Photographers Jane Philomen Cleland, Patrick Clifton, Marc Geller, Rick Gerharter and Daniel Nicoletta not only documented one of queer history’s most riotous times, from 1985 to 1990, but created transcendent tributes that both honored the dead and inspired the dying to keep fighting.
From ACT UP to the AIDS quilt, these images prove that gay life wasn’t always a big rainbow.
The GLBT History Museum explains their exhibit further:
Some of their images have become icons of the era; others have never before been publicly displayed. All of them portray civil disobedience as a response not only to a fatal disease, but also to discrimination, indifference and official neglect. All bear forceful witness to a time when San Francisco experienced both some of its darkest hours and one of its most inspiring movements for social justice.
“Life & Death in Black & White” will be on display at the GLBT History Museum until June 30.
Click through to see a special photo preview of the exhibit.
Photos courtesy of the GLBT History Museum
October 6, 1989
Castro Sweep Police Riot: Police officers forcing a man to the pavement on Castro Street near Harvey Milk Plaza.
© 1989 Marc Geller
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
jason
I couldn’t quite understand AIDS activism. I thought it was just another excuse for the Leftist crowd to get angry with Ronald Reagan. The best way to prevent AIDS is to be careful and selective in your sexual activity, not to scream and shout for funding of questionable drugs.
A lot of the anti-viral drugs for HIV are actually quite poisonous to your body and simply expedited the death of some men. The promiscuous set refuses to believe this because its reason for existence is promiscuity. This set demands a chemical treatment for immune deficiency but fails to understand that poor choices is what got you to where you are at.
Adam
First it was “Gay Cancer” and they didn’t even know what was causing it or how it was transmitted. Then it was GRID, Gay-Related Immune Deficiency… and they still didn’t know what it was or how it was transmitted. They couldn’t test for it, all they could do is tell you that you had some bizarre disease that nobody ever actually got sick from because a normal immune system would throw it off. But “be careful and selective in your sexual activity, not to scream and shout for funding of questionable drugs” is your answer.
Then they figured out that it was HIV… a retro-virus. Something barely understood at all. I remember the talk of quarantine. I remember people talking about putting people *suspected* of having the virus in camps. At that time anything was worth a try. When they found AZT, they didn’t know what doses to use and waiting for FDA approval meant people died with no care whatsoever. We were willing test subjects because the alternative was to waste away and die. I have one friend who became HIV positive in the late 80’s who is still alive and somehow survived the AZT overdoses. Because all we knew then was that AZT helped so if a little helped, more must surely help more right? It was years before we understood that the mega doses of AZT were killing us faster than the HIV but when it’s the only choice you’ve got…
It wasn’t just an excuse to be angry at Reagan. It was fury that people were dying, it was spreading fast, we didn’t understand how to stop or even slow it, but because it was mainly hitting the gay community and IV drug users people in power (Reagan included) not only seemed to be doing nothing, they wouldn’t even mention it. Every single year Reagan was in office, he called for a reduction in funding for HIV research… all while people were dying without hope.
And yeah, even the drugs available today to stop HIV are toxic and most do kidney and liver damage over time (read years or decades). But they’re better than nothing. And for what it’s worth, the best way to prevent AIDS isn’t just to “be careful and selective in your sexual activity”. It’s to get tested regularly. KNOW your status. Don’t just guess, don’t assume. KNOW it. Because HIV is roughly 30 times more likely to be transmitted by someone who is positive and doesn’t know it than by someone who is positive and under treatment.
brian
@jason:
Um, Jason, FUCK YOU.
ronsfo
Well FUCK YOU very much Jason, I wonder how many of your friends developed purple lesions and withered away, went from healthy Gay men one day only to be told they would probably die within a year.
I lived through that period and I was one of the lucky one’s, but I suffered a lot of survivor guilt watching my closest friends die before me. Your insensitive comments, speak volumes of how naive you are about the how this disease maliciously spread and the amazing solidarity and resourcefulness that resulted, because Reagan wouldn’t do anything in the beginning.
