The Exhumation of Bobbi Campbell (28 Jan 1952-15 Aug 1984)

:: I can hardly be the first person to have been warmed by

the angelic light of Bobbi Campbell, a soulfire extinguished two decades ago. Disarmingly handsome,

Bobbi blazed for us a trail with the single-minded determination to make it safer for his brothers

even as the world was about to enter its darkest hours with the onset of the AIDS plague.

I ached for him the first time I read Bobbi's words while browsing through some random items at the

San Francisco gay archives (GLBT Historical

Society) last week, just a few days after Valentine's. He'd written them for the June 1982 SF

Pride Guide. It contained a warning, a haunting but gentle cry uttered as the terrible long night

was about to descend upon us all: "Slow down. Take care of yourself". Bobbi Campbell

already had AIDS at a time when no one knew what it was. He would live, at a frantic pace, to see

but two more Pride Days.

Have you ever felt someone's ghost standing at your side, with his hand on your shoulder, and you

can almost feel his warm breath on the nape of your neck? That afternoon in the archives I knew I

had stumbled upon someone very special who I simply had to learn more about. Bobbi was only three

years older than me and, at first blush, he seemed like a number of men I knew in my own early

activist days in Toronto working as a volunteer at the The Body Politic.

"It was 20 years ago today ..."

How many of us are still alive who remember the Bobbi of flesh and blood? A registered nurse, and

an early member of the drag troupe Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, there remain traces of his life

story lingering on the net. Unlike others who survived the plague years, or lived on for some time

- time enough for memoirs or artistic accomplishments -- Bobbi was taken from us in late 1984 --

much, much too soon.

Barely three years before Bobbi's death, reporter Lawrence K. Altman wrote a story in the Friday

July 3, 1981 edition of the New York Times: "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals".

Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often

rapidly fatal form of cancer. Eight of the victims died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was

made.

The cause of the outbreak is unknown, and there is as yet no evidence of contagion. But the doctors

who have made the diagnoses, mostly in New York City and the San Francisco Bay area, are alerting

other physicians who treat large numbers of homosexual men to the problem in an effort to help

identify more cases and to reduce the delay in offering chemotherapy treatment.

The sudden appearance of the cancer, called Kaposi's Sarcoma, has prompted a medical investigation

that experts say could have as much scientific as public health importance because of what it may

teach about determining the causes of more common types of cancer. But in the recent cases, doctors

at nine medical centers in New York and seven hospitals in California have been diagnosing the

condition among younger men, all of whom said in the course of standard diagnostic interviews that

they were homosexual. Although the ages of the patients have ranged from 26 to 51 years, many have

been under 40, with the mean at 39.

In a letter alerting other physicians to the problem, Dr. Alvin E. Friedman-Kien of New York

University Medical Center, one of the investigators, described the appearance of the outbreak as "

rather devastating." According to Dr. Friedman-Kien, the reporting doctors said that most cases had

involved homosexual men who have had multiple and frequent sexual encounters with different

partners, as many as 10 sexual encounters each night up to four times a week.

="Bobbi Campbell Kissed by His Lover - 1981" align="left" valign="top">

:: By September, Bobbi became the 16th person in San

Francisco to be diagnosed with Kaposi's. This relatively rare cancer usually appeared first in

violet-coloured spots on the legs but these new cases showed up anywhere on the body. They did not

itch or cause other symptoms, often could be mistaken for bruises, sometimes appeared as lumps and

could turn brown after a period of time. The cancer often caused swollen lymph glands, and then

killed by spreading throughout the body. Doctors investigating the outbreak believed that many

cases had gone undetected because of the rarity of the condition and the difficulty even

dermatologists had in diagnosing it.

What Bobbi and his doctors didn't know yet was that Kaposi's, and a rare pneumonia called

Pneumocystis, were merely symptoms of something else soon to be recognized as far more terrifying.

