“I became involved in a lot of human rights activities, which all stemmed from my sexual orientation as much as anything.”
Kiyoshi Kuromiya was a true hero who devoted his life to the struggle for social justice. Whether it’s was for civil right for Black Americans, the injustice of the Viet Nam War, Gay Rights, or effective treatment for people with AIDS - Kuromiya was there fighting for the cause.
Perhaps Kuromiya passion to fight oppression stems from the fact he was born at the World War II–era Japanese American internment camp (Heart Mountain, Wyoming).
At a very young age, Kuromiya was aware he was homosexual, although he didn’t know the term for it. At the age of 9 he found a copy of The Kinsey’s report on sexual behavior on open shelves in Public Library. It explain his nature to him. He soon “came out” to his parents. But later he was arrested for lewd behavior in a public park with a 16 year old teen boy. They were both detained and placed in juvenile hall for three days as punishment.
”… the judge or whatever he was told me and my parents that I was in danger of leading a lewd and immoral life.”
The arrest made Kuromiya feel like a criminal. The sense of shame forced him to keep his sexual identity a secret.
But those repressed feelings drove him to fight oppression. While attending the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1960s Kuromiya got involved with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in their efforts to desegregate Maryland diners. Then in August 1963, he attended the March on Washington (along with 250,000 others) to demand justice for all citizens. At the end of the march Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
That evening Kuromiya had the opportunity to meet King and other Civil Rights leaders. He formed a friendship with King and became his assistant. He participated in the March on Washington and in the voter registration campaign with Black Students in Montgomery, Alabama.
As part of his anti-war efforts Kuromiya designed the “Fuck the Draft” using the pseudonym Dirty Linen Corp.
As a gay man, Kuromiya also sought equality and freedom for other gay people. In 1965 he participated in the “Annual Reminder” at Independence Hall, one of the earliest rallies to remind the public that LGBT people did not have basic civil rights protections. He used the occasion to publicly announce he was Gay.
After the Stonewall riots in 1969, Kuromiya helped to organize the Philadelphia chapter of the Gay Liberation Front. With the advent of the AIDS crisis he was involved with the creation of ACT-UP and was the editor for the organization’s “Standard of Care”, the first medical treatment and competency guidelines for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Kuromiya was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989. Then he suffered a recurrence of lung cancer that he had survived in the 1970s. But that didn’t stop him. He insisted on receiving the most aggressive treatment for his cancer and it’s impact on his HIV drug regimen. And participated in every treatment decision. Kuromiya died of complications from cancer in May 2000.
“I'm a twenty-year metastatic lung cancer survivor and a fifteen-year AIDS survivor. And I really believe that activism is therapeutic.”
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