AIDS Energy

Episode 9

MCC San Francisco lit the San Francisco landmark, Mt. Davidson Cross in rainbow colors on the evening they sang there in 1997. Courtesy of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco Collection. San Francisco Public Library.

Headline from the Bay Area Reporter with the amazing news that there were no obituaries in the paper that day. August 13, 1998.

In 1996 everything changed. With the introduction of antiretroviral medications called the “AIDS cocktail,” people started getting better – some dramatically – and surviving AIDS became a real possibility. In the wake of these changes, MCC found itself taking stock of what they lost to AIDS and using what they learned to address larger social issues—from medical marijuana to homelessness. Sometimes these political stances felt heroic and a way to use that collective energy, and other times it made the church very unpopular with the changing Castro neighborhood.

Steve Marlowe, church administrative director and bass player in the Sunday evening worship band. Courtesy of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco Collection. San Francisco Public Library.

Bob Lawrence making food in the social hall. Courtesy of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco Collection. San Francisco Public Library.

Rev. Penny Nixon.

Bob Crocker conducts the choir while Jim Mitulski looks on. Courtesy of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco Collection. San Francisco Public Library.

NOTES:

Sarah Schulman’s The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination (University of California Press, 2013) takes on the question of AIDS and gentrification.
For an early analysis of the Castro and gentrification see Manuel Castells, The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Social Movements (University of California Press, 1983). For a more recent account that includes an account of the fight over the queer youth shelter in the Castro see Jennifer Reck, Be Queer….But Not Here! Queer and Transgender Youth, the Castro ‘Mecca’ and Spatial Gay Politics (Doctoral Dissertation, Sociology Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2005).
Ed Wolf is one of the main characters in We Were Here, a 2011 documentary by David Weisman about AIDS in San Francisco.
The history of the fights to legalize medical (and recreational) marijuana in California is told in Martin A. Lee, Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational, and Scientific (Scribner, 2012) and Alia Volz, Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana and the Stoning of San Francisco (Mariner, 2020).
“Compassion of the Castro” article from the San Francisco Chronicle, December 2, 2000.
Lynne Gerber was on the board of the MCC Foundation from 2004-2005.

Music:

“Freedom is Coming” is by Anders Nyberg. The soloist is Bob Crocker.

“All Things New” is by Rory Cooney. The soloist is Jean Taylor.

“Blessed Assurance” is by Franny Crosby.

“Gloria (Angels We Have Heard on High” is a traditional Christmas hymn.

“The Potter’s House” is by V. Michael McKay. The soloist is Tessie Mandeville.

THANKS

Special thanks to Tommi Avicolli-Mecca, Tom Ammiano, Matt Sharp, Dr. Jen Reck, Stuart Gaffney, John Lewis, and Dana Van Gorder for talking with us about this episode and connecting us to other folks to talk with.

Resources:

Lyric Center for LGBTQQ+ Youth

The Ali Forney Center

The Trevor Project’s 2022 report on LGBTQ youth and homelessness

TRANSCRIPT:

Episode 09 – AIDS energy

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