Hi David, welcome to WEHOville. You have been a passionate promoter of Worlds AIDS Day. So thank you for all you do. First off, you live just outside the WeHo boundaries but are a passionate community member. Tell us about your history in West Hollywood.
On July 20, 1984 I moved to Hollywood, just south of Melrose on Gardner. It was the start of the campaign for cityhood. I remember election night at the not-yet-completed Bel-Age Hotel [The London]. It wasn’t until after 1:00 a.m. before cityhood was assured. Much negative campaigning about how there would not be enough revenue to sustain a city.
When did you first get involved in World AIDS Day?
I was on the security detail for The Quilt, The NAMES Project October 11, 1987. I was allowed to take 32 panels of the Quilt to Sarasota, Florida’s first AIDS fundraiser just six weeks after Washington. This was the first time any portion of the Quilt was allowed to be displayed. World AIDS Day would be created a year later in 1988 by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter.
Tell us about some of the special events that you have promoted over the years to honor those who have been lost.
On January 14, 1992 my first Los Angeles roommate, David Lawrence Cartwright, died at Cedars. On January 14, 1996 my dear friend Christopher Lee Blauman died at Midway Hospital. I’m a lousy seamstress. No Quilt panels. How to honor all these lost lives? On Halloween night, Carnaval in West Hollywood, the notion of displaying just the names struck. A call to the head of Century Cable who happened to be Chris Blauman’s 14-year partner, Bill Rosendahl, was met with an enthusiastic “great, great, great.” He cleared a channel and also linked to other cable operators in Greater Los Angeles and in a matter of five weeks AIDSWatch was streaming — way too fast — in over a million homes. The scramble to get names was daunting. Most were sourced from the directory of The NAMES Project. Half a dozen volunteers from various TV productions at Paramount stepped up and put the names in a computer program. The names were repeated about nine times that day because we did not have enough names submitted to fill the 24 hours. After Rosendahl was elected to the Los Angeles City Council, the Adelphia Cable no longer hosted the program. West Hollywood CityChannel stepped up and became the source/home for the art project. It has remained on CityChannel ever since. There have been several displays over the years. Michael Kearns started in 1999 by corralling 30 various TV sets, all sizes and makes, to his acting studio on Hyperion. Century dropped 30 cable feeds to the building. After we secured our website and Robert Dansby, a media professor at CalArts also set up a computer lab on year to have multiple screen streaming the names. Several libraries around the country did the same in 2000. Notably in 2015 we installed forty screens at 7792 Santa Monica Boulevard to run the project.
AIDSWatch was created to allow a project everybody in the AIDS community regardless of income could participate in. I was on the board of GLAAD/LA when the annual awards program was created. The divisiveness of the have and have-nots in our community was stark and troubling. AIDSWatch could be a great equalizer. All names on AIDSWatch are given equal time. Each name appears for a breath. No titles are included. No doctors or reverends. Everyone is equal in the end. A side note, the most submitted name, by far, is Freddie Mercury. It is better to submit a name than assume someone else did it.
The roster is closed for 2022. Midnight December 1st in Kiribati is 10:00 a.m. November 30th in Los Angeles. Please feel free to jump in and reach out on social media to people in Asia where the day begins.
A few years back I remember sitting in the City Council chambers as the names of lost souls were played on the screen throughout the day. Is that going to happen this year?
For three years the city projected the names on the Northwest corner of The Library. We were allowed the project to run 72 hours those years. Since the remodel of the park the perceived cost is too much. There will be a screen running AIDSWatch in the community room in the library.
What is going on this year?
Since computer wizard Bob Abrahams, longtime WeHoTV head guru, figured out how to stream the names smoothly and in stark black and white we have focused on getting screen world-wide to dip in during the day. Social media drives eyes to the site. The timing of the names is about 3.5 seconds, or the time it takes to breath in or out. I encourage viewers to meditate watching the program. Breath each life in and out.
AIDSWatch runs only on December 1st, World AIDS Day, on www.AIDSWatch.org from midnight to midnight in every time zone. Our site ‘reads’ your computer. If you re-set your computer to be December 1st AIDSWatch will play anytime. The rest of the year the site is used for names to be submitted. There has never been charge to add a name. There will never be a fee to add a name.
I’m sure you recall those very first news reports of this new ‘gay disease’, and here we are 35 {OR MORE} years later and still no vaccine. Any thoughts to share on how HIV/AIDS has changed the culture of the gay community?
The political muscle exerted by ACT UP nationwide was the catalyst in getting the FDA [Dr. Fauci and co.] to release still-experimental drugs — the argument being the vast majority of AIDS patients would not be breeding and risking next generation issues with untested drug use. A side effect of this is seen every day on TV with ads for every condition known to man. Each 60-second spot giving a 45-second disclaimer that you may die of you use this drug. The early release of new drugs is common now.
Thank you David for being the front line champion and supporting World AIDS Day for so many years. We must never forget the lost lives, the lost love. Every day I question why I was spared and so many talented, loving, beautiful people were taken from us by this plague. Now history repeats.
Please take 20 random minutes during the 24 hours of December 1st and tune in. AIDSWatch.org
David you are a hero !
THANK YOU, DAVID! We will never forget our people because you persist!
David has been a friend and inspiration for nearly forty years. I love his observations on the WeHo political scene as they come from someone who loves the community but is has the advantage of having a bit of an outsiders point of view. His reality checks are invaluable.