Gay Pride

Happy Friday, everyone! It being Gay Pride Weekend, I'm in a celebratory mood. I hope you are too. After Michael arrived home from Boston last night, we stayed up and watched the sad, yet uplifting film, "We Were Here." It's about the period of 1970-1990 in San Francisco from the standpoint of the AIDS crisis. 

It's easy to push the sad and difficult parts of your life in the background. It's too easy to forget what we do to survive in a crisis. I know I did, but last night brought it all back. In 1987, My friend, Susan Fong and I decided that we couldn't stand by and watch as so many around us were getting sick and then dying in a matter of a few weeks. I don't know what compelled us. Maybe it was just an act of survivor guilt, but she and I ran full speed into the place where everyone else seemed to be fleeing from. At the time, it never occurred to us that we might get sick ourselves. We just knew that we were needed, so outside of our jobs, pretty much all of our spare time became about helping those whose lives were literally falling apart.

I'm posting this because I'm so thankful to still be here and so very proud to be surrounded by a community of like minded people who also ran directly into the fire.