For historical context, this is about making a panel for the AIDS quilt, a memorial project which began in San Francisco in 1985. Due to the stigma surrounding both homosexuality and AIDS during this time, victims of the epidemic were often cremated and disposed of or buried without ceremony, their bodies unclaimed by their families or origin or held by hospitals rather than released to same-sex partners.
Each panel in the AIDS quilt memorializes a life lost to the disease. Each panel is 3′ x 6′ (approximately 1 meter wide and 2 meters long), the approximate dimensions of a cemetery plot. The quilt, which then consisted of 1,920 panels representing 1,920 individuals lost to AIDS, was first displayed in Washington DC in 1987. The public response was immediate, positive, and overwhelming, and the quilt began taken around the country to be displayed in more cities. At each stop, the names of the dead were read out loud. At each stop, more panels were added.
By the time the quit returned to the US capital in 1988, it had more than 8,000 panels.
The quilt continues to grow. Today, it has over 50,000 panels memorializing over 100,000 of our dead. It’s too large now to physically display in its entirety, but you can view the entire thing online. There are also curated virtual displays of just panels which honor the Black and native people killed by the virus because in the US (and likely abroad, although I don’t know enough about public health elsewhere to say so with confidence), communities of color are disproportionately impacted by epidemics, as we have seen time and time again.
You can learn more about the quilt and its history here, and you can learn how to add a panel to the quilt here.
If you’re unable to access the quilt, here’s a zoomed in screenshot of the bottom left corner:
The quilt is made up of several panel, each panel itself consisting of 1 to 8 quilts.
Here’s a screenshot of the whole thing:
This is only about half of the people - our people - who were left to die because the government didn’t think “the gay disease” was a problem. This is why we march.
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
I’ve had AIDS for 33 years. And yeah, I want a medal - for every single damn one of us, alive and dead.
My disease is not a “content warning” or a “trigger” or anything that should cause you to flinch.
It’s how I live. It’s my infrastructure. It’s what makes me tangible, perceiveable, real.
If every shred of HIV was taken from me, I would still have AIDS. It’s *mine.* We say it like that: “my AIDS.”
Once upon a time, it was the worst thing in the world, but I was undaunted.
Life has since shown me that the world contains much worse, and I remain undaunted.
I’m not your trigger warning or an example or a wake-up call or a Skeletor cosplayer, despite my ravaged and disfigured face.
I’m just an old queer with AIDS who fought like hell and got lucky and blessed.
