My Gay Ellis Island

I am personally and artistically inspired by the idea that Queer educator Gregory Mattson (@lyondeus on Instagram) posited which is that: Unlike other groups, LGBTQ+ people are immigrants into their own culture… We mostly grow up in heterosexual environments and then have to discover ourselves, our history and culture by seeking it out. My gay Ellis Island was the Stop AIDS Project in the mid 1990’s. I became a volunteer as a painfully shy 25 year old who had just moved to San Francisco from Oregon.

The Stop AIDS Project was a group of volunteers tasked with using a peer to peer model to create a sex positive culture of HIV and AIDS awareness. To bring the community together, to look out for each other and promote safe sex.

We did this by doing all kinds of community outreach: In the streets, at clubs, in bars, at street fairs, in drag, out of drag… sometimes wearing little more than a clipboard and a smile… and by facilitating meetings to bring people together to talk about risk, how to talk to each other and how to keep ourselves and each other safe. Gurl… It certainly helped get me out of my shell. It was also my first experience of having a large gay peer group… a network of friends, mentors, lovers and brothers from other mothers who  gave me a sense of pride and belonging.