WE WILL SURVIVE. WE WILL PREVAIL.
For my second contribution to the Pines Party Community Journal 2023, after originally being tasked with telling the behind-the-scenes story of what it takes for the committee to bring Pines Party to life, Frank Liberto mentioned another idea they had and needed someone to tackle. As he began explaining the assignment, I was floored to be offered such an opportunity. It was my absolute honor to have an interview with one of the two surviving co-founders (originally six) of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Dr. Larry Mass. The following story is edited from a Zoom conversation we had on the Friday morning of NYC Pride weekend. Enjoy.
Remembering the 40th anniversary of the GMHC Morning Party with GMHC co-founder, Larry Mass, M.D.
Pines Party as we know it today can be traced back to its roots of the famed GMHC Morning Party, which first began 40 years ago in the summer of 1983. The Morning Party was founded in Fire Island Pines as not only a fundraiser for the newly founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis, but also as a celebration of life in the face of adversity as HIV/AIDS began to take hold in Fire Island and New York City. The GMHC Morning Party laid the foundation for what would eventually become known as the modern “circuit party,” dance music events originally held throughout the United States as non-profit fundraisers for the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of this historic event and its lasting effects in awareness and advocacy, I spoke with one of the six GMHC co-founders, Dr. Larry Mass, who notably wrote the first article about the AIDS epidemic in the New York Native on May 18, 1981. Mass has since committed his life to activism and harm reduction for the LGBTQIA+ community.
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DXD: Thank you for agreeing to this interview and for all your work you’ve done. What are your initial thoughts on how far we have come since both the founding of GMHC and the GMHC Morning Party?
LM: I feel really honored to do this because Fire Island is such a cherishable part of our heritage. It's a place of magic and community, and has certainly been a home for gay people throughout the modern period and greater span of the gay liberation movement. Because our earlier history has been largely erased, we’re still just beginning to try to reclaim it. In getting to know better who we were, we will know better who we are now and be better empowered to become the free, healthy, happy people we deserve to be.
AIDS is by no means over with, but it's now much more clearly demarcated and treatable. It has been quite a saga for 40 years. A lot has happened. For starters, it’s no longer an automatic death sentence. Far from it. If people are attentive and compliant with treatment, they can now live as full lives as anyone else.
I looked over the wonderful Pines Party program from last year. It was so conscious of what we're going through. While AIDS remains a big concern and a top priority, I think we're expanding our awareness and initiatives around other emerging crises – of health, of equality, of social justice, and of political challenges as well as those, newer and older, of health.
DXD: AS GMHC was starting and trying to gain a foothold with funds, what did it mean for the organization to have the Morning Party focused on fundraising for its efforts?
LM: Fundraising within our own communities has always been crucial to our well-being and progress. I do think it's right for us to contribute to community initiatives like the Stonewall Community Foundation.
Larry Kramer’s great message from the beginning was that this was our crisis – as in “this is our Gay Men’s Health Crisis,” which gave that organization its name. Larry understood from the get-go that we were the ones who would have to come together, to organize and raise funds for research and services. We were at ground zero in terms of knowing how serious this epidemic was going to get. We had no idea it was going to become one of the greatest pandemics in recorded history.
Initially, fundraisers like the Morning Party might not have been everyone’s first choice for partying, but they turned out to be fabulous fun, and everybody felt good about being supportive. Participation is important. It increases self-esteem. It gives you a sense of pride of involvement and commitment.
DXD: At the time the Morning Party was starting, what were the conversations at GMHC for keeping its advocacy message strong while also encouraging a gay-affirming event like this?
LM: The business of being sober and straightforward about health advice at the same time as celebrating gay and sexual liberation was and remains a bit of a juggling act. The fact is that two things that seem to be contradictory – to stay healthy and to party in celebration – can both be true and stand together. The resulting tension can be challenging. But that’s human nature. Sex and life are not risk free, but risk can be respected and lowered.
