At the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, when people were frantically scrambling about in preparation for a lock-down, I happened to be standing behind two young women in a very long line at the supermarket when I heard one of them say, “This is the worst time ever to be living in the City. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is the worst thing to ever happen to San Francisco.” I so desperately wanted to get in her face and say, “REALLY?!” My great grandmother Annie[1] would terrify my mother Anne with stories about having to step over dead bodies that were laid out on San Francisco’s sidewalks to be picked up by the coroner during the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic[2]. Not to mention the 1906 Earthquake and Fires[3] and all the random serial killings in the 1970s. And I’d wager that there is no one who lived in the City during the 1980s who did not know someone who died of AIDS.
On April 24, 1980 San Francisco resident Ken Horne was diagnosed with the rare cancer: Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS). A little over a year later UCLA’s Dr. Michael Gottlieb published a paper describing what would become known as AIDS. Thirteen days after the publication of that paper, University of California San Francisco’s[4] Dr. Paul Volberding saw his first patient with KS and realized that this new disease was in the City. On July 3, 1981 the CDC reported that 26 men, aged 26-51, had been diagnosed with KS. Ken Horne, who had been diagnosed the prior year, was identified as San Francisco’s first patient. There was absolutely no information about how to treat the disease or how it spread. But despite being terrified of becoming infected and passing it on to his family, Volberding became a national leader in treatment.
On September 24, 1982 the term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was used for the first time in public. The New York Times reported that the epidemic was limited to the gay population and thought to be a sexually transmitted disease. However, cases started arising from blood transfusions and shared needle use, and by the end of the year it was a global pandemic. Later that year the San Francisco AIDS Foundation[5] was co-founded by Clive Jones to provide services to those diagnosed with AIDS including financial and social assistance, food, education and testing.
In 1983 Dr. Volberding cofounded the world’s first AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. In one instance that gained national attention, an AIDS patient from Gainesville, Florida was put on a plane and flown to SF General because the Florida hospital said it was not capable of caring for him. Volberding had a difficult time finding staff who would agree to work in AIDS patients. That year the AIDS Foundation marched in the Pride Parade for the first time, distributing educational literature and condoms.
By 1985 it was reported that half of San Francisco’s gay population was infected. Fear of AIDS caused City residents to avoid gay restaurant and shop owners. The owner of Zuni’s Café kept his partner’s illness secret for fear that his restaurant would lose business. That year there were 1,000 AIDS-related deaths in the City alone.
But in true San Francisco fashion, San Francisco slowly rose from the ashes of this pandemic. Entertainment came to the AIDS ward at San Francisco General. Volunteers helped those who were housebound. Project Open Hand was founded to provide meals to anyone suffering from AIDS. San Francisco poured $7.6 million into AIDS programs at a time when President Ronald Reagan was still denying that AIDS was a pandemic and slashed all AIDS funding from his health budget. Reagan forbade his Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Kopp, from publicly discussing AIDS, and finally addressed the crisis two years later.
In 1987 the AIDS Foundation organized the first AIDS Walk to raise funds for patient care. The City also established what would become the nation’s largest needle exchange program. Clive Jones introduced the idea of an AIDS Memorial Quilt that was later displayed in the National Mall.
In 1990 Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities including those related to AIDS. In 1992 San Francisco’s epidemic peaked at 2,332 AIDS-related deaths. Testing positive at this time was a certain death sentence. San Francisco had the largest number of AIDS cases and deaths in the world.
In 1995 the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park[6] was dedicated by Steve Silver, creator of Beach Blanket Babylon[7]. He was quoted as saying: “The Grove represents the spirit of the people who have left and the memories that will always be there.” Silver would die from complications of AIDS four months later.
It was not until 1996, 15 years into the pandemic, that a mixture of medicines known as HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy) was introduced. A year later, the CDC reported the first substantial annual decline (47%) of AIDS-related deaths. That same year Congress approved the San Francisco’s AIDS Memorial Grove as a national memorial, becoming the first national AIDS memorial in the nation. The San Francisco National AIDS Memorial Grove[8] receives no federal funding and is maintained through donations and volunteers. It is also the repository of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. When first displayed in the National Mall in 1987 it consisted of 1,920 panels: today there are over 48,000 panels.
Of the gay population that lived in San Francisco at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic (17% of the City’s population), over half died of the disease.
——————
[1] Annie Keenan Matlock: story coming October 22nd [2] 1918 Spanish Influenza: story coming November 21st [3] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849 [4] University of California San Francisco: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4712 [5] Visit them at www.sfaf.org [6] Golden Gate Park: story coming April 4th [7] Steve Silver and Beach Blanket Babylon: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3357 [8] Visit them at www.aidsmemorial.org
