Gay Criticism

The quilt by Timothy Liu, tells teh story of the AIDs epidemic and its devastation particularly in the Gay Community. As a teenager and young adult i the 1980s, the AIDs epidemic seemed to be a world away from my own community. It wasn't until I was in my late 20s that I found out how many of my friends from high school were gay and were being affected by this disease. The sadness of losing my friends to this terrible thing became heavy and hard to bare. AIDs doesn't just affect a limited number of people, nor does it just affect one particular community. AIDs affects everyone. My friend's parents weren't the only ones grieving; we all grieved for the loss of our friends. It didn't really matter what killed them, what mattered was that they were gone. Their voices were silenced.

The Quilt brough back memories of one friend in particular, my friend Joey. We grew up together in Southern California and at 28 Joey died from complications of AIDs. Joes was a loving talented singer. Listening to him was like listening to an angel in a choir. He was so talented and warm and loving. His choices were different than mine, but we were still friends. When he died, the world lost a wonderful human being and this is what I feel Liu is trying to tell the world with this poem. These are real people dying from a terrible disease. They deserve the dignity we would give any man who is breathing his last breath. The world is losing talented, courageous and loving human beings and their story is worth telling and listening to. They may be gone but they will always be remembered, "where their names are written" is in our hearts.