"The Photo That Changed The Face Of AIDS," David Kirby (December 6, 1957 - May 5, 1990) and family, Columbus, Ohio, May 5, 1990. Photo by Therese Frare (@tfrare), c/o @time. David Kirby, who died--and whose final moments were recorded--twenty-six years ago today, was estranged from his family after coming out. In the late 1980s, however, upon learning that he had contracted HIV, Kirby reconnected with his family; he wanted, he said, to come home to die. In the fall of 1990, Ohio University student Therese Frare volunteered at a local AIDS hospice in Columbus, where she worked with a caregiver named Peta; Peta, a genderfluid, HIV-positive Native-American, had a close relationship with David Kirby, who, by then, was a hospice patient. Frare recalled later, “On the day David died, I was visiting Peta. Some of the staff came in to get Peta so [Peta] could be with David, and [Peta] took me...I stayed outside David’s room, minding my own business, when David’s mom came out and told me that the family wanted me to photograph people saying their final goodbyes. I went in and stood quietly in the corner, barely moving, watching and photographing the scene. Afterwards I knew, I absolutely knew, that something truly incredible had unfolded in that room, right in front of me.” The picture, from which Frare refused to take any profit, received a World Press Photo Award, and became the center of a worldwide controversy when Benetton used it in a 1992 ad campaign. After their son's death, Bill and Kay Kirby remained close with Peta, and the Kirbys ultimately became Peta's caregiver as Peta succumbed to HIV/AIDS in 1992. Kay Kirby remembered, "My husband and I were hurt by the way David was treated in the small country hospital near our home where he spent time after coming back to Ohio. Even the person who handed out menus refused to let David hold one [for fear of infection]. She would read out the meals to him from the doorway. We told ourselves that we would help other people with AIDS avoid all that, and we tried to make sure that Peta never went through it." #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #davidkirby #peta #toosoongone (at Columbus, Ohio)
