Helen Compton, owner of the Shamrock Bar, 1999

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Title

Helen Compton, owner of the Shamrock Bar, 1999

Description

“CAROL:  So, how did you first hear about AIDS? How did if first happen, when people first started talking about it?

HELEN:  When they first started talking about it, it scared the hell out of me, . . . .

CAROL:  Do you remember the first person who came into the bar talking about it?

HELEN:  Doug Patterson(?).  He’s in Georgetown now.  He has AIDS.  There’s been several of them that has died with it.”

 

“LARRY:  . . . the whole AIDS epidemic passed her by.  . . . She did not want condoms in the bar.  We tried.  The health agencies tried to get her to put condoms in the bar.  The health department came in there wanting to set up to do blood tests in the bar for the gay community.  At no charge.  She wouldn’t allow it.  Charles [from a local AIDS organization] has been there several times for organizations and she wouldn’t allow it.”

Interview with “Larry,” bartender at The Shamrock Bar, 1999
The Shamrock Bar: Photographs and Interviews, 1997-2003

 

“. . . lesbians got involved in AIDS organizations in part because as political women we could see the reality of what was going on to gay men and what implications of that were for the gay movement.”

Interview with Urvashi Vaid, member of the Gay Community News (GCN) Collective, 1995
John-Manuel Andriote Victory Deferred Collection, 1901-2008

Source

The Shamrock Bar: Photographs and Interviews, 1997-2003