These are some of my good friends who have died of AIDS.
There are many others whose pictures were not readily available.
| ROBERT
One of my all-time dearest friends. The kindest, gentlest, most generous man I've ever known. Although he came from impoverished Apalachia, he was blessed with wisdom. He was a natural healer and teacher. He taught me that I could do anything as long as I believed in myself.
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 | JOHN
one of the first people I met in San Francisco (1970). He was a photographer and professional photo lab technician. He developed Dementia and one day wandered out alone. He was beaten by a group of thugs and never regained consciousness.
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| RICK was a young construction worker from Sacramento when I met him in the early 1970s. Together, we spent a lot of our summer days exploring the great rivers of the Sierra foothills.
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 | MARK met Rick (above) in the early 1980's and they were lovers until Rick's death 10 years later. Mark, a travel agent, died about 5 years ago. |
 | DENNIS sitting in front of his lover, Bo, around 1976. They were our neighbors on Henry Street. Dennis worked for Mr. S Leather and later became an independent leather seamstress. He died in the early 1990's. Bo is still with us. |
 | BILL is another friend that goes back to the early 1970's. He was loud and boisterous, but had a heart of gold. He and I got together and taught ourselves computer programming on his Apple II in 1980. Bill was one of those people who, when diagnosed with AIDS, gave up all hope and died within months. |
 | GEORGE and Bill (above) seemed mismatched as lovers, but were very compatible and dedicated to each other. George, an artist and poet, was a soft-spoken, easy-going intellectual from Vermont. His philosophical humor often went unappreciated.
He designed a series of 12 Christmas cards on the theme of The 12 Days of Christmas. They were intended to be sent to friends each Christmas for 12 years. He did the art. Bill did the rest. The series was unfinished when Bill got sick, so he hurried to complete them ahead of time. George continued the mailings and arranged to have the last 2 sent after his death.
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 | DANNY was a cunning linguist. He almost always carried a book about languages with him and he spoke 6 or 7 languages fluently. He was strong and muscular, but AIDS ravaged his body mercilessly. |
 | JOE remained a hippy until the end in the late 1980's. His wit was dry and intellectual. His love of word play paralleled mine. I adored him. |
 | HENRY was a charmer and had a beautiful body which he loved to show off. He cleaned my apartment once a week in 1980 and 1981. |
 | PRISTINE CONDITION whose real name was Keith, was an original member of the gender-bending Cockettes (once described as the Little Rascals in drag on acid doing Busby Berkeley), and later, the Angels of Light. He was a good friend. |
 | MICHAEL and his lover, Rick, became friends of mine in the late '70s. He was a nurse and dedicated himself to fighting AIDS. He spent countless hours caring for his friends. Mayor Dianne Feinstein appointed him as her AIDS Liaison to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, a branch of the United States Public Health Service. It seems unfair that AIDS should have taken him from us. |
 | STEPHEN was quiet and his thoughts ran deep although he loved to party. He always seemed to be on his last dollar but had a healthy attitude all the way to the end. He spent his last few months in the AIDS Ward of Saint Mary's Hospital from which he would call me and beg me to come help him escape. That meant signing a release form and promising not to let him drink or do drugs. He usually wanted to go to Golden gate Park and then a restaurant during his 4 hour escape. That would tire him enough that he never resisted going back. |
 | JEREMY was very entertaining and always loved attention. He came from New York City where he had been part of the Andy Warhol scene. Among his many talents, he was an accomplished leather seamstress and was last employed at "Worn
out West" on Castro. |
 | RICK was a big, strong, healthy construction worker, good natured, and full of love. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would fall victim to AIDS. |
 | GENE was the ex-lover of my ex-lover Frank. Later known as "Gar", he was a popular bartender at the Midnight Sun when it was still on Castro Street. Then he moved to Bones when it opened on Haight Street. |
 | RANDY was a gifted artist and a beautiful man. My lover Frank and I met him one night at the baths and brought him home. He became a bartender at the Midnight sun on 18th Street and was responsible for creating many of the bar's outrageous decorations. He was widely known as "Randy Bananas". |
 | STEPHEN and Randy (above) were lovers. Stephen was responsible for setting up the Midnight Sun as the first Video bar in San Francisco and maybe the world. That would make him the world's first VJ. |
 | MICKEY was a bartender at the Elephant Walk at 18th and Castro. His winning smile and bubbly personality made him one of the bar's most popular employees. |
 | BOBBY was a waiter at the Elephant Walk. He was a charming man, full of love, and he was a talented artist. His lover, Paul, was one of my best friends. |
 | JB died in the late 1990's, making his death my most recent (and hopefully my last) loss of a good friend to AIDS. JB came from New Orleans in the 1960's and became an institution in San Francisco's gay community. For more than 30 years he was either a bartender, bar manager, bar owner, or all three at once, somewhere in the City.
JB loved to play Backgammon and we often played for hours. During these tournaments, he would tell me stories about the "old days". He was a walking history book so I asked if I could record his stories while we played. He agreed, but every time I brought a recorder with me, he clammed up. |
FRANKIE,
I'll always love you. | FRANKIE my soul mate and my one true love, died on June 3, 2009 in Tucson, Arizona, in the arms of his closest friend, Robert. He was a long-term survivor, having been diagnosed with AIDS in the early 1990's. But in the last few years his body wasted away and he was in pain. He weighed only 80 pounds at the end.
I met Frankie in September 1973 and our affair quickly blossomed into love. We lived together in the Castro until 1980 when he moved to Tucson. Although we decided to go our separate ways, we parted as best friends.
I hope and pray that I will never again suffer the loss of a loved one to AIDS.
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This page created September 10, 2002 and modified June 6, 2009
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