Ken Ramsauer memorial (participants holding signs reflecting the growing number of AIDS victims), Ce
Ken Ramsauer memorial (participants holding signs reflecting the growing number of AIDS victims), Central Park, New York City, June 13, 1983. Photo © Alon Reininger..On June 13, 1983, thirty-four years ago today, more than fifteen hundred people gathered in New York City’s Central Park to honor Ken Ramsauer, a New York City hardware store manager and activist who died of AIDS-related illness on May 23, 1983..Days before his death, Ramsauer gave a nationally televised interview to Geraldo Rivera on the growing AIDS crisis, bringing much-needed visibility to those living with the disease, and making Ramsauer, as the New York Times described him, “a national symbol of the discrimination and pain suffered by victims of a condition that ravages the body’s immune system.”.Mourners at the memorial raised candles and held numbered signs to reflect the growing number of New Yorkers lost to AIDS. In a speech, Rivera said that Ramsauer “wanted society to know the discrimination and negative publicity that has allowed this disease a mortal head start.”.The Ramsauer memorial was one of the first highly-visible events honoring victims of the epidemic. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #NeverForget #NeverAgain #KenRamsauer #Resist (at Central Park) -- source link
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