why AIDS Walk is important to me
On Sunday, July 18, 2010, thousands of people will join together in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for the 24th annual AIDS Walk - San Francisco. I will be walking with them as a member of the"Cynthia Slater Memorial Team", formed by the Society of Janus in memory of its founder, Cynthia Slater, who died as a result of AIDS.
The Society of Janus will be holding some fundraisers to help raise money towards our team contribution, but I also wanted to approach my friends with this personal appeal.
I am walking the AIDS Walk for two reasons:
The first reason has to do with the experience I had when I was helping to put together some of the programming for the SOJ30 celebration.
I learned a lot about what our leather community was like, back when Janus first started. Our organization began as a group of kinky folks of all stripes and orientations, getting together in Cynthia Slater's living room to learn all about how to do kinky things to one another. Everyone was playing at the same parties. Like any other family, we had our moments when we squabbled, and moments when we stood behind one another. But the San Francisco leather community wasn't as fractured as it is now.
And then AIDS hit.
AIDS Memorial quilt in Washington, DC
I'll never forget the story, told so touchingly by Cleo Dubois and Fakir Musafar at SOJ30, as they showed us slide after slide of their friends who had passed. They recalled how, one month they would see a person they knew at a party. The next month, they would notice the person wasn't there, and they would hear he or she was sick. The next month, they would hear their friend had passed.
One of the things AIDS did to the local leather community was to drive us apart. There was a lot people didn't know about what was going on, and when the media dubbed this horrific unknown the "Gay Plague", we allowed that, and the homophobia it spawned, to tear the San Francisco leather family apart.
One of the ways I think we have to fight this virus is to fight to heal ALL the ways it has harmed us -- including whether we can come together and work together again, as Leather Family. That's one of the reasons I'm walking, and one of the reasons why I wanted to form the Janus team, in memory of Cynthia Slater.
The second reason I'm walking in the AIDS Walk is because I have three dear friends who are living with HIV, and probably more that I'm not even aware of.
The very fact that I might not be aware of other friends who are living with this virus is a huge testimony to the work that has been accomplished in the past 25 years by organizations such as Stop AIDS, and the SF AIDS Foundation. It is in honor of my friends, whom I consider my family, that I am walking. The money raised by AIDS Walk San Francisco is used right here in the SF Bay area to help people here, in my family.
The AIDS Walk site makes donating online very easy. Just go the team page for the "Cynthia Slater Memorial Team" - Team 147 by following this link:
http://awsf2010.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=342305&lis=1&kntae342305=F2518488BDFF4AF9861718DC6D27D62B&supId=0&team=3732397&cj=Y
On that page you'll see my name listed as a walker for the team. Click on my name, and follow the instructions for entering your donation and choosing a payment method. They'll take debit cards, credit cards, or PayPal. After you complete your payment, the final page allows you to decide how you would like your donation to appear online. You can list your name (a scene name is acceptable) or you can choose to make it anonymous. You can also choose to make your donation "In Memory of" or "In Honor of" to make your donation in memory of someone who has died of AIDS, or you can use this as an opportunity to recognize the work of a particular person or organization.
So, this is my personal request for your support. A little or a lot - whatever you can afford will be appreciated.
Respectfully,
Angela di Tenebre
Hands & AIDS Ribbon (AIDS quilt mosaic) by Mr. Jamester
The Society of Janus will be holding some fundraisers to help raise money towards our team contribution, but I also wanted to approach my friends with this personal appeal.
I am walking the AIDS Walk for two reasons:
The first reason has to do with the experience I had when I was helping to put together some of the programming for the SOJ30 celebration.
I learned a lot about what our leather community was like, back when Janus first started. Our organization began as a group of kinky folks of all stripes and orientations, getting together in Cynthia Slater's living room to learn all about how to do kinky things to one another. Everyone was playing at the same parties. Like any other family, we had our moments when we squabbled, and moments when we stood behind one another. But the San Francisco leather community wasn't as fractured as it is now.
And then AIDS hit.
AIDS Memorial quilt in Washington, DC
I'll never forget the story, told so touchingly by Cleo Dubois and Fakir Musafar at SOJ30, as they showed us slide after slide of their friends who had passed. They recalled how, one month they would see a person they knew at a party. The next month, they would notice the person wasn't there, and they would hear he or she was sick. The next month, they would hear their friend had passed.
One of the things AIDS did to the local leather community was to drive us apart. There was a lot people didn't know about what was going on, and when the media dubbed this horrific unknown the "Gay Plague", we allowed that, and the homophobia it spawned, to tear the San Francisco leather family apart.
One of the ways I think we have to fight this virus is to fight to heal ALL the ways it has harmed us -- including whether we can come together and work together again, as Leather Family. That's one of the reasons I'm walking, and one of the reasons why I wanted to form the Janus team, in memory of Cynthia Slater.
The second reason I'm walking in the AIDS Walk is because I have three dear friends who are living with HIV, and probably more that I'm not even aware of.
The very fact that I might not be aware of other friends who are living with this virus is a huge testimony to the work that has been accomplished in the past 25 years by organizations such as Stop AIDS, and the SF AIDS Foundation. It is in honor of my friends, whom I consider my family, that I am walking. The money raised by AIDS Walk San Francisco is used right here in the SF Bay area to help people here, in my family.
The AIDS Walk site makes donating online very easy. Just go the team page for the "Cynthia Slater Memorial Team" - Team 147 by following this link:
http://awsf2010.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=342305&lis=1&kntae342305=F2518488BDFF4AF9861718DC6D27D62B&supId=0&team=3732397&cj=Y
On that page you'll see my name listed as a walker for the team. Click on my name, and follow the instructions for entering your donation and choosing a payment method. They'll take debit cards, credit cards, or PayPal. After you complete your payment, the final page allows you to decide how you would like your donation to appear online. You can list your name (a scene name is acceptable) or you can choose to make it anonymous. You can also choose to make your donation "In Memory of" or "In Honor of" to make your donation in memory of someone who has died of AIDS, or you can use this as an opportunity to recognize the work of a particular person or organization.
So, this is my personal request for your support. A little or a lot - whatever you can afford will be appreciated.
Respectfully,
Angela di Tenebre
Hands & AIDS Ribbon (AIDS quilt mosaic) by Mr. Jamester