Joseph Beam, 1954 – 1988, Groundbreaker and Earthshaker

thegavoice.com:

“I dare myself to dream of us moving from survival to potential, from merely getting by to a positive getting over.” As we approach World AIDS Day on December 1, we should look back toward the horrifying first waves of AIDS deaths that threatened many peoples, but particularly an entire generation of queer men.

Current accounts too often told in the States appear as though only white gay men were there. This is a false narrative. Many others were in the trenches, fighting for and creating health care services; demanding AIDS research and fair drug distribution from the heartless and the incompetent in governmental, medical and corporate institutions; providing basic life needs and resources, from meals to pet care to help with bills and troublesome but legally powerful family members; and wiping up messes, tuning TVs, and holding hands.

These represented life preservers thrown out into those terrifying riptides. And a very large preserver was imprinted specifically for Black gay/same gender loving men: Joseph Beam’s seminal 1986 anthology, “In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology.” Thousands of men wept and celebrated the contents provided by 29 authors, poets, artists and playwrights.

Joseph Beam himself? A man as proud of his gayness as his Blackness, no matter the rooms he entered and the people he encountered.