Every veterans day I feel I was a part of a slow motion war in San Francisco ( and elsewhere) that is never honored. It could be called The War against GIRDS. Around 1981 AIDS, a mystery disease, began to create sudden, horrible deaths in San Fran. I want to acknowledge the fallen and the wounds of the survivors. There is a great more to say about it than I am going to say here, but the war analogy has been reported by survivors and studied by academics. As our friends died, the right wing placed Prop 64 on the ballot, which proposed to place gays in concentration camps. Reagan never said the words AIDS. We were all we had, and we lived in a shelled shocked world. Every week we opened the BAR newspaper and looked at the obituaries. Searching for friends, honoring strangers by taking time to read thier life stories.
To read one man's experiences google Uncle Donalds Castro and read his discription and memories. There are foreign wars and domestic wars and this one deserves it's own public acknowledgement. (Image Credit: Uncle Donalds Castro).
- Kathleen Connell, M.A.
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