During WorldPride, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., in partnership with St. Thomas’ Parish and the National AIDS Memorial, unveiled a deeply personal display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. This exhibit included panels honoring chorus members who died during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and ’90s. These were not just names on cloth. Many of the quilt panels were sewn decades ago by grieving loved ones. One of them, the first ever made by and for chorus members, held special significance.
The idea for the exhibit was sparked earlier this year after chorus members spoke to a high school class reading Angels in America. The students had no real sense of the fear and loss that marked the era.
That conversation turned into a mission. Chorus members spent months digging through the National AIDS Memorial archives, confirming 33 individual panels honoring their own. Some names they remembered personally.
Friday night’s opening of this historic initiative drew a very special guest—House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. She praised the quilt’s unifying power and the queer community’s role in demanding change.
Pelosi told the crowd, “When I made my first speech in Congress about HIV/AIDS, people said, why would you talk about that? Why would you lead with that? I said, because that’s why I came here. I came to fight. But the real miracle was the outside mobilization of the LGBTQ+ community, who refused to be silent. That’s what made the difference. That’s what changed the world.”
The exhibit was open through Sunday.
