You know it did! I wonder if queer people today have any concept of how we pulled together and supported our communities during the AIDS crisis. I mean, what you and the San Francisco bears did was just one example of hundreds if not thousands of community groups coming together and raising money for food and medical care.

I used to help with a fundraising boat cruise around Manhattan benefited God's Love We Deliver. Most of the other board members were just ordinary bar flies. Nothing special about any of us, except we were highly motivated to help. (Actually, there's some overlap, because the president of our board, Cowboy Hank, often frequented one of the two major bear bars downtown, and my best friend Howie was a bear by any definition. Most of us weren't, though.)

And we were just one of many groups in Manhattan doing things like that.

Just like you guys did.

Thank you!

This is an element of queer history we should always try to remember. So, thank you very much for this story.

And, by the way, in all the years that you've been engaging with P&P stories, I had no idea I was in the presence of royalty. 😉