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

    Richard Sullivan

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    Richard Sullivan
    06/08/19

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    Photographer Richard Sullivan recently found these Pride Parade photographs from 40 years ago in his archives. This was the peak of the gay sexual revolution.
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    Photographer Richard Sullivan recently found these Pride Parade photographs from 40 years ago in his archives. This was the peak of the gay sexual revolution. See more below.

    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.

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