In time for Hallowe'en, Bobbi distributed pamphlets about the new "gay cancer" at a Castro pharmacy

urging caution for the community. When he made his public declaration that he was stricken with

this new scary disease in the December 10th edition of the San Francisco Sentinel, he became known as the "KS Poster Boy". From

that moment on, till he drew his last breath, Bobbi was dedicated to raising awareness around the

disease which would claim a generation of our brothers and change the course of the sex-and-drug

liberation which had been launched a half-generation earlier.

Early in 1982, he began a column in the Sentinel in which he openly discussed his health, his

ongoing experiences and pointed to resources for others. He began sporting a button that boldly

commanded: "SURVIVE". A few blocks away, writer, composer and one-time intern to Tennessee

Williams, Dan

Turner was diagnosed in February and, at the suggestion of his doctor, Marcus Conant, shortly

after met with Bobbi. They developed an instant rapport and, in Dan's home in the hills above the

Castro district, the seed of what was to become People With AIDS San Francisco had been planted.

But most importantly, Bobbi and Dan focussed on the concept of PWA self-empowerment itself. It

would become their greatest legacy and an incalculable gift to us all. Bobbi was determined not to

become a victim; he would live his life to the fullest and with the fullest dignity.

Yet even as young men were dying in San Francisco and New York at alarming rates, doctors still

didn't know what was wrong. Whispers of "gay cancer" and "gay pneumonia" slowly gave way to the

ugly term "GRID" -- Gay Related Immune Deficiency. (Researchers in France were known to voice out

loud their astonishment than anyone in the US could believe a disease had a sexual preference.) It

wouldn't be until a meeting at the Centers for Disease Control on January 4, 1983 that the more

neutral Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was embraced.

Some politicians were being roused to action and on April 13, 1982 Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca),

chairman of the Congressional subcommittee on Health and the Environment, held a first-of-its-kind

hearing at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. Waxman hoped to raise

political awareness, bring in media attention, and underscore the depth of the crisis for the

relatively new Reagan administration. As expected, a number of established health bureaucrats

spoke; but both Bobbi Campbell and Marcus Conant testified as well.

Waxman had grasped the seriousness of the situation even at this early stage and appealed for

funding from the Federal government. "I want to be especially blunt about the political aspects of

Kaposi's Sarcoma," Rep. Waxman said. "This horrible disease afflicts members of one of the nation's

most stigmatized and discriminated against minorities."

"There is no doubt in my mind," Waxman continued, "that if the same disease had appeared among

Americans of Norwegian descent, or among tennis players, rather than among Gay males, the responses

of the government and the medical community would have been different."

Dr. Bruce A. Chabner, acting director of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer

Treatment, disagreed saying the National Cancer Institute had sufficient funds to research the new

ailments and asserted that Kaposi's sarcoma has received a "tremendous" amount of attention from

the medical community during the past year.

"Advancements in research in this area will have a profound effect on research into all cancers,"

Chabner said. "Thirteen papers have already been written on the subject." And with those words, and

the concurring sentiments of others in the medical and political establishment, the fate of so many

was sealed. Gay males for now would be acceptable research fodder for cancers in general. There

would be no special funding for research, care or prevention. The afflicted class didn't matter. It

would be five more years before President Reagan uttered the word "AIDS" in public.

:: Marcus Conant and Cleve Jones were among the organizers

of the Kaposi's Sarcoma Research & Education Foundation created in April to educate the public

about KS. It was Jones who encouraged Dan to join Bobbi and speak out publicly.

Following Bobbi's lead, Dan chose the occasion of the late Harvey Milk's birthday on May 22 at a

rally on the closed streets of the Castro. His message contained three points: "Stay informed. Be

cautious, but not paranoid. Be supportive." It was the start of his own journey of activism to

which he dedicated enormous time, energy and love. At the time of his death, in 1990 at age 42, Dan

was celebrated as the oldest surviving diagnosed AIDS patient.

(Another noted writer, Daniel Curzon, was a frequent collaborator of Turner's and delivered "
href="http://www.blithe.com/bhq1.1/inthewood.html">The Monster in the Wood" at his friend's

funeral. It is an angry, defiant, and yet hopeful tribute -- fitting for the lives of both Dan and

Bobbi.)

