almost every night. Bette was the heart and soul of the gay world at that point in time. I was certain gays would be able to get people elected to national offices. The election of Harvey in San Francisco was the down payment. The media was in love with him and all gay things.
Then AIDS struck and Ronald Reagan and his homophobic teamof assholes like Pat Buchanan took over the airwaves. We were told that God was avenging himself by killing gays in cold blood. At the time I thought the American people would resist homophobia and the rightwing religious freaks who supported it.
Unfortunately, they are alive and well and dominate the Republican Party to the last decimal point. What a crime against humanity I witnessed. Of course, Republicans don't just shit on gays, I still remember my friends who died in Vietnam. Another crime against humanity. I wonder what the family of Kenny Pennebacher of Buffalo NY feel about the loss of Kenny at Danang in 1969. Republicans don't give a shit about the 58,000 lives we wasted in that war. Republicans sure love to kill people and make everyone feel like shit. It is their whole platform in 2012. Vote for us and we will shit on everyone but the richest people on the planet.
Hey, Tof, give me the correct spelling of your last name. I will vote for you, just say please. You got my vote.
After the election pay me a few million dollars under the table. I don't want to go straight all at once. Pretty please. Come on, what is a lousy million dollars between gay friends. Live dangerously I say. Have dangerous sex it is the best kind.
Quilts - In Memoriam
![[Image: r-AIDS-QUILT-large570.jpg]](http://i.huffpost.com/gen/664834/thumbs/r-AIDS-QUILT-large570.jpg)
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mile: I'll send it to Marshlander.
