By Gray Lyden
The queer walking tour started at the Aids Memorial Parkway. The tour was led by Michael Langberg. It started while it was hailing for a few minutes. The Aids Memorial Parkway was meant to discuss the stigma around the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and also acknowledge that HIV is still prevalent today. It was intentional sideways to challenge that stigma. It was made out of speakers to metaphorically project the issue out to others to raise awareness.
Then on the walking tour, we walked through a park that was quite popular during that time. We learned about a neighborhood that was primarily protestant and white, and then we passed what appeared to be the remains of a vigil for Nex Benedict. hen we walked down a straight that had a gay bar called Queer/Bar. It seemed to challenge the stigma that still exists for some LGBTQ+ people around the term queer being used to refer to LGBTQ+ people since it had a history of being a slur and only recently was reclaimed. We then walked to the Wildrose, a lesbian bar that has been operational for a long time and is still operating today.
Across the street from Wild Rose was a thrift store called Out Of The Closet. It was a thrift store that also did HIV testing in the thrift store. In Capital Hill, there were many rainbow crossing walks which might suggest the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community in that area. We later passed what was the site of an early office for making gender confirmation surgery appointments which today that space is occupied by the unrelated Lavender Project, a black trans non-profit. As we began to complete the loop we were walking in we passed what is one of a few LGBTQ+ retirement homes. It looked quite cheerful on the outside.
On our way back we passed a community college that happened to be the site where one of the patches to the AIDS quilt was sewn, that was the end of our walking tour.
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