We Were Here Page #4

the political establishment.

Going into the 1980s.

The next night is harvey's

birthday party...

And so the streets

close off...

Tens of thousands

of people show up...

And they give very,

very angry speeches.

Anne kronenberg

gives a very fierce speech...

And at the end

of her speech...

She starts a chant,

"welcome to the '80s...

Welcome to the '80s. "

We couldn't know,

of course...

That even then

hiv was present.

Hiv arrived first

in san francisco.

Probably in '76...

And by 1979,

probably 10%

Of the gay men

in that crowd were infected.

And by the time we discover.

That there is such a thing...

Aids is even happening,

in june of '81...

Roughly 20% are infected.

By the time we actually

get the test...

So people can find out

if they're infected...

Close to 50% of the gay men

of san francisco.

Are already infected.

- '81 was a big year.

I landed a really good job...

And, for the first time...

I was part

of a large office staff.

With a lot of other gay men.

I was finishing my graduate

degree in creative writing.

I went to europe.

I had this great job.

All these new gay men

i was working with.

And, um, I felt like...

"Oh, the '80s.

Something's gonna shift. "

Like, I moved

to new york in '71.

Now I'm really here

in san francisco in '81.

And... And so that is

when everything changed...

Because that was, you know,

that was the year in the castro.

Running down,

I'll never forget...

I went to

the castro theatre.

Great double feature.

Two... I think it was, uh...

It was, like,

now, voyagerandcasablanca.

On the big screen...

And I remember, like,

running down to the...

The old star pharmacy...

'Cause we're gonna

smoke some pot...

And we didn't have any papers.

And I remember

looking in the...

...i remember looking in the window

of star pharmacy...

And there were these little

polaroid photographs.

That this young man

had made of himself.

There were at least three,

maybe four of them.

The first one was like this.

And inside...

...these big,

purple splotches.

And then there was

another picture...

And he had taken his shirt,

and pulled it up like this.

It was of his chest...

Big purple splotches.

They were just on the window...

And underneath,

there was a hand-Written note.

That said something like,

"watch out, guys.

There's something out there. "

Something like that.

And, uh, oh, my god.

It made...

huge impact on me.

And then, like,

i was really stoned...

And I went and watched

the movie, and...

...but the whole movie.

I was just

thinking about that.

It really made

an impact on me.

I went to see the movies with

a friend of mine named michael...

And he and i

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