00:00:04.640 - 00:00:41.430

I ended up visiting a man named Michael who was a parent of three teenage boys, and he had what we were calling gay, played gay cancer, all the names it was given. At that time, there was no resources. There was no one to turn to. Nobody

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knew what we were dealing with. Martial Cambodia had just come to Sonoma County. The marshal lows at the Infection Control Department at Community Hospital at the time was scrambling, concerned about how this was going to affect and be transmitted to everybody in the county. And at

00:01:05.210 - 00:01:30.810

that time I was doing a home visit with Michael and I ran into Carol Owen and Carol and I were trying to make Michael comfortable trying to find some way that we could answer his needs. Still be sensitive to his Children. Yet, um, heal him is

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what we thought we were going to do. We had contacted Marfa, Cambodia. There was no face to face. There was no AIDS commission. There was no food for thought. There was no physicians who were really AIDS physicians or had any inkling about the disease. They knew

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no more than anybody else knew. I already knew that AIDS was here somewhere, but nobody was talking about it. Everything. A lot of people were in denial about it. A lot of people didn't want to look at it. Everybody was scared about it. Uh, and the

00:02:01.730 - 00:02:14.310

Russian River Health Clinic had had their first informational meeting over at the Vet's Hall in Greenville, so I attended it. I had met a couple of men who already had AIDS, and one of them I met at this meeting that Marshall Kyo Buddha had, and it

00:02:14.310 - 00:02:28.810

was mostly an informational meeting, and at the end of it I noticed that there was nothing said about emotional support. So I got up and said, If anybody wants to Start a support group for dealing with emotional issues here, I would be happy to start meeting

00:02:28.810 - 00:02:42.520

with you. Well, 20 gay men met me in the back of the room, and only three or four, um, showed up at our first meeting. From from there on, that was the basis of starting support for gay men, I thought in the river area, and it's

00:02:42.520 - 00:02:55.910

important to remember at this time in our lives as gay and lesbian people, gay and lesbian. Uh, people didn't. Men and women didn't hang out together. They weren't very close to each other. And so here are these women are, like, you know, like, Well, where are

00:02:55.910 - 00:03:10.320

you going to stop talking about this? And I said, I'm not going to stop talking about this week out to do something. And that's when Jerry and Maryann and all those Joyce Boom and all those people got involved and basically did the nonprofit status for what

00:03:10.320 - 00:03:24.620

was called the Russian River AIDS Support Group. And I took a break because I had I had already been working with a guy on my own without any agency. I was there helping him, um, in his dying process. It was basically Marshall and I were helping

00:03:24.620 - 00:03:37.060

him, and he was alone and basically what I saw happening his game. And we're so scared about this thing that if a guy got sick, they kind of they kind of separated from him because they didn't know what to do. And I just think I just

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kept bringing upbringing, upbringing up everywhere I went and saying something, you know, something horrible is happening here. We got to do something and So I took my break and during that time is when they did their nonprofit status. And when I came back, I came back

00:03:50.160 - 00:04:06.960

as a volunteer. And so I got a client and I started working with guys helping them because that's when the the agency started the Russian River support groups started giving people an advocate to help them and do whatever they could. And also it's important to understand

00:04:06.960 - 00:04:22.520

that in these days this was all about helping people in their dying process. People were dying and even though you know, it was obvious that people didn't want to die, they didn't have anything to deal with it. Pneumocystis was taking people's lives. There was no medications,

00:04:22.530 - 00:04:57.000

so we were actually, that's what that's what our mission was to help people in their dying process. I am Found face to face kind of accidentally and decided I wanted to be a volunteer there in 87 and I'm still there today. So

00:04:57.000 - 00:05:16.920

I was a face to face advocate for about a year and I was I was visiting my, um, my client, who was actually the sister of a person with AIDS, and she said, Let's go over and visit my friend around the corner and they're at the

00:05:16.920 - 00:05:31.970

friend's house. I met torch and carry and carry Kemp and her partner, Torch, and they were very, very excited about a new project that was going on and they were having a meeting on Monday. The meeting had been called by a fellow named John Manley, who