My field is addiction medicine, and there are only two treatment approaches: abstinence and harm reduction Abstinence is when you quit the drug or behavior altogether. Harm reduction is just what it sounds like and is actually the mainstay of treatment for most addictions, since there is no known actual medical cure for addiction itself. Harm reduction can apply to many risks we're concerned about as LGBTQIA+ people. I am very harm-reduction oriented, like our community medicine hero Dr. Demetre Daskalakis. The main thing we do is try our best to meet people where they’re at. We work with them to do what we can to lessen risks and consequences, to lessen harm.
DXD: You said in a 2014 interview with Joseph Neese for MSNBC that a defining moment of the AIDS movement was the night Larry Kramer told you on a phone call of a new, effective treatment regimen of antiviral medications for HIV. What was that moment of hearing this news?
LM: People still do not realize what was achieved. I remember that as Larry talked about new and successful medical treatment, it took a moment for me to realize he wasn't exaggerating. An unimaginable miracle was happening. Previously, such a development had seemed inconceivable because it was so unprecedented. Never before in the entire history of medicine and science had there been a successful treatment for a fatal disease caused by a virus. This was mind-blowing, huge, epochal. I couldn’t believe my ears… Larry was telling me about people getting off their deathbeds, people who had said their final farewells to family and friends, but by the next morning, were sitting up in bed and packing their bags to go home. It was a pinnacle moment of my life.
ACT UP, the other major gay, AIDS, and activist organization Larry founded, and which deserves primary credit for these developments, also has no precedent in world history. There never had been a grassroots movement for healthcare activism remotely comparable to ACT UP. As Dr. Anthony Fauci put it, the history of medicine can be appreciated as before and after Larry Kramer.
DXD: With the Mpox outbreak, we saw immediate, direct action happening in the Pines last summer. What is it that you think our community should know about the Pines as not only our home of magic and refuge, but also as a place of organizing and taking action?
LM: The Pines is not New York City. There is not a major hospital complex or something like that easily accessible should there be an emergency. So being attentive and supportive to our community advisories and organizations is very important. I think it behooves all of us to stay informed and prudent about risky behaviors, and I think the importance of preserving and protecting our communities in the Pines and Cherry Grove must also have very high priority.
If you monitor yourself and others around high risk behaviors and if you contribute financially or as a volunteer, you're contributing to our heritage, our history, and our ability to meet the greater challenges we face. I should also note that as Mpox cases are coming back, the death rates from complications are higher than previously projected, so even as MPV rates have plummeted, safer sex remains important. Vaccination still needs to be a top priority.
DXD: Thank you again Larry for all your continuous work started by you and the co-founders of GMHC. Do you have any final words for us?
LM: Fire Island has always been a place of magic for me, as it has been for gay people everywhere. In this period of extreme, reactionary backlash, we must stay evermore aware of the preciousness of our own lives and communities. There is still a lot of self-destructive, self-defeating behavior. It is difficult for there not to be in an environment so filled with hate and danger. Imagine what it's like to be a trans person today, when who you are is in mortal danger with every public appearance and around every corner. That mortal danger is increasingly there for the rest of us as well. Even with all of that, which might seem an excuse for no-holds-barred hedonism and escapism, it's all the more important for us all to face the reality of resurgent homophobia, far-right extremism and minority scapegoating. We must all rally together if we expect to advance and prevail.
Recent history assures us we can do this. Gay people were actually under much greater assault at the start of the AIDS epidemic. We had far fewer rights (there were no civil rights then) and far fewer supports. The odds against us were absolutely overwhelming. Yet not only did we prevail, we triumphed.
We may not currently have a Larry Kramer, but we have something just as precious: each other. One of the GMHC Morning Parties had Gloria Gaynor singing, “I Will Survive.” These were our mantras. We always knew what an outlaw subculture we were and still are for the public at large. Hearing Gloria Gaynor