Pope to See Memorial Quilt Displaying Names of AIDS Victims

A 144-square-foot quilt bearing the names of eight people who have died of AIDS was displayed at Mission Dolores Basilica, site of Pope John Paul II’s official welcoming to San Francisco Thursday.

Called “The Names Project,” thousands of individual fabric banners carrying the names of AIDS victims will be woven together into a giant memorial quilt to be unfurled at the Capitol Mall in Washington on Oct. 11.

“It is hanging in the chapel, directly visible to the Pope,” said Cleve Jones, director of the Names Project. “We’re kind of startled, actually, that the church agreed to display it. We think the quilt is the most powerful statement about the gay sense of community and love that’s ever been made.”

The various sections contain names of victims ranging from the famous, such as Rock Hudson, to the unknown, such as Amy Sloan, an Indiana woman who got the deadly disease that attacks the immune system from a blood transfusion.

Banners bearing the names will be patched, six together, to form 12-by-12-foot panels that will be shipped to Washington to be hooked together during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, according to Ron Cordova, technical director in charge of constructing the quilt.

“The panels speak for themselves,” Cordova said of the project situated in a large storefront in San Francisco’s predominantly gay Castro District. “It’s a real positive and overt statement about AIDS.”

Single names are on each 3-by-6-foot banner, some of which are decorated with flowers or other symbols. A glittering Liberace banner, for example, has the musician’s name in gold beside an embroidered white piano.

Names of San Franciscans who have died of AIDS and which have been incorporated into the quilt include Russell Viera, a banquet captain at a hotel famous for his collection of sequined dresses; Doug DeYoung, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser; Allen Estes, founder of the Theatre Rhinoceros; and Ed Mock, a choreographer with a dance collective.

Jones said the project was inspired by the American tradition of quilting and sewing bees.