00:05:31.970 - 00:05:49.780

was a who was a bartender on the river in the river area, and everyone adored him and he was quite ill but still boisterous and a great deal of fun. And he apparently had had someone dropped a box of food off at his house a few

00:05:49.780 - 00:06:09.520

weeks earlier and thought that was such a wonderful idea that every P w. A and Sonoma County should have that happen once a week are nominal. Founder Mr Manley died in November of 1988 as well, I think just the week before our first fundraiser, and so

00:06:09.520 - 00:06:26.110

the second big project we took on as a board of directors was making him A quilt panel for the names project Quilt, which was going to which was due in Sonoma County in February of the following year of 89 In 1989. It was really kind of

00:06:26.110 - 00:06:46.250

the beginning of, um, many organizations Face to face has been around for a few years, But the AIDS Commission was new and the its food bank, food for thought was brand new, and a lot of organizations were just trying to get started. And the quote project

00:06:46.260 - 00:07:02.620

bringing the quilt here really gave them visibility. We brought about 1000 panels here, and in hindsight, it was one of the best things that we ever did. I think it really was the first time that the general public could be invited in to really get a

00:07:02.620 - 00:07:19.050

sense of what the epidemic meant here in Sonoma County. It was a really powerful experience for a lot of people. They walked into the Grace Pavilion, the biggest building at the fairgrounds, and the entire floor was laid out with names, Project Quilt. A lot of them

00:07:19.050 - 00:07:34.400

we had requested from people who had died in Sonoma County. But there were quotes from everywhere, and people really got the sense of what it meant. Rick came to us and asked us if we would like to have a booth at the at the names Project

00:07:34.400 - 00:07:51.660

quilt display. And we said absolutely, of course. And he gave us a big, long set of three tables and we set up a whole display. And he put in the in one of the press releases that we would like people in the community to bring canned

00:07:51.660 - 00:08:07.810

goods or non perishables to donate to this to this startup food program for people with AIDS. The commission had their own booth. They were actually more proud. We were way over on one side and act up was way over on the other side and we felt

00:08:07.810 - 00:08:25.560

like act up and us. We felt like the underdogs in the situation. We kind of would go back and visit each other back and forth. And there was. The commission had a table right on the main entry. Everyone was all thrown together into the same room,

00:08:25.660 - 00:08:47.430

and all had to behave in a respectful manner to one another and and did. And I think developed. That's a lot of report was developed in the course of that event, and a lot of relationships were formed. In February of 1989, the AIDS quilt was at

00:08:47.440 - 00:09:05.790

the fairgrounds in Cinema County. And it was there that we met, um, Sam and Charlie. And they told us about act up, that they wanted to start an act up Cinema County. And they gave us a flyer about a meeting time and we went first meeting

00:09:05.790 - 00:09:28.760

was held at face to face and the old building in Greenville. So and that's where that's That's where I met Sam and Charlie, and Ron was there. And Dan Purdy, Eos. I think Lois was there. Esther joined us later. There really were only eight of us

00:09:28.990 - 00:09:50.800

enact up. The media gave us credit for being like 60 people that we were thrilled about that the event that pushed us into uh huh creating act of Sonoma County was the AIDS quote, the first showing of the AIDS quote that was really a deeply moving

00:09:50.800 - 00:10:11.000

experience for all of us, and all of us in the Monday night group went to see the quilt together. In fact, I think several of the people in the group actually participated in making the quilt happen. Um, and that really pushed us over the edge. I

00:10:11.000 - 00:10:34.170

guess. So we decided. I think our first action, if I remember correctly was the Empire Dental Action. And Charlie, actually, Charlie Kid Will sounds lover had gone to Empire dental because he needed some dental work. And he told him up front, I have HIV and they

00:10:34.170 - 00:10:54.760

said, Well, we can't serve you and gave him some stupid little response about wise and little rationale about why. So we created all these little signs and everything a little tooth signs that said Act up and stuff like that. Um, you know, organized all the people

00:10:55.440 - 00:11:10.790

that was our first action. It was a crazy time back in, you know, about 89 88. Um, funding wise. I mean, we had no idea number one where the epidemic was going to go, how large it was gonna get, how long we would have to be

