Johannes HöingJun 20, 2023

Yesterday a member of one of my choirs, an old white cis-het man, asked me if he could join the #Queermonics - he‘d read about my queer choir in the newspaper. He asked about the repertoire, rehearsal times and then the average age, assuming there are more young people in the Queermonics than in his #choir.

I told him that yes, while we have a handful of members in their fifties, it‘s a mostly young group. He chuckled bc in his choir the members in their 50s are considered the young ones.
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B E AyshfordJul 4, 2023
Show threadJohannes Höing

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He was like „funny that“ and I said „well actually…“ and told him the reason: that we lost 90% of the generation that would be 50+ by now to the aids pandemic and many of the surviving 10% never came out.

You should have seen his face.
He just gave a soft „oh“ and there was SO MUCH compassion in his face.

So I fully expect a septuagenarian ally among my very queer bass group in the next weeks. 🥰

Also: today I saw this post on Instagram and that is what I‘m talking about:

Jun 20, 2023 at 8:07amWeb
Show threadFizzy Negroni 🏳️‍🌈Jun 20, 2023
@JosMusiksalon this is an extremely powerful image. Thank you very much for sharing.
Show threadJenny Blocks MAGA 🌻🇺🇦 ☮️🟦🟧Jul 4, 2023

@tuliplincoln @JosMusiksalon I agree! I felt it all over.

My mom told me my nephew has HIV, but he takes meds. She passed and I couldn't get ahold of him, so I don't know what's going on. According to social media pictures, he looks good.

Show threadTyler CohenJul 3, 2023
@JosMusiksalon @artcollisions and so many of the survivors quieted by the weight of the grief
Show threadVronimus GeisterschlossJul 3, 2023
@JosMusiksalon I had a gay teacher for a few years and he continued talking about his youth and early twenties, how they had the best parties and the best fashion (he was very into fashion) and then his friends started dying 😢 it was so sad, it must have been so traumatizing
Show threadVegetable Gremlin ⍼​👻Jul 3, 2023
@JosMusiksalon yeah lotta folks dont really get that an entire generation was lost and all its knowledge went with it
Show threadFlatbush Gardener 🌈Jul 3, 2023
@vegetablegremlin
*Not* "an entire generation". A lot of us are still here. And not just one generation. Including people still living with AIDS.
cc: @JosMusiksalon
Show threadXymonJul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon literally no gay person I knew who was out then, is still alive today 😳
Show threadSedunkerJul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon
I am right now reading The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Haven't finished it. It has two main overlapping plotlines, and one of them is set in a fictionalized version of Chicago's art and theater scene in 1985, as a group of mostly young gay men try to live their lives as they watch their friends one by one get sick and die and wonder who's next. It is a stunningly effective portrait of what it was like living through that stage of the epidemic, where there was no treatment.
Show threadskuaJul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon
Power image and powerful story Johannes.
We benefit from you sharing this.
Show threadCrazyMyraJul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon Thanks for sharing this. It makes me mad - and sad - that people point to my generation as "the enemy" because almost all who are left are those we opposed. We were there - but an amazingly high percentage of us are already dead.
Show threadCohoJul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon
I grew up in the sf lgb community of the 70s. People were kind and accepting. Life was free and fun. So many amazing people gone in such a short time.
Show thread3wombatsJul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon I remember where they went. So many lost so cruelly
Show threadJen Mc 🏳️‍🌈🇦🇺Jul 4, 2023

@JosMusiksalon @KydiaMusic

My father could’ve been represented (not literally) by one of those men in black. An avid music lover, I watched him die of AIDS in the early 90s at age 61, when I was still just 22, and his partner went 6 weeks later. He’d been out to us for 9 years at that stage and had lived with AIDS for 3.5 of them. It breaks my heart that he had to live so much of his life in the closet and then had so little time left when he did finally come out.

Show threadcohanJul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon Shocking image! I'll be 60 in January. The threat of AIDS/HIV was definitely a big factor in my early life, though living in Edmonton, Alberta mostly in those years + in a community (art, fashion etc) that was very mixed gay/straight/etc and maybe just by chance? I wasn't directly impacted in the way of those who lost friends and partners. I lost an older cousin, who I still think of often, though he was rarely in my life at that time, but no one that was in my close social circle
Show threadΣειληνός (Seilēnós)Jul 4, 2023
@JosMusiksalon I'm 65. I lost a number of friends back then, including my 1st lover. 🏳️‍🌈❤️🏳️‍🌈
Show threadTim HolmesJul 10, 2023
@Seilenos @JosMusiksalon
I’m so sorry.
Show threadMichelle B 🇩🇲🇪🇺Jul 6, 2023
@JosMusiksalon thank you for sharing this ❤️