Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Love and Pride (When We Needed It Most)


The year 1995 always stings because it's the cutoff point (in my life) between friends with HIV living and dying. The "cocktail" came along and things have been monumentally better as a result -- and I never thought I'd live to see something as miraculous as PrEP -- yet this charming cache of old photos taken at L.A. Gay Pride festivals between 1987 and 1995 makes me strangely nostalgic for a time I'd never want to live through again. See more HERE.


UPDATE: It's nice to hear that even in the despair there are some happy endings ...


1 comment:

Mike in Asheville said...

Nice Kenneth. SF for me, not LA. I remember the shear fun; the "I'm free!" to be me. All before the dread.

Now, for another real mindfuck, imagine you are 10 years older (as I am, you have lived 5-10 years of fun before that NYT article about the mysterious "gay cancer) in 1986, you go for the HIV antibody test with your new boyfriend. Oh, and he fooled around as much, and he's negative while you test positive. Your cute and adorable cousin crush is dead of AIDS, along with dozens of friends. A decade of wondering when its your time? When is the virus gonna get you too?

Its been a 30 year mindfuck for me. But through it all, that boyfriend back in 1986, he's now my husband, and in January, in celebrate 30 years. How the fuck did that happen?