^{Dan Gates of ASGCC in front of a Provincetown panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt
All Photos by Steve Desroches}

by Steve Desroches

Last December a right-wing Catholic organization called the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property announced plans to bring their America Needs Fatima campaign to Provincetown to protest Christmas drag shows at the Post Office Cabaret during Holly Folly, the Provincetown Business Guild’s annual LGBTQ holiday celebration. Based in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, the group put out a call for those interested in their homophobic action to call someone named Bessy for more information on their anti-drag roadtrip to picket the Anita Cocktail Variety Hour and Paige Tuner’s holiday shows. When the news hit Provincetown, both shows were sold-out by the end of the day and various members of the community quickly organized meetings to discuss how to respond. It wasn’t just the annoying and bigoted foolishness of the planned protest that mobilized the town, but also the insult of having said demonstration on December 1, World AIDS Day, which is always commemorated in Provincetown. 

A counter protest, meant to spread the joy of the season and Provincetown’s queer community, was planned to follow a memorial in which the names of those known to have died from AIDS in town would be read out loud. As it turned out, Bessy and crew never showed, but the planned response went on in a both beautiful and jubilant way to honor those lost and the special activist spirit of Provincetown, which, based on the range of ages of organizers and attendees, showed that the new generation in town, too young to have experienced the challenging times of the early days of the HIV and AIDS pandemic, was ready to carry on the work.

“That’s when I knew we needed to bring back the AIDS quilt panel to Provincetown,” says AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod (ASGCC) president and chief executive officer Dan Gates. “The community response, the emotions expressed from when all the names were read was like something I haven’t seen in a while, especially from those who weren’t here in the early waves of the pandemic. It was time to bring back the panel so people could see it and feel what it means to Provincetown.”

The panel in question is a bit of an anomaly in the AIDS Memorial Quilt’s 50,000 plus panels in that it is 12-feet by 12-feet rather than the traditional three-feet by six-feet, and since June it has been on display at the ASGCC’s Bradford Street main office. Started in 1990 at the suggestion of Alice Foley, the town nurse and co-founder and first executive director of the Support Group, it was decided that the panel should deviate from the standard size to illustrate the tremendous impact HIV and AIDS had on Provincetown. According to Bill Furndon, a 35-year employee of the Support Group who worked on the panel from the beginning, the design and work was done by staff, clients, and volunteers. The inner square features four different aspects of the town: Beech Forest, Long Point, the dunes, and the Provincetown skyline. The two outer squares feature names of those who passed, as do the stars in the middle, with additions being made until the panel was completed in 1996. Due to the stigma of HIV and AIDS the decision was made to only put first names on the panel. In all, there are 121 names on the panel, and Furndon knew them all.

“Some people who worked on the outer square have their names in the inner square,” says Furndon. “Since it’s been on display so many people have come in to see it and remember those people on the panel, which is certainly not all of those who died, but the panel has come to mean so much over the years. It’s one of the most popular and often requested to loan of the entire Names Project, the quilt.”

There’s Liz, who was Jewish and said that when the time came to add her name she wanted a Star of David amongst the field of five-pointed stars. There’s Preston B., full name Preston Babbitt, one of the Support Group’s founders, former owner of the Rose and Crown as well as a beloved bon vivant who would wow the crowds every year with his elaborate Carnival costumes. And then there is Glenn, a young man from Colorado who was the first known AIDS case in Provincetown. He arrived gravely ill from Boston, where he had gone in a last attempt to find treatment. Disowned by his family, he had no one in the world, and when Foley called the hospital in Boston to ask why they would send a dying man all the way out to Provincetown, the voice on the other end said that there was nothing that could be done for him and that the “gay community would take care of him.” In actuality, it would be the entire Provincetown community that would care for the hundreds that came to town seeking safe harbor.

“I am so glad that it’s come back to Provincetown,” says Furndon. “It’s all so important. All of those names, those people, were just the bravest people. They were on the forefront of treatments and medicines and in a time when AIDS was so visible physically. They were so brave. I remember them all.”

The panel from the National AIDS Memorial Quilt is on display now through World AIDS Day on December 1 at the Provincetown office of the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod at 96 Bradford St. For more information call 508.487.9445 or visit asgcc.org.