Hi History Makers, Eric here. A few months ago we launched Making Gay History's Patreon

channel, a place where we're sharing new video interviews never before heard clips from

my archive that didn't make it into the episodes and more. If you're not a member of our Patreon

community yet, I hope you'll join today. Just $5 a month gets you access to these Making

Gay History extras, and you'll support us as we work to bring LGBTQ history to life

through the voices of the people who lived it. Find out more at patreon.com slash making

gay history, or go to makinggayhistory.com and click on the link in our homepage banner.

And thank you so much.

I'm Eric Marcus, and in this season of Making Gay History, I'm sharing part of my story

of navigating my 20s and the 1980s in New York City. This memoir is also about my friends,

the people I met along the way and what happened to them as the AIDS epidemic took root and

upended our lives. This is chapter 4, Complications of AIDS.

It's the late summer of 1985, and Barry and I are on the tail end of a run in Central

Park, a few blocks from our new apartment in an old building on 69th Street in Broadway.

We're waiting at a stoplight and catching our breath, a black pickup truck pulls up alongside

us. As the light changes, the driver rolls down his window and yells, I hope you both

die of AIDS. And then he's gone. Barry and I look at each other and think the same thing.

What gave us a way? Couldn't be our mismatched running gear, which is so not gay.

Maybe something about the way we ran? We're shocked, but not surprised. AIDS has unleashed

waves of anti-gay propaganda and given homophobes just the excuse they need to share their ugliest

thoughts. A couple of weeks later, we're on a plane headed to the Caribbean. Our first

big trip is a couple. My first trip overseas with a boyfriend. And they're worrying about

...