“THOMAS GERARD DELDEO, FEBRUARY 4, 1963 – APRIL 18, 1994,” Barbara and Sal Deldeo
“THOMAS GERARD DELDEO, FEBRUARY 4, 1963 – APRIL 18, 1994,” Barbara and Sal Deldeo carry a picture of their son during one of the Stonewall 25 parades, New York City, June 26, 1994. Photo © Constantine Manos. . On June 26, 1994, twenty-three years ago today, an estimated 1.1 million people participated in the massive Stonewall 25 celebration in New York City, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. . As the New York Times explained, “they marched in not one but two parades – an officially sanctioned one on the East Side of Manhattan demanding that the United Nations protect the rights of homosexuals worldwide, and a smaller, unofficial one up Fifth Avenue from Greenwich Village, organized by several dissenting groups that broke ranks with the others to make the point that the most urgent problem facing gay people is AIDS.” . Among those marching in the official parade were Barbara and Sal Deldeo of Wilmington, Delaware (pictured), who marched for their son, Thomas Gerald, who died months earlier at age thirty-one after a 10-month battle with AIDS. “Neither had ever marched before,” the Times said of the Deldeos, “not against the Vietnam War, nor in marches against nuclear weapons, not even on Memorial Day. They carried [the] picture of [Thomas Gerald] – a San Francisco actor and yoga instructor – on a placard, like so many others carrying photographs of the dead. . “‘You just feel like you are sharing him with so many, like his death wasn’t in vain,’ Mrs. Deldeo said as they turned with the march onto 57th Street and deafening cheers rose from the predominantly gay crowd of onlookers. ‘You don’t get this kind of support in Wilmington.’ . “She grew teary telling of how her son came home to die, how he finally reached an understanding with his father, how he went peacefully one day, his clothes no longer fitting his gaunt frame. ‘He was my only one,’ she said. ‘Explain that karma.’” #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #Resist #NeverAgain #NeverForget #Pride2017 (at New York, New York) -- source link
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