A month later, buried in the closing pages of the 1982 SF Pride Guide, Bobbi's words rang out in an

article entitled "What's it like to have Kaposi's sarcoma? It's a bummer." His plea follows in its

entirety.

It's a bummer being thirty years old and having cancer. It's a bummer seeing friends stricken and

die. It's a bummer going through the medical procedures that doctors use to diagnose and treat

cancer. It's a bummer running up a medical bill into tens of thousands of dollars. It's a bummer

not knowing what caused this cancer or if I can be cured.

Now, I'm a lucky guy in many ways. I don't feel sick. My cancer hasn't spread. I still

function pretty much normally.

Also, I have a good support system -- a lover, a therapist, understanding parents, lots of friends.

I have health insurance and disability insurance.

Even so, sometimes I get real depressed. This thing could kill me -- it killed two friends

of mine, and hundreds of other brothers that I don't know personally. I don't want you to

get it, too.

Are you thinking, "This can't happen to me"? I didn't think it could happen to me, either. But it

did.

The main thing that underlies KS, and the other, related illnesses, is that the patient's immune

system (how one fights off disease) has somehow weakened. No one knows for sure why this is

happening. It is likely that immune suppression may be very widespread in urban gay

communities.

How can you protect yourself? Well, I don't want to sound moralistic, but frequent use of "

recreational drugs" lowers your immunity. So, too, does having sex with lots of different partners

-- besides sharing good times you're also likely sharing all kinds of germs.

If your sex-and-drug lifestyle is in the fast lane, slow down. Take care of yourself.

Yes, it's your business, and only you can decide. But I want you all to be around for next year's

Parade and Celebration! And the next ...

alt="Bobbi Campbell in SF Pride Guide - June 1982" align="left" valign="top">

:: In the picture accompanying the Pride Guide column, the

youthful, moustachioed activist smiles impishly at us, eyes twinkling, despite the severity of his

message. It may be a key to why he was so effective: direct, yet gently non-judgemental.

In 1979, at the First Spiritual Conference for Radical Faeries Gathering in Arizona, two men

performed in nun's habits and in doing so hatched the idea of a theatrical group later called
href="http://www.thesisters.org/">The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. By the time of the

health crisis in early 1982, and in his guise as Sister Florence Nightmare, Bobbi joined the troupe

and co-authored the first SF safer-sex manual, "Play Fair!", written in plain sex-positive

language, offering practical advice and adding an element of humour. In these early days, the full

gloom of the AIDS disaster had not yet struck our community.

A year later, Bobbi and Dan helped organize the 1st AIDS Candlelight Vigil on May 2, 1983

proclaiming starkly the words "Fighting For Our Lives" on a 20 foot long banner. And while there

was a lot going on in San Francisco, activists were being created in the other, bigger AIDS

hotspot, New York City. As part of the National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference planned for

Denver, organizers were co-sponsoring the Second National AIDS Forum. The work Bobbi was doing on

the West Coast was just barely on the radar screen -- something hard to imagine in today's Internet

world -- and spread largely through outdated copies of the Sentinel. Suddenly it occurred to the

organisers that AIDS patients ought to be at the conference participating, not just

listening. It was a turning point.

Rick Berkowitz is the only surviving member of the group of PWAs which included: from SF -- Bobbi

Campbell, Dan Turner, Bobby Reynolds; from NYC -- Phil Lanzaratta, Michael Callen, Rick Berkowitz,

Artie Felson, Bill Burke, Bob Cecchi, Matthew Sarner, Tom Nasrallah; from LA -- Gar Traynor; and

two others whose names are lost. These heroes, along with about 400 other conference delegates,

spent June 9-13, 1983 making history midway between the nation's two "ground zeros".

In 1997 Rick recalled in a poignant essay entitled The Way We War:

We came to Denver as sick people and left as activists. The friendships and romances forged kept us

alive and fighting for years to come and, of course, made the deaths terrible to bear. We marched

in parades, testified before legislatures, started newsletters and hot lines, organized PWA

coalitions. Against a barrage of medical reports that an AIDS diagnosis was a death sentence and

media images of PWAs as disfigured monsters, we gave the most stigmatized disease of our time a

human face.

