Remembering Bobbi Campbell
August 9, 2015 8:43 AM Subscribe
Thirty two years ago this weekend, Bobbi Campbell and his partner, Bobby Hilliard appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine, most notable because the two men, embracing, were living with AIDS.
Bobbi Campbell was the 16th person in San Francisco diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma in San Francisco in October of 1981. "By December, he started writing articles in the San Francisco Sentinel, a local gay newspaper, about his experience of what was then often called "gay cancer." He put pictures of his KS lesions in the window of a Castro District pharmacy, urging men with similar lesions to seek medical attention." Bobbi became known as the "KS Poster Boy."
Campbell appeared on The Gay Life radio series four times [link is to the search engine to play the interviews], and in 1984 spoke at the National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights which preceded the Democratic National Convention at Moscone Center. His diaries, which run from July 1983 through February of 1984, can be found at UC, San Francisco. Campbell died on August 15, 1984 at the age of 32.
Bobbi Campbell was the 16th person in San Francisco diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma in San Francisco in October of 1981. "By December, he started writing articles in the San Francisco Sentinel, a local gay newspaper, about his experience of what was then often called "gay cancer." He put pictures of his KS lesions in the window of a Castro District pharmacy, urging men with similar lesions to seek medical attention." Bobbi became known as the "KS Poster Boy."
Campbell appeared on The Gay Life radio series four times [link is to the search engine to play the interviews], and in 1984 spoke at the National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights which preceded the Democratic National Convention at Moscone Center. His diaries, which run from July 1983 through February of 1984, can be found at UC, San Francisco. Campbell died on August 15, 1984 at the age of 32.
This is about the exact time I was realizing that I was gay, and it was terrifying, to be honest. It seemed like a hideous, awful prank pulled on the world, that just as people were starting to get some toes in the water of acceptance, this horrifying disease came along which made many feel like the people in the community were literally poison.
Navigating the waters of becoming an adult with hormones and romantic feelings when I felt like any wrong moves at all could result in a painful death made a huge impact on my life. I also became a much more political person very early on than I think I would have if AIDS hadn't reared its ugly head.
I miss a lot of people I personally lost to this.
posted by xingcat at 10:00 AM on August 9, 2015 [20 favorites]
Navigating the waters of becoming an adult with hormones and romantic feelings when I felt like any wrong moves at all could result in a painful death made a huge impact on my life. I also became a much more political person very early on than I think I would have if AIDS hadn't reared its ugly head.
I miss a lot of people I personally lost to this.
posted by xingcat at 10:00 AM on August 9, 2015 [20 favorites]
I got a work permit when I was 12. I was a barista at my mom's shop in a mall before the term was common. The guys that worked in the mall were mostly gay and a hell of a lot more interesting than my classmates. They took me to see Minor Threat and snuck me into a bunch of other non all-ages shows.
I was a junior in HS when they started dropping. Nobody knew what was happening. What media there was was all about Haiti. I miss those guys. That bunch was a fine substitute for my dad and my mom saw that.
.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 10:43 AM on August 9, 2015 [25 favorites]
I was a junior in HS when they started dropping. Nobody knew what was happening. What media there was was all about Haiti. I miss those guys. That bunch was a fine substitute for my dad and my mom saw that.
.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 10:43 AM on August 9, 2015 [25 favorites]
That period is just so heartbreaking to think about, especially the open contempt and disdain.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Dip Flash at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2015 [8 favorites]
Agreed, @Dip Flash.
I grew up in the SF Bay Area, went to college at UC Davis, and came out as a lesbian in 1981. Watching Dallas Buyer's Club brought that whole time back to me -- how hateful people were. I remember many people saying that gay men deserved to die of AIDS. There's also the recent NPR spot on Ruth Burks who took care of gay men dying of AIDS when no one else would, including their families.