00:11:10.790 - 00:11:30.010

around what funding meant. All that we knew was that the cases were doubling before our eyes, and we knew we needed to prepare to grow to meet the needs. And, you know, with the county money was not coming. We hadn't seen it coming. We've been talking

00:11:30.010 - 00:11:45.330

to them. We've been negotiating. We were hopeful, but it wasn't on the horizon. Um, federal money was unheard of at that time. Uh, it was a tiny bit of state money trickling in, but we were really counting on individuals and it wasn't enough. And we really

00:11:45.330 - 00:12:02.490

needed some county support n act up. We always planned everything. Every detail of our actions was planned, and we pretty much thought we knew what was going to happen. But the time we went to the Board of Supervisors dressed as grim reapers carrying the red confetti,

00:12:02.500 - 00:12:18.430

we thought this is what would happen. We'd go in there, we'd throw the confetti on their hands, tell them they had blood on their hands, dyin in the chambers, and we would be arrested. We stood up and put on our masks and said, You're killing us,

00:12:18.430 - 00:12:38.030

You're killing us. And we threw red chopped up red confetti at the Board of Supervisors while they were all sitting up there looking very officious, and they totally freaked out. First, they thought we had thrown blood on them. They immediately cleared all of the people in

00:12:38.030 - 00:12:59.000

the audience out of the room and told us to leave, and we wouldn't. And so then they left. And so there we were in the Board of Supervisors of it all by herself, and we weren't arrested, and we really didn't know what to do because it

00:12:59.000 - 00:13:14.590

hadn't gone as we planned. And so we decided to just take over the Border Chambers Board of Supervisors. So we we went up and we sat in all their seats and we held a mock board of Supervisors meeting. People didn't know that the Board of Supervisors

00:13:14.590 - 00:13:26.720

meeting had been canceled so people would come in with their business or whatever they wanted to discuss for the Board of Supervisors. And we would pretend we had, in fact, taken over the Board of Supervisors. And we were now the Board of Supervisors. We had some

00:13:26.720 - 00:13:45.610

great theater. We had a good time all day doing this. And then the sheriff came because, of course, the Board of Supervisors called the sheriff and he didn't want to arrest us. He liked us. He agreed with us. Actually, we we had the chambers for eight

00:13:45.610 - 00:14:03.660

hours, and and they let us go in and out to go to the bathroom or to the vending machines. They apparently did not want to arrest us, and, uh, then a new shift of officers to babysitters came in and four of us went out to go

00:14:03.660 - 00:14:18.880

to the bathroom, and when we came to come back in, he would not let us come back in and lock the doors and one of the activists that was with us that day, Robin Latham, Panic said, Run to the back door. I'll open it. And so

00:14:18.880 - 00:14:33.810

we ran to the back door. She ran to the back door. She opened it and let us in, and that's when she was arrested. She was arrested for disobeying that sheriff's deputies, you know, orders and letting us in at that point. Then we all did a

00:14:33.810 - 00:14:47.610

huddle and said, What do we do now? We can't allow just one person to be arrested. And so we all surrounded her so they couldn't get to her to handcuff her so that they'd have to arrest us in order to arrest her. And so then they

00:14:47.610 - 00:15:10.700

said, Well, then you're all under arrest and we said, Can we die in first? Is it? Go ahead. So we went and died again. Yeah, and that's really the power that that kind of direct social action has. I think often in some circumstances at least at

00:15:10.700 - 00:15:42.940

least on on a small scale like Sonoma County. It can have that, um, effect of actually touching people personally. And that's really I think what generates change is touching people on the personal level where they just can't ignore it. Then Camps numbers began in 1982 as

00:15:42.950 - 00:16:00.350

one of the first summer camps for Children with cancer leukemia, And in 19 it was about 1987. I had found an article in New York Times that had mentioned that there were Children actually that were being removed from the Social Service Department. They had been put

00:16:00.350 - 00:16:15.550

into foster homes, but when they were discovered to have this new virus, um, HIV, that there had been no education about how to take care of these Children in the home, so they were being put back into social services and social services didn't know what to