WillBFair
Jason is a creep who should never be encouraged.
But you all are still making excuses. Here we are talking about hiv 30 years later, still without a word about prevention. And I’m told that transmission rates today are what they were in the 80s.
Sure, have sex. But be safe always, set standards for the community, provide emotional support for the 20 something crowd whose self esteem may be low, shout down bare backing psychopaths, and be UNCOMPROMISING.
STOP MAKING EXCUSES. CAN THE SENTIMENTALITY. AND STOP HIV IN THIS COMMUNITY, YOU HEARTLESS, SELF DESTRUCTIVE QUEENS.
Christopher Banks
Besides being a bigot, Jason really crossed the line when he said this: “A lot of the anti-viral drugs for HIV are actually quite poisonous to your body and simply expedited the death of some men.”
Sorry you’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. And to paraphrase Richard Dawkins, Jason – we don’t need to waste our time debating with you, because you’re simply wrong.
Anyway – back to the exhibition: have the organisers considered taking this online and making it a digital experience? I often think so much history gets locked up in galleries and little rooms and some of us in more faraway places never get to see it.
LittIe,Kiwi
use condoms. every time. even with longterm monogamous partners. get tested regularly. know your status.
i know for many of you it’s a scary thing to get tested. here’s how to make it easier: make it a regular thing. go 3/4 times a year. no matter what sexual contact you’ve had, if any. just GO. make it a habit and the fear will go away, and you’ll be a part of the Sexually Responsible community.
and ignore Jason. he’s a miserable troll with a family that’s ashamed that he’s their son. ignore him. he’s only here to complain because his home-life reality is miserable beyond words.
Wade
How did you do that, Jason? I can actually feel that cold chill of your judgment and hatred of others while reading your self-serving words.
jason
Lesions were caused by amyl nitrate. If you stop sniffing the fucking stuff, you might not have got them in the first place.
But, no, you insist on your right to “pleasure”. Well, having lesions isn’t fucking pleasant, is it?
I’m increasingly of the view that many of you are living in fantasy worlds that ultimately kill you. I know it sounds harsh but all signs point to it. Sad, very sad.
LittIe,Kiwi
don’t worry, Jason. while you continue to live in the closet you will likely never contract HIV. you will, however, make your dad proud by dying the closet he never wanted you to leave in the first place.
but there’s nothing noble about the fact that the only reason you don’t have HIV is that nobody wants to touch you.
indi.anna
https://www.change.org/petitions/tell-queerty-to-stop-transphobic-reporting-now
WillBFair
@LittIe,Kiwi: I could be wrong, because it’s hard to know from just a few blog postings. But he reminds me of republicans I’ve worked with for years. They’re extremeley selfish or hateful or both. To hide that from themselves, they attack others. And to do that, they actually make things up. Which he does nonstop. He could be just a garden style republican, making things up to distract from his own heartlessness.
jason
Little Kiwi,
Sweetie, dearie, I’m a very handsome man. In fact, I’ve been called “the most beautiful man in the bar”.
You need to get over your daddy fantasies, darling. Maybe daddy should have taught you about the birds and the bees – that way, you might have turned out less screwed up.
joey
This individual named Jason is so wrong on so many levels. “lesions caused by amyl nitrate”? indicates the depth of his ignorance. His defense of Reagan’s silence as hundreds died shows his stupid , self hating bias. While men and women and children were dying, Reagan remained silent. Contrast that silence with the swift response to a group of legionnaires who died mysteriously. In 1986 the California ballot had Prop 64 which would have quarantined all people with HIV. Jason needs to grow or shut up.
Shungaboy
Sorry to sidestep the whole conversation above, but I’m glad the photographers documented an important part of our community’s history and I’m glad the GLBT History Museum is putting on the exhibit. I hope many people are able to see it!