G'MORN

saw that the person who prompted this thread deleted their tweet

hope they find a kickass name for their company and become wildly successful

want this to be a reminder to y'all Millennials:

KNOW
OUR
AIDS
HISTORY

because queer history is our history front & center

1/ https://twitter.com/blogdiva/status/1183933007243153409

AIDS *IS*
INTERSECTIONALITY

i am so old, i remember the first cases were happening in PRISONS and people did not know what it was back then

MASS INCARCERATION meant literally disappearing in prisons millions who should have had medical attention for their heroin addictions

2/

A RARE
PNEUMONIA
EPIDEMIC

that's what they called it at the beginning, because people were getting "the flu", then getting pneumonia and with months or even weeks, dying

the AIDS epidemic is Reaganism and Bushism at it's most diabolical: they used the deaths to hype EUGENICS

Reagan & Bush used AIDS to rile up their cryptofascist base

if abortion defined the Neoconfederacy, AIDS gave the wannabe WASPs of the "north" a reason to coalesce around their Ivy League libertarianism and eugenics disguised as neoliberal economics

AIDS as population control

PNEUMONIA

that's what for years we were told it was. that's what my aunt was told when one of my cousins died.

he wasn't gay, mind you

he was thrown in prison for being a heroin addict

PNEUMONIA

do you have any idea how many Vietnam veterans died of AIDS?

and women...

PUERTO RICAN &
BLACK WOMEN
THE 2nd & 3rd
AIDS DEMOGRAPHICS

in that order and from the La Isla, not just La Diáspora

no, they weren't all sex workers or transwomen ―who were disproportionately hit within the LGBTQI

cis/hetero Puerto Rican women were dropping like flies

ACT UP IS WHY
OUTING BECAME
POLITICIZED

when i say that @actupny saved the lives of too many of your GenX moms and aunties, i am not being facetious:

machismo & closeted homosexuality go hand in hand and many MARRIED CISGENDER HETEROSEXUAL women were dying of AIDS due to it

ACT UP WAS LIKE A
QUEER GUERRILLA
PLANNED PARENTHOOD

i came back to NYC literally after i turned 20

my whole sex life as a young adult was marked by the deaths of family & friends & neighbors

do you know that giving out condoms was literally ILLEGAL in many states & Pto Rico?

GIVING
OUT
CONDOMS
COULD
LAND
YOU
IN
JAIL

so you have to understand the enormity of our LQBTQI fam, putting their bodies on the line after one too many bombings of Planned Parenthood clinics

because giving out condoms was a radical act that saved lives

1980s & 1990s
WAS PEAK
WHITE
EVANGELICAL
TERRORISM

Planned Parenthood clinics became the defacto health care providers for folks with AIDS without insurance and nowhere to go

and it became another good reason for Republicans rile their white evangelical terrorist base

that ACT!UP centered LGBTQI death, anger, and bereavement in a time USA Presidents said if you die of AIDS is not only your fault, but god's will

IS
EXACTLY
WHY
IT WAS
NECESSARY

it was a FUCK YOU to using the "gay plague" to normalize white supremacist violence

THAT IN MEDIA
ACT UP HAS BEEN
A "WHITE GAY"
MOVEMENT?

what don't they describe as white cisgender and homo/heterosexual in this country?

there is no Stonewall without Black & Puerto Rican transgender women because there are no radical political movements in the US without them

i started this thread as a warning to Millennials,

but this is also a call to action to my GenXer peers:

we who have survived our dead are now the Elders

we have a responsibility to tell their stories, to tell our stories and remind the younger generations

NEVER FORGET

ps: i went to bed crying and cried writing this thread

when you get to 53, you start mourning all your dead but i reckon daily

systemic FASCIST violence passing as GOP conservative values and Democrats' moderate politics killed them

KNOW YOUR ENEMY https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/1184104499197202433