Nancy Pelosi honors those lost to AIDS epidemic with Gay Men's Chorus of D.C. during WorldPride

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In the hushed sanctuary of St. Thomas' Parish in Dupont Circle, there is a sacred memorial in fabric and thread. During WorldPride, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C., in partnership with St. Thomas' and the National AIDS Memorial, unveiled a deeply personal display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt that includes panels for chorus members who were lost to the epidemic in the 1980s and '90s.
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The exhibit features full quilt blocks and a companion photo display, honoring dozens of chorus members who died of AIDS complications. Some panels are decades-old, sewn by grieving loved ones at the height of the crisis. One in particular, the first made by and for chorus members, holds special meaning.
'For us, this is not just history. These are our people,' said Michael Hughes, the chorus's outreach manager, who has sung with the group for more than 20 years. 'We estimate that about 100 members of our chorus died of AIDS. A hundred voices silenced.'
The idea for the exhibit was sparked earlier this year after chorus members visited a local high school class reading Angels in America. 'The students had no context for what life was like in the '80s and '90s,' Hughes explained. 'We told them about the fear, about watching friends die, and about the quilt.'
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After that visit, chorus member Larry Cohen emailed Hughes with an idea and a question: What if they searched for quilt panels made in honor of their fallen members?
'So we spent two and a half months digging into the National AIDS Memorial database, the Names Project records, and the digitized archives in the Library of Congress,' Hughes said. 'We were able to confirm 33 individual chorus members who had panels made. Some we remembered personally.'
The setting of St. Thomas' Parish is itself part of the story. 'During the AIDS crisis, only two or three churches in the city would even hold funerals for someone who had died of AIDS,' Hughes said. 'St. Thomas' was one of them.'
On Friday night, the exhibit drew a special guest, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, a longtime and fierce advocate in the fight against AIDS. Pelosi spent time with chorus members and viewed the panels while the group performed two songs in honor of her visit under the direction of Artistic Director Thea Kano.
Addressing the chorus members, Pelosi recalled her own early skepticism about the quilt's power. 'At first, I thought a quilt was a bad idea,' she said. 'But I was wrong. The beauty was in the art. And the art became the most unifying thing.'
'People who may not think they have anything in common suddenly find that they do through these panels,' Pelosi continued. 'You see someone's story laid out before you, and the love they had in their lives. The grief, the anger, the joy, all of it. And it moves you.'
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Pelosi also reflected on the political and cultural battles of the time, and how vital the LGBTQ+ community's activism was to making change.
'When I made my first speech in Congress about HIV/AIDS, people said, 'Why would you talk about that? Why would you lead with that?'' Pelosi recounted. 'I said, because that's why I came here. I came to fight.'
'Yes, we worked to change policies, pass laws, allocate resources," she said. "But the real miracle was the outside mobilization of the LGBTQ+ community who refused to be silent. That's what made the difference. That's what changed the world.'
As Pride Month unfolds, the quilt serves as a memorial, a call to action, and a loving and prophetic testament to the quilt's ability to humanize loss, to transform mourning into music.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt exhibit is open to the public through Sunday at St. Thomas' Parish. Daily visiting hours and more information are available at GMCW.org.