9 Photos of the Last LA Pride Before the Plague, 1979

By the following summer, some were beginning to note the first symptoms of a disease that would begin to decimate gay men from coast to coast. Those of us who lived through the late '70s in one of the big gay meccas -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York -- saw a personal and very sexual expansion of freedom and identity. And then AIDS took hold and began a devastation. Now, 40 years since these photos, our relationship with AIDS has turned a page. While new infections, especially among young men of color, certainly are alarming, we have new hope in PrEP and U=U. And AIDS and HIV are considered mostly manageble medical conditions.

Thanks to author and photographer Richard Sullivan for sharing these images and for keeping a record of a different time. You can see more of his work and find out more about his varied career on his website and on Instagram.