"My friends and I, men and women, acted as a protective layer for ill friends"

I know we've done this, generally around Pride time and World AIDS Day, but I thought the quotes in this article were remarkable.

It reminds me of the amount of trauma those of us of a certain age have been through, that we still live with. And how many of us thought we would never be alive now.


survivors talk

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Thanks for that, Namo. We - you know, queers - don't always do a great job of remembering what came before us, but if we don't do the work, no one else will. In a generation or two will young gays even know about Paragraph 175 or the Mattachine Society or Cooper's Donuts or The Black Cat or the origins of Pride or the Consenting Adult Bill in CA or Lawrence v. Texas or Act Up and GMHC or Harvey Milk...?

Excellent article. It's bittersweet to remember that in the midst of our deepest sorrow, we gay men who were sick and dying--or scared and surviving--were comforted in sisterly, motherly ways by the lesbians--and straight women too--who surrounded us. It felt spiritual, magical, even holy, in a way--especially with the lesbians--like we were growing a bond that had always been there, back when we were all in the closet.

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