04/24/2026
Happy ***anVisibilityWeek! We thought we’d take it back to why the “L” comes first in LGBTQ, honoring the bravery of le****ns who showed up in powerful ways during the AIDS epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s. 🩷🧡❤️🤍
Even today, le****ns are frequently characterized only as the nurses of the AIDS crisis, remembered solely for their role in assisting gay men suffering from AIDS. While the medical caretaking was a huge part of le***an AIDS activism, it was not the only role they played. This characterization erased the direct impact AIDS had on le***an communities. Le****ns did die of AIDS. In 1991, about 40% of HIV-positive individuals and 12% of AIDS patients were women.
In 1983, two years after the start of the AIDS crisis, “men who have s*x with men” were banned from donating blood in an effort to keep HIV out of America’s blood supply. This inspired the creation of the organization, Blood Sisters. Founded in San Diego, Blood Sisters held blood drives, worked with blood donation centers, and ensured donations went directly to HIV/AIDS patients who were suffering.
In the 1980s, Val was one of the first le***an nurses to provide services at the Ambassador Hotel, a single-room-occupancy facility in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco that was leased by a gay man, Hank Wilson.
Leslie Ewing was the first female board president of the AIDS Emergency Fund, which at the time was mostly run by male volunteers from the gay and leather communities. She served as president for two years after the tragic loss of half the board to AIDS.
The Le***an Avengers was founded in 1992 by Ana Simo, Sarah Schulman, Maxine Wolfe, Anne-christine d'Adesky, Marie Honan, and Anne Maguire, six longtime le***an activists who were involved in a variety of LGBT groups, from Medusa's Revenge, a le***an theater group, to Women for Women, to ACT-UP and ILGO (Irish Le***an Gay Organization). Known organizing the first D**e March, they used theatrical, media-savvy protests to combat anti-gay violence and the invisibility of le****ns in society.
D**e Dinners, hosted by Maxine Wolfe, created a space for women (specifically le****ns) to voice their frustration with the men of ACT UP, who frequently excluded HIV-positive women, most of whom were women of color, from their activism.
We remember those who came before us and honor them by telling their stories. ✊️🏳️🌈