00:16:15.550 - 00:16:30.580

do with them. So they were placing them in hospitals, and so I traveled back east. I spoke to Dr Artur Rubinstein, who was one of the first physicians in the United States to diagnose a child, the first child with HIV, and he wanted to find a

00:16:30.580 - 00:16:44.400

way that he could bring people together so that they could actually support each other in a positive way. And he mentioned to me a summer camp. Well, I got all excited because I knew how to do summer camps, you know? And I figured I could educate

00:16:44.400 - 00:17:00.870

the people in Sonoma County at the camp. And I also at the time, had a relationship with Dr Anne Petru, um at Children's Hospital in Oakland. And I had been running some of her support groups for positive kids and their families. And so at that time

00:17:00.880 - 00:17:13.830

I said to and I said, You know, maybe we could get some of the kids from Children's Oakland and some of the kids from Back East and have a summer camp program for them. And so we did. And essentially, what happened was it became a national

00:17:13.830 - 00:17:32.790

model, and that was Camp Sunburst. And in 1988 it became solely focused on Children with AIDS and their families. Well, I think there still is an international, um, AIDS Candlelight Memorial March committee headquarters in San Francisco, and it coordinates, uh, memorials on one day of the

00:17:32.790 - 00:17:54.220

year in May throughout the entire world. So an individual communities create their own ways of of memorial izing people who have died from AIDS. So the candlelight march was really, uh, was perceived of as not only a way of, of remembering people and honoring the living,

00:17:54.220 - 00:18:11.060

but also a way of getting some publicity for AIDS back in the days when we really needed to get it. Um, so it was as much a publicity event as any as anything else. Uh, we marched, and it was put together by always by a coalition

00:18:11.060 - 00:18:32.560

of people, people from from phase to phase people from the early intervention clinic from public health from, uh, food for thought. All came together, interested individuals who really cared who lost a lot of people because grief was the big one of the big motivating, uh, forces

00:18:33.140 - 00:18:52.060

Back in the late 80s and early 90s because people were dying all over the place and we had to remember our friends who died, you know, I started attending candlelight marches just so that so that we got out there and visual so that people actually knew

00:18:52.540 - 00:19:12.550

what people were going through. The Sonoma County folks decided that uh, not only did they want to memorialize people who have died from AIDS, but also to honor people who are living with AIDS. And the the award for that was called the Jeremy Bell Award in

00:19:12.550 - 00:19:27.540

honor of Jeremy Bell. Jeremy Bell was the first person who said, I want to help. What can I do? You know, what do you need? And we didn't have any kind of resource manual. We had nothing as people started coming into our agency to hand them

00:19:27.540 - 00:19:41.800

and say Here, take this home, read it, see if it will help you understand what to do and where to go. So he actually on his own put together this the first AIDS resource manual, and it was about yea thick. When he got done with it,

00:19:41.810 - 00:19:57.320

he found somebody to give him a grant to have it printed because we don't have any money we had. That's another thing. We had no money. He was dying. He was very sick, and I decided to give him a medal at one of the aides Memorial

00:19:57.320 - 00:20:10.210

Service nights, and I told him he had to be there and his mother had to be there and I I went to this to the awards store, and I bought this medal. And so I called him up to the stage and and honored him for the

00:20:10.210 - 00:20:50.150

work he had done around that resource manual. And other stuff, too. Today in industrial found an all note that my friend Tom Road years ago nice spent the afternoon in tears and smiles. It's Tom and I danced again, cruised and got a wife her mhm. Have

00:20:50.150 - 00:21:40.820

me remember. Mm hmm. Young won said Remind me the world does move on in the water and after at first into instead and golf Now stop into the coffee shop with a leather bar once stood and I smile at

00:21:40.820 - 00:22:53.510

two guys holding hands. It feels good. I mean, Grandma's the only one back home really understands We've both lost a husband now. So many of our friends But it's looking like I might have lifetime stupid of me life I never dreamed I'd see I

00:22:53.520 - 00:23:38.330

know you know I love you And I always will I know you want me to be happy instead So hard to let you go Let him in But it doesn't mean I love you less if I love again And I remember Oh, Member um

00:23:38.340 - 00:23:45.280

me. Uh, yeah,