EDGE Atlanta

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic approaches its third decade, Philadelphia activist Chris Bartlett has embarked upon a project to highlight the 4,600 gay men in the City of Brotherly Love who died from the virus in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Gay History Wiki (gayhistory.wikispaces.com) seeks to reclaim the lives of those who died from HIV/AIDS. With generic graphics and simple links, the site focuses on content as opposed to Facebook’s pop-and-pow features.

"Imagine who was lost," Bartlett said. "All the writers, activists, politicians, hustlers, journalists, bartenders, friends, family, boyfriends... a generation of thinkers and fighters and lovers, all gone to HIV/AIDS. I don’t want us to lose their efforts and contributions."

Like popular Wikipedia, friends and family members of the deceased are welcome to add to each man’s wiki "wall" with pictures, anecdotes, and vital information about them. Beginning in 2005, Bartlett began assembling the names of every gay male Philadelphian who died after being diagnosed with HIV or AIDS, searching obituaries and the Names Project registry, inquiring with community leaders, scanning records of social clubs and the rosters at gay-friendly churches. Bartlett built a database on wikispaces.com, and he was ready to unveil his project by the end of last summer.

"This wiki project creates a vital bridge between the living and their communal ancestors in a culture where ancestors, their stories, their triumphs and failures, and what we might learn from them are often forgotten," social media enthusiast, actor, activist and blogger James "Rudy" Flesher said. "This is especially important in queer communities where our families are largely chosen and so many of the gay men who died of AIDS represent a passive genocide where people regarded as second class citizens received substandard care, minimal research money and a president who refused to acknowledge the crisis."

Bartlett also added he hopes the wiki can help with "the diffusion of energy" around the battle against HIV/AIDS. The success of anti-retroviral drugs in rendering the virus a manageable disease, greater societal acceptance, and increased involvement in the battle against the epidemic have all worked to help those with HIV/AIDS live longer and healthier lives. This "naturalization" of AIDS occurred as generations indoctrinated with lessons of abstinence and safer sex practice lost touch with a time when AIDS was stigmatized as a "gay plague." To a contemporary 25-year-old, it might seem improbable that there was ever an era when gays lost handfuls of friends and loved ones to the disease.

Those who have used Bartlett’s wiki discussed the impact it has had on them.

"The stories of the generation before us are always important to know," Evan Urbania, a 29 year-old social media enthusiast, said. "HIV and AIDS during the 80s/90s impacted our community’s social constructs, cultural institutions, businesses and our leadership. As someone who was not directly affected by HIV/AIDS, I find that these stories empowered me to be more involved in all aspects of our community - not just health and AIDS activism."

The effect on Urbania is exactly the thing for which Bartlett said he was hoping.

"That is the purpose - for the young gay man in his 20s to read the story of someone 20 years ago who possibly died in their 20s - and to see parallels and to understand where our community was and how we got where we are today," he said. "There is a real hunger for any information from these decades. People want to connect, to learn, and to see that they can make the same amount of difference."

There are more than 23,000 people with HIV/AIDS in the Philadelphia metropolitan area--with at least 16,000 of them within the city itself. Nearly 1,400 Philadelphians become infected each year. For a disease once dubbed the "gay plague," more than half of the new infections are due to heterosexual contact--many are African-American women. During the 1980s and 1990s, however, HIV/AIDS was primarily an epidemic that impacted gay Philadelphians.

"It was a climate of urgency and immediacy, energy and focus," Bartlett said. "All of us involved made a pact to beat the AIDS epidemic. That was our goal."

He added the project remains extremely personal.

"I have cried numerous times," Bartlett said. "Often the things that bring up my emotions the most are stories of everyday people and what was lost when they died. It was also heartbreaking to really get my head around the numbers. That number is incredibly moving...Most gay men don’t’ realize how many we lost."

The wiki currently features around 700 deceased gay men. Bartlett’s goal remains to chronicle the 4,600 gay Philadelphians who succumbed to HIV/AIDS.

"Many were under the radar screen," Bartlett said. "A significant number of them we will never know who were they were, and that to me is very sad..."

He added he hopes the site continues to grow organically beyond Philadelphia.

"The power of the wiki is that this is going to emerge from the collective users," he said. "I won’t be censoring the site, I won’t be changing things. I want people to post their memories and their personal thoughts. I would like the whole picture on each and everyone."