Health services
Queer people are no strangers to community support in the midst of a pandemic. In the height of the AIDS epidemic our communities came together through radical activism, protests, and love when most of the world turned a blind eye to people living with HIV/AIDS. We came together to create services and organizations — we learned how to support the sick and dying. What started as hospice care (and learning how to help people die with dignity and respect) has progressed into more holistic care, including: mental health services, sexual health, gender care, harm reduction, and more. Health services continue to evolve with community need and efforts to create affirming spaces for all queer people.
An early AIDS education pamphlet. Stigma is still a leading cause for people dying from AIDS.
The pandemic that Sparked a movement
In 1981, cases of a rare lung infection called Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) were found in five young, previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. At the same time, there were reports of a group of men in New York and California with an unusually aggressive cancer named Kaposi’s Sarcoma.
By the end of the year, there were 270 reported cases of severe immune deficiency among gay men - 121 of them had died.
Diane Jones treats an early AIDS patient at San Francisco General.
ACT UP! FIGHT BACK! FIGHT AIDS!
ACT UP was formed in March 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York City. Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP. We also saw the ACT UP movement spread through Texas in major cities like Austin and Dallas where we saw queer Texans act up, fight back, and fight AIDS.
The Gay Urban Truth Squad set up wooden crosses to remember 1,421 Dallas deaths in the Oak Lawn park in May of 1990.
Early ACT UP protest in NYC.
ACT UP demonstration at the Food and Drug Administration headquarters on Oct. 11, 1988
MEANWHILE IN AUSTIN
It was 1983 when the first case of HIV was diagnosed in Austin – two years after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began reporting on GRID (Gay-Related Immune Disorder)-related illnesses, and one year after GRID was replaced with AIDS. In 1983 alone, over 2,300 people died nationally from the disease. Like any queer movement, early heroes stepped to the plate. Law makers, like Glen Maxey, challenged the Texas legislature to increase funding to support services and housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. Community advocates like Paul Clover, founder of Waterloo Counseling, and Maria Lima, who was instrumental in establishing Austin Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization (now allgo), helped create space for marginalized communities. Watching so many people die in the early days of the epidemic left us feeling hopeless but today, with advancements in medication, people are able to achieve undetectable viral loads and cannot transmit the virus to someone else. Health services look different and we are learning the importance of culturally competent care for queer people. We see that today, in organizations like Kind Clinic who offer sexual health and gender care services in an LQBTQIA2+ affirming environment. The same has always been true… queer people adapt to take care of our community’s needs.
Leathermen Take to the streets at the Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights March in 1989
Panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt were part of the protest to raise awareness for much needed change in the legislature to support those living with and dying from AIDS.
Glen Maxey, the first openly gay member of the Texas Legislature, was active in the fight for gay rights. Maxey was a central figure in the establishment of facilities for the education and care for people living with HIV.
Austin Latino/a Lesbian & Gay Organization (now allgo) recognized the disparities in HIV transmission for people of color and organized to raise awareness at the rally.
In August 1983, Paul Clover founded the Waterloo Counseling Center to serve the gay community through queer-positive, affordable mental health services. The Austin AIDS Project was started at Waterloo but would grow, in just four years, to the point where an organization dedicated to AIDS was needed. Waterloo Counseling still serves Austin’s queer communities and is now a program of Kind Clinic.
ASHwell was originally known as the Wright House Wellness Center and was founded in 1988 by a group of individuals living with AIDS. They joined with several holistic health therapy practitioners who believed that many of the symptoms of chronic illnesses could be effectively treated with holistic/complementary health therapies.
Members of the Rubber Fairies (early condom distribution outreach volunteers) gather at the 2nd annual AIDS Walk Austin produced by AIDS Services of Austin.
Barbara Davis brought together a group of interested people, to incorporate Project Transition in 1988 and opened Austin’s first hospice facility, Doug’s House, in July of 1989.
Formerly Austin Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization, allgo provides services and a safe space for QTBIPOC in Austin.
Project Transitions still provides housing and other services for people living with HIV today.
1988 AIDS Services of Austin PSA with Carmen Banana. (courtesy of John Moore)
Austin’s Rubber fairies at the 1998 Halloween ball being interviewed by Carmen Banana. (courtesy of John Moore)
As a true example of health care services evolving out of community need for queer people, founded in 2015 by community activists and volunteers, Kind Clinic is a leader in innovative sexual health care that offers patients access to HIV prevention medication known as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), HIV testing and care, STI testing and treatment, and gender-affirming care in Austin and San Antonio.
Want to know more?
Check out this 2021 documentary from Vice on the history of HIV/AIDS narrated by Jonathan Van Ness