Bobbi Campbell, a San Francisco nurse, was the first person ever to go public as a PWA. Along with

Dan Turner, Campbell founded People With AIDS San Francisco, the first organization of its kind,

and organized the first AIDS candlelight vigil, leading a march with a 20-foot red banner that read

FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES. At the same time, a handful of gay men with AIDS in New York City was

meeting in a weekly support group, with Michael Callen as its queen mother.

In Denver, the two cadres immediately clashed. The New Yorkers were uneasy about how the men from

San Francisco kept hugging and holding one another and taking time for spiritual reflection -- a

far cry from our tendency to complain, yell and curse. But our differences went deeper than style.

We argued over treatment approaches (holistic or mainstream), the cause of AIDS (single agent or

multiple infections) and, most fiercely, the connection between promiscuity, STDs and immune

deficiency (a theory advocated by New York but denounced as homophobic by San Francisco).

One night at dinner, Michael Callen suddenly asked, "Who here knows how to take two dicks at once?"

Opinions flew as Michael picked up two spoons and demonstrated his own technique. But, in fact, it

was a trick question intended to reveal exactly what, other than AIDS, the 11 of us had in common:

We were all sluts. By accepting the role of promiscuity in the development of AIDS, as personally

painful and politically provocative as it was, Michael told us we could lead the way in protecting

the gay community by promoting and having safer sex. For 11 men made to feel like lepers while

aching more than ever for affection, this was a revelation.

align="right">

:: It was a very powerful, empowering notion: we are not

victims. (Michael Callen, another

remarkably talented artist/activist, co-authored with Dan Turner a more extended version of the events of the conference that is worth

reading.) Importantly, not only did they insist that the phrase "People With AIDS" (or PWAs) sink

in with the health professionals attending, but the group created "The Denver Principles" which became something of a Charter of Human

Rights for PWAs.

These included:

We recommend that all people:

Support us in our struggle against those who would fire us from our jobs, evict us from our homes,

refuse to touch us or separate us from our loved ones, our community or our peers, since available

evidence does not support the view that AIDS can be spread by casual, social contact.

We recommend that people with AIDS:

Substitute low-risk sexual behaviours for those that could endanger themselves or their partners.

We feel that people with AIDS have an ethical responsibility to inform their potential sexual

partners of their health status.

People with AIDS have the right:

To as full and satisfying sexual and emotional lives as anyone else.

To quality medical treatment and quality social service provision without discrimination of any

form based on sexual orientation, gender, diagnosis, economic status, or race.

To privacy, to confidentiality of medical records, to human respect, and to choose who their

significant others are.

To die and to LIVE in dignity.

alt="Bobbi Campbell at SF Pride March 1 - 1983-06-24" align="left" valign="top">

:: Bobbi headed to New York directly after the conference

and brainstormed with several of his new friends and colleagues on how to launch a national People

With AIDS organization. AIDS was increasingly appearing in the mainstream press and this year the

theme of June 1983 SF Pride was People With AIDS. Ever ready to lead, Bobbi had an "AIDS Poster

Boy" t-shirt made for his appearances at Pride, to the delight of friends and onlookers.

For those of us living in large cities with visible gay populations -- such as Toronto in my case

-- we were following the news with alarm and confusion. But for all of the talk in our community,

it was still at least a year before the mainstream public "got it": that was when the gaunt, death

-like grimace of Rock Hudson was splashed across the tabloids, newspapers, magazines and television

sets the first week of October, 1985.

So when brave Bobbi Campbell and his lover appeared on the front cover of Newsweek on August 8,

1983, it was news! The cover story shrieked: "EPIDEMIC: The Mysterious and Deadly Disease

Called AIDS May Be the Public Health Threat of the Century. How Did it Start? Can it Be Stopped?".

