If I had been born ten years earlier, I'd be dead. So too would most of my peer group. But we were lucky; we mostly came of age hearing stories about friends dying, rather than losing our own. But if I had moved to San Francisco in 1984 instead of 1994, I have little doubt my story would have been a lot different - and a lot shorter.
Out of nowhere, the celluloid chatter in the UK this week has been about one thing: Channel 4's It's a Sin. It's about a group of friends who escape from the provinces to London in the early 80s to be gay, and it's brilliant. It captures so well the joy of finally being able to live freely, of finding your people. It also captures the fear, paranoia, and indifference as disease decimated a stigmatised minority. It's hard to remember now, with the Warp Speed of covid, just how slowly information (and worse, treatment) came out about HIV, the decades-long sense of a noose slowly tightening.
Watching the series, it's very easy to see myself in the plotline and which role I would have played. How lucky I am to be sitting here today. It's a bit of a rollercoaster, but well worth the ride.
La!
Shaun
To my Jills, thank you.
"So much artistic and intellectual capital was lost to us. America turned away from their suffering for so long. It must have been awful." -Natasha Watkinson
The original must-see film about the early years of AIDS.
Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk
http://shaunism.blogspot.co.uk/
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