30 | OutBoise Magazine | NEWS
OutBoisemag.com | Issue 13 | December 2015
given a death sentence. In February of 1982, he was
diagnosed with HIV, and was immediately placed into
quarantine.
He lost two partners that same year, along with
many friends, while living in San Francisco. Dab spent
only 39 days in quarantine.
During the early days of the epidemic, HIV was
known as GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) and
was seen as a disease that only affected homosexual
men. It wasn’t until 1986 that this disease was renamed as HIV. The stigma behind the disease, however,
has never fully been removed as being a “gay illness.”
Imagine being told you are going to die. You just
found out you have an incurable disease; one that will
most likely take your life within a very short amount of
time.
Now that you know, you are suddenly being placed
in a hospital room, alone, with no contact from your
friends or family. The only human interaction you have,
is from people dressed in hazmat suits.
Imagine the same thing happening to most of your
friends. Your partner. The people you’ve spent most of
your adult life with.
Imagine knowing, your chances of making it out of
that room are nearly impossible, and that you will
spend your last remaining hours, days, or weeks alone
in that room.
Like many of the gay men who found out in the early
days of the AIDS epidemic, Richard “Dab” Garner was
At the time he was diagnosed, Dab said that many of
the local newspapers and magazines were publishing
the names and photos of everyone infected, adding
even more fuel to the fire. Many people who were
publicly outed lost their home and their jobs.
For most people, all of this would be a sign to give up.
Dab, on the other hand, chose to stand up and fight.
“If I’m going out,” he said, “I’m going out swinging.”
His fight wasn’t just about ending the stigma behind
the disease. As mentioned before, many of the people
affected with the disease, in the early days had no
contact with the outside world. They were left in quarantine, and many of them lost their will to continue
fighting.
During Dab’s time in quarantine, he befriended one
of the nurses, Vickie. When he was released, he maintained contact with her, and began a project which
would eventually become his life’s work.
Dab began to return to the hospital where he spent
his time in quarantine and began supplying those who
were still forced to suffer alone, teddy bears.