The History of AIDS Activism in San Diego
By Nicole Verdes
One of the best parts of sharing a building with Diversionary Theatre is the opportunity to partner in ways that amplify both of our missions. For the next few weeks, Diversionary is staging a run of RENT. On each performance date, Lambda Archives will be open, HIV testing will be available in our offices, and we will host a display honoring the history of AIDS activism in San Diego, including a broadcast of an oral history montage featuring first-person accounts from local AIDS and HIV activists. Testing will be available for an hour and a half before each performance.
Get your tickets to see RENT if you haven’t already!
If you’ve been to Lambda Archives, you know that our exhibit space is small. We are proud to use every inch of it to force a reckoning with the stories our collection holds. We had already decided to request and display the AIDS Memorial Quilt panels bearing the names of Jess Jessop, Brad Truax, and members of the Diversionary Theatre community – at 12 x 12 feet, it takes up a huge amount of space, but we’re proud to display it from now until June 7th.
I wanted more from our collection to not just focus on one aspect of AIDS history – and really, no matter what we display can never fully capture the moments during the AIDS crisis. When I walked back into the stacks to pull additional materials for this display, one item stopped me cold: a black and white poster of three emaciated men with the words “BURN THE QUILT” printed across it. Side by side, this image along with the quilt panel tell the truth about what history actually is: not a comfortable story, not a warm memory, but a full and unsparing record of what people lived through, what they endured, and what they refused to accept.
Our collections hold the grief and the rage together. We put the Quilt and the call to burn it in the same room, because both are true. The Quilt and the call to burn it existed simultaneously, produced by people who were all watching the same people die. One said: remember them with tenderness. The other said: your tenderness is complicity. We display them together because history does not curate itself into palatable narratives. It holds the grief and the rage, the hope and the horror, the political failures and the breathtaking acts of communal survival.
The work of Lambda Archives is not a backward glance. It is a radical act. We do not simply share history; we collect it, preserve it, and fight to ensure it survives, because our communities have always been targets of erasure. Every document we protect, every oral history we record, every artifact we pull from a box and put under proper care is a refusal to let that erasure win. We preserve this history so that future generations know, without any doubt, that we were here. That we fought. That we loved. And that in the moments of greatest struggle, we showed up and cared for each other.
That is not sentimentality. That is resistance.
Forty-five years after the CDC’s first account of what would come to be known as HIV/AIDS, millions have died across the world. They died not only because of the disease itself, but also due to the prejudice and lack of action taken against HIV/AIDS. This inaction and hatred stem from the initial demographics of those impacted.
The archive holds the record of what happened when a government looked away once before. We know how that story goes. We cannot let it repeat.
This moment calls for community, and I believe community will make the difference. Not institutions alone, not archives alone, but all of us, together, showing up the way the people in our collections showed up when no one else would.
On June 4th, join Lambda Archives and community partners Diversionary Theatre, San Diego Pride, Stepping Stone of San Diego, T4T Empowerment, San Diego LGBT Community Center, North County LGBTQ+ Resource Center, San Diego HIV Planning Group, Colectivo Viva Vivo Binacional, Christie’s Place, Fellowship of Older Gays, POZabilities, Long-term HIV/AIDS Survivors, and our hosts The Owen Clinic for a reception, AIDS Memorial Quilt Display, and Candlelight Vigil. This program is part of the Seven Days in June initiative, a nationwide, week-long campaign (June 1–7, 2026) mobilizing communities to protest, advocate against, and raise awareness about devastating cuts to public health, Medicaid, and HIV/AIDS care.
Doors open: 5pm. Program begins shortly thereafter, including viewing 10 AIDS Quilt Memorial Panels. Candlelight Vigil: 7pm.
We would love to see you there. Space is limited, so please RSVP to reserve your spot today:https://bit.ly/SevenDaysInJuneLASD