We have come a long way since then -- but we should not forget the past.
posted by elmay at 11:15 AM on August 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
I grew up in the SF Bay Area, went to college at UC Davis, and came out as a lesbian in 1981. Watching Dallas Buyer's Club brought that whole time back to me -- how hateful people were. I remember many people saying that gay men deserved to die of AIDS. There's also the recent NPR spot on Ruth Burks who took care of gay men dying of AIDS when no one else would, including their families.
We have come a long way since then -- but we should not forget the past.
posted by elmay at 11:15 AM on August 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
What media there was was all about Haiti.
Nah, it was all about the four 'H's' -- Homosexuals, Haitians, Haemophiliacs and Heroin addicts.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:35 AM on August 9, 2015
Nah, it was all about the four 'H's' -- Homosexuals, Haitians, Haemophiliacs and Heroin addicts.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:35 AM on August 9, 2015
There is not an emotion strong enough to express the absolute rage I have against people like Ronald Reagan, who looked at the populations that were being affected by AIDS in 1981, and decided to do nothing to help them. The Reagan administration's response to the epidemic was literally cackling, maniacal laughter.
I personally do not believe in hell, but for people like Ronald Reagan, I hope there is an exception.
posted by schmod at 12:10 PM on August 9, 2015 [17 favorites]
I personally do not believe in hell, but for people like Ronald Reagan, I hope there is an exception.
posted by schmod at 12:10 PM on August 9, 2015 [17 favorites]
how hateful people were
I've posted this link a few times in a couple of days, but what they hey - it's important histroical context...in 1992, this was what was going on at the GOP National Convention.
"We are facing a homintern, or homosexual gestapo..."
The whatnow?
But yeah, compare and contrast that with Ruth Burks (previously on the blue).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:16 PM on August 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I've posted this link a few times in a couple of days, but what they hey - it's important histroical context...in 1992, this was what was going on at the GOP National Convention.
"We are facing a homintern, or homosexual gestapo..."
The whatnow?
But yeah, compare and contrast that with Ruth Burks (previously on the blue).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:16 PM on August 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
> That is a beautiful beautiful picture. (Newsweek.)
Yes, and it was astonishing in 1983. Newsweek used to be a worthwhile magazine, at least once in a while.
posted by languagehat at 1:46 PM on August 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yes, and it was astonishing in 1983. Newsweek used to be a worthwhile magazine, at least once in a while.
posted by languagehat at 1:46 PM on August 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Reagan administration's response to the epidemic was literally cackling, maniacal laughter.
God, that is horrifying.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:22 PM on August 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
God, that is horrifying.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:22 PM on August 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
It's amazing to me to see the turn in the tide against Reagan and his administration on this issue (other than for his apologists, who keep hammering away at their attempts to whitewash it all) just in the past few years. Whenever anyone who wasn't there for it sees those press conference transcripts linked by schmod, the reaction is sheer horror. As it should be.
Larry Kramer has spent the last 34 years railing in glorious and often unheard (especially during those early years) fury against them, and it turns out that their own hateful words, committed to the historical record but not ever widely distributed until recently, condemn them in even more direct a way than he ever could have.
Very good summary of the politics of the time here. As Michael Bronski writes, "As we read about and discuss the history of the American AIDS epidemic in class, my students — all Reagan babies, born between 1981 and 1985 — are often dumbfounded when faced with simple facts. ... My students ask me how all of this could have happened. They are all smart, they understand politics, they understand the fear of AIDS, they understand how complicated — and confusing — history and life can be. But they cannot understand such indifference, even when politically motivated." That was written in 2003. How much more dumbfounded must people be who were born long after all of this insanity played itself out?
posted by blucevalo at 3:30 PM on August 9, 2015 [7 favorites]
Larry Kramer has spent the last 34 years railing in glorious and often unheard (especially during those early years) fury against them, and it turns out that their own hateful words, committed to the historical record but not ever widely distributed until recently, condemn them in even more direct a way than he ever could have.