In a sense, Bobbi was our human face on AIDS: a good looking, optimistic, undefeatable man

who spoke plainly and compassionately and urgently on our behalf. Just as we had cheered when

Leonard Matlovich, the Air Force Sergeant who came out as gay in 1975 and made the cover of Time,

this was our moment to share with Bobbi. We were listening, even if hetero America, and the

politicians, and the wealthy celebrity class were just as determinedly burying their heads in the

sands intoning nervously "gay disease, can't touch me".

For almost the next year Bobbi drops out of sight on the net. I don't know if he was ferociously

active or suffering bouts of ongoing illness. I haven't been able to verify if he even made it to

1984 SF Pride. I did discover that, in an ironic twist, Bobbi had moved into the same apartment

previously occupied by Ken Horne -- the first man to be reported to the CDC infected with (what was

later termed) AIDS -- and San Francisco's first AIDS casualty. But Bobbi did make two last

important public appearances.

valign="top">

:: First, at the Rally for Gay Rights on July 16, 1984

outside the Moscone Center where the Democratic National Convention was taking place. Inside, Mario

Cuomo made the most impassioned speech of his career while the delegates chose a doomed slate of

Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. Outside, Bobbi was joined by 100,000 marchers demanding that

the next group of elected politicians heed the dire health situation which by this time was

sweeping through all major cities.

The Los Angeles Times writer Harvey Weinstein called the rallies (a second one that day included

150,000 unionists) "stirring". He reported:

One of the principal demands of the march was "immediate and massive federal funding to end the

AIDS epidemic," a reference to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a disease that has struck many

gay men. "AIDS is the issue," said Bobbi Campbell, who is afflicted with the disease.

The Democratic platform includes a plank calling for more federal money to combat AIDS and several

other positions advocated by gays and lesbians, including an end to job and housing discrimination

against them.

But, civil rights lawyer Mary Dunlap and co-chairman of the march said: "We have to do more than be

visible and have the Democrats pat us on the head. Achieving our goals will be harder work than all

this."

Near day's end, Bill Olwell, vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the highest

ranking union official who is a publicly declared gay, linked the two events in a speech to the gay

rally.

"This morning, I marched up Market Street with tens of thousands of my labour brothers and sisters

demanding an end to the Reagan Administration," Olwell said. "This afternoon, I marched down Market

Street with tens of thousands of my gay brothers and lesbian sisters demanding the same justice and

equality and an end to the same repressive Reagan policies. This is what today is all about."

It was all for nought in the end as the Mondale-Ferraro ticket was crushed and Reagan sailed

blithely and silently into a second term. Even the death of his friend Rock Hudson, a year later,

did not move him to speak publicly about AIDS before 1987.

Two weeks later, on August 2, 1984, Bobbi appeared on the CBS Evening News in a remote interview

live with Dan Rather. Fighting to the end, his words of inspiration allowed him to overcome the

indignity of the circumstance. He was placed in a glassed in booth and the technicians refused to

come near him to wire him for the interview. The rumours, and fears had reached the mainstream

audience, but not the facts: AIDS was not easily communicable.

Two weeks later again, on August 15, the angel that was Bobbi Campbell, died.

:: The 1985 SF Pride was dedicated in his honour and the

ongoing third Sunday in May AIDS Candlelight Vigils feature an award in his name as an AIDS Hero.

The uplifting, life-affirming work he did to found the PWA self-empowerment movement, and to insist

on the dignity of gay men and women everywhere, is a debt we all share.

Afterword: I believe Bobbi Campbell was a true Aquarius child.

According to the stars, he had a talent for anticipating future trends, an inventive mind which

gave rise to successful leadership. His flexibility made it possible to accept new circumstances

and move forward where others faltered. He was best understood by other creative people and by

those who appreciated an inventive sense of humour. As an Aquarian he made a good friend because he

rarely judged anyone harshly.

I did not know Bobbi except from what I have read of his words and deeds and those of fated ones

who shared part of his journey. I would have been bursting with pride to call him my friend.

Perhaps, sweet Bobbi, we'll meet next time round.