I lost some friends over it. You know, people would say: 'I'm not coming to your house if you're having gay people help with your cooking or anything'.
My first Pride parade as a member of congress, we walked. We got a lot of press because this was well over 35 years ago and not many members of congress were in gay parades at that time.
I said to my friends in the gay community, stand with me at the food table, so when the guests are there, [they] see both of us dipping into the dip with our chips at the same time. It was small but, at the time, it was quite a big gesture.
When the idea surfaces of the quilt, the most iconic thing that happened in the movement was the Aids quilt. The first day I saw in it, October, 1987.
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