The Daily Chao

Someone else’s memory

In the early 90’s—and don’t ask her what year, specifically, because she swears she can’t remember—KK marched to the White House with Stop AIDS. A protest, but not an ask more specific than to stop the horror of the disease. She worked her way to the front of the crowd where she realized she wasn’t part of a protest, but a political funeral. A man at the front of the pack stood before the White House gates. He then reached through (or did he reach over?) the fence and poured his dead lover’s ashes onto the White House lawn.

The police surrounded the crowd; some even towered over the protesters from the backs of horses. All of them were wearing rubber gloves. A few were wearing kitchen gloves, as the virus could be contracted from touching gay people.

It’s amazing to think how far the global community has come in its understanding of AIDS. I’m glad, but I’m intrigued by what I’ll (hopefully) never know, having never experienced the early days of the disease. I’ve been thinking a lot about this piece in today’s Washington Post