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The Hart Island Project ’s AIDS Initiative is currently attempting to identify and preserve the stories of people who died of AIDS and were buried on the island watch the project’s haunting video, Loneliness in a Beautiful Place, to learn more. Some who died of AIDS, abandoned by their families and shunned by funeral directors, were buried in the city’s potter’s field on Hart Island in the Bronx. Redden’s Funeral Home in Chelsea was a notable exception and is remembered by many as the only welcoming mortuary (although GMHC was able to compile a list of a few dozen citywide). During the early years of the epidemic, many funeral homes were unwilling to accept those who had died from complications of AIDS, charged prohibitive “AIDS handling fees,” or refused to embalm those whose deaths were AIDS-related. The ill treatment of those with AIDS continued even after their deaths. GMHC also helped people like Eric’s client Jimmy who were in danger of losing their housing while fighting for their lives. CIWs provided support, companionship, and counseling in 1984, more than 400 people living with AIDS were referred to the program (see GMHC’s annual report from that year ). GMHC also ran a Crisis Intervention Worker (CIW) Program-the program for which Eric volunteered in 1984. Learn more about the first films that dealt with AIDS here. Geoff Edholm, one of the lead actors, died of AIDS-related complications in 1989. Bressan, Jr., died of AIDS-related complications two years after the release of Buddies. Watch a trailer for the recently restored version here. The 1985 independent drama Buddies centers on the relationship between a person with AIDS and his volunteer buddy it was the first film about AIDS. Ruth Coker Burks, an Arkansas woman, dedicated herself to caring for gay men with AIDS and eventually buried more than 40 people who had died from complications of AIDS in her family cemetery in Hot Springs. Similar buddy systems, both official and unofficial, sprang up across the country in the face of widespread prejudice and neglect. GMHC developed a Buddy Program to help people with AIDS who felt abandoned and alone. Credit: Municipal Archives, City of New York. 1980 tax photo of GMHC’s first headquarters at 318 West 22nd Street. GMHC’s archival records are kept at the New York Public Library connecting to the Wi-Fi network at the library’s main building provides access to over a thousand videos in the collection, including organizational oral histories and volunteer testimonies. The office space was donated to the organization by disco pioneer (and co-creator of the legendary gay nightclub Paradise Garage) Mel Cheren. The episode’s title refers to GMHC’s first headquarters at 318 West 22nd Street in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. Kramer’s papers are housed at the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Find out more about Kramer’s life and legacy in this Making Gay History episode and the accompanying episode notes. Kramer dramatized this period in his largely autobiographical 1985 play The Normal Heart (later adapted into a film ). You can read one of the organization’s early newsletters here. Six months later, Kramer and five others- Nathan Fain, Lawrence Mass, Paul Popham, Paul Rapoport, and Edmund White -founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). In the summer of 1981, 80 gay men met in the living room of screenwriter and author Larry Kramer to see what could be done about the new disease affecting their community read about the gathering in this eyewitness account by Andy Humm. Because there was no test for HIV at the time, the actual numbers are unknown. According to the Centers for Disease Control, by the end of 1984 there were 7,699 reported cases of AIDS in the United States. This chapter covers the spring of 1984 to December 1984. (Please note, however, that the Patient Zero theory referenced at the top has since been discredited for more information on the subject, watch the documentary Killing Patient Zero. įor a New York City-specific timeline, see this New York magazine article. Decades later, he speaks with his client’s widow, for whom AIDS is a daily reality.įor a comprehensive overview and useful links related to HIV and AIDS, consult this HIV.gov timeline. Eric is confronted with the reality of AIDS when he volunteers for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.