Very good summary of the politics of the time here. As Michael Bronski writes, "As we read about and discuss the history of the American AIDS epidemic in class, my students — all Reagan babies, born between 1981 and 1985 — are often dumbfounded when faced with simple facts. ... My students ask me how all of this could have happened. They are all smart, they understand politics, they understand the fear of AIDS, they understand how complicated — and confusing — history and life can be. But they cannot understand such indifference, even when politically motivated." That was written in 2003. How much more dumbfounded must people be who were born long after all of this insanity played itself out?
posted by blucevalo at 3:30 PM on August 9, 2015 [7 favorites]
1st mention was in 1981. 1st blood test was in 1985. 18 speculative modes of transmission (poppers, shared razors and tooth brushes) 4 fun years watching AIDS/HIV expand while scientists battled for attribution while we all checked for swollen glands and wondered if we were infected or not.
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:11 PM on August 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:11 PM on August 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
"Homintern" is a funny word, isn't it? I just encountered it today because it was apparently a favorite term used by W H Auden, who was himself gay but disdained what he saw as the gay establishment. But the Wikipedia page makes for interesting reading, as panic about a conspiracy of a gay intellectuals is apparently coeval with the panic about a conspiracy of communist intellectuals. "It was believed by some conservatives that the Homintern deliberately manipulated the culture to encourage homosexuality by promoting camp programs such as the popular 1960s TV series Batman."
posted by koeselitz at 12:40 AM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by koeselitz at 12:40 AM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Slight addendum: I said "whenever anyone who wasn't there for it." I exclude the category of those who were there for it, only because we are all-too-well familiar with the horror. Many of us lost friends and loved ones to this completely preventable epidemic, that is, preventable other than for the monumental stupidity, cowardice, hatefulness, and sheer unparalleled bigotry of those who had the power to make it quickly preventable.
As Randy Shilts (himself one of those lost to the epidemic, in 1994, at the age of 42) wrote, "By the time America paid attention to the disease, it was too late to do anything about it .... The tide of death that would later sweep America could, perhaps, be slowed, but it could not be stopped .... There was no excuse, in this country and this time, for the spread of a deadly new epidemic."
posted by blucevalo at 8:49 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
As Randy Shilts (himself one of those lost to the epidemic, in 1994, at the age of 42) wrote, "By the time America paid attention to the disease, it was too late to do anything about it .... The tide of death that would later sweep America could, perhaps, be slowed, but it could not be stopped .... There was no excuse, in this country and this time, for the spread of a deadly new epidemic."
posted by blucevalo at 8:49 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
As Randy Shilts (himself one of those lost to the epidemic, in 1994, at the age of 42) wrote, "By the time America paid attention to the disease, it was too late to do anything about it .... The tide of death that would later sweep America could, perhaps, be slowed, but it could not be stopped .... There was no excuse, in this country and this time, for the spread of a deadly new epidemic."
I feel like one of the required texts for U.S. American history and U.S. government should be And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts, because it shows both the best of local and U.S. government (Selma Dritz of SF public health, countless CDC employees) and the worst (hi, Reagan administration!).
I read it for the first time in a really great virology class called "History of HIV," in which we read the original scientific papers outlining the discovery of HIV and, in tandem, the mainstream media coverage of the time. And the Band Played On is such a superb work of reportage, and it really opened the eyes of my fellow biology students to the politics behind science -- something that they badly needed to learn too.
posted by sobell at 11:33 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I feel like one of the required texts for U.S. American history and U.S. government should be And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts, because it shows both the best of local and U.S. government (Selma Dritz of SF public health, countless CDC employees) and the worst (hi, Reagan administration!).
I read it for the first time in a really great virology class called "History of HIV," in which we read the original scientific papers outlining the discovery of HIV and, in tandem, the mainstream media coverage of the time. And the Band Played On is such a superb work of reportage, and it really opened the eyes of my fellow biology students to the politics behind science -- something that they badly needed to learn too.
posted by sobell at 11:33 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
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