I remember being a kid when AIDS was at its worst. At the time I had no clue I was Queer, I knew no openly Queer people, I wasn't permitted to know a relative was, I didn't know I was near vibrant enclaves in Little Five Points and Athens.
What I *did* know was that right wingers seemed to be ridiculously happy that folks (whose worst faults I was told were being girly and having ass sex) were dying in complete misery.
Even AT THAT TIME I got a real good idea of who the REAL bad guys were.
One complete vicious asshole who's plagued this country for decades, finally dying, doesn't achieve much sadly; like antisemitism and anti-Blackness, nobody loses money as an homophobe and there's a lot of other people out there causing harm, and all I can do is beat myself up for feeling even vaguely glad someone I learned to completely hate is no longer a source of harm.
