An event to remember the victims of the AIDS epidemic highlighted an abbreviated Castro Merchants Association meeting November 7. The moving Inscribe event is expected to return, allowing people to recall their friends and others who died of the disease.
Events timed to the upcoming holidays were also discussed.
Castro resident George Kelly, a 64-year-old longtime HIV survivor, has put on Inscribe since 2015 each World AIDS Day, which this year is Sunday, December 1. Kelly said that 25,000 people have died of HIV/AIDS related conditions in San Francisco since 1981 when the then-mysterious infection first made itself apparent.
“Those people used to walk the sidewalks, work in the bars, the restaurants, shops,” Kelly said at the meeting. “It was very much a big loss to our community and so, on World AIDS Day, we remember all the people who died of AIDS and particularly celebrate the people who used to live in the Castro.”
Inscribe consists of people picking up chalk that is provided and then writing a remembrance or drawing an image on the sidewalks in the Castro. This year, to honor those who’ve died, Inscribe will take place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on World AIDS Day, Kelly said.
“We’ll have festive disco music from our era, our generation,” Kelly said. “I invite you all to come out.”
George Kelly, left, and Rhett Anderson talked about the upcoming Inscribe event on World AIDS Day. Photo: John Ferrannini
Kelly said he’s bringing on Rhett Anderson, who is also gay, to help with the event so it can continue for many years to come.
“Inscribe means a lot to me because, as a younger generation gay guy, I want to remember where we came from, how we got here,” Anderson said. “When I was 17, I went to Planned Parenthood, I asked for HIV prevention, they gave me PrEP. So before I was even having sex, I already had the whole work George’s generation gave us.”
Other events
The 45-minute meeting also included discussion about upcoming holiday events in the neighborhood. Nate Bourg, a gay man who’s co-owner of The Academy event space where the meeting was held and treasurer of the association, led the meeting because Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is the merchants association’s president, was out of town.
Bourg said that the Castro holiday tree will be lit Monday, December 2, at 6 p.m. in front of Bank of America at Castro and 18th streets. On Monday, December 9, there will be a menorah lighting to commemorate Hanukkah in Jane Warner Plaza at Market, Castro, and 17th streets. That event is organized by the merchants; the Castro Community Benefit District; and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, the LGBTQ synagogue near the Castro.
Later in the month the LGBTQ neighborhood will see the return of the night market Friday, December 20, on 18th Street. The inaugural night market took place last month and was a success, Asten Bennett noted in her president’s message to members.
The merchants also voted to support Bourg’s upcoming request for a live entertainment permit for The Academy, which will be heard by the city’s entertainment commission later this month.
San Francisco Police Department Sergeant Jeffrey Aloise told the merchants that police have been trying to address organized retail theft at the Walgreens at Castro and 18th streets by being present there on a consistent basis.
Police have also been in the Castro and Noe Valley areas trying to address residential burglaries. Aloise said that one foiled burglary October 31 led to the arrest of a suspect in an unrelated homicide.
The homicide case was out of Southern Station (covering South of Market) October 30; the following day that suspect allegedly broke into a residence at 516 Castro Street while the person who lives there was sleeping, according to Officer Jose Canchola, who’s on the SFPD’s Castro foot patrol beat. The SFPD didn’t return a request for comment as to who was arrested in this matter.
District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman was not at the meeting because he is out of town.
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