The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C. unveiled a poignant exhibit of the AIDS Memorial Quilt at St. Thomas' Parish during WorldPride. This display honors members who died due to AIDS-related complications, with panels created by their loved ones during the height of the epidemic. The idea emerged after chorus members spoke to high school students about the past, igniting a search for quilt panels honoring their deceased members. The installment features 33 confirmed chorus members, reflecting on the enduring impact of loss and remembrance within the LGBTQ+ community.
"For us, this is not just history. These are our people," said Michael Hughes, the chorus's outreach manager, who has sung with the group for more than 20 years. "We estimate that about 100 members of our chorus died of AIDS. A hundred voices silenced."
"The students had no context for what life was like in the '80s and '90s," Hughes explained. "We told them about the fear, about watching friends die, and about the quilt."
"So we spent two and a half months digging into the National AIDS Memorial database, the Names Project records, and the digitized archives in the Library of Congress," Hughes said. "We were able to confirm 33 individual chorus members who had panels made. Some we remembered personally."
The setting of St. Thomas' Parish is itself part of the story. "During the AIDS crisis, only two or three churches in the city were open to the LGBTQ community... Our church was one of them."
Collection
[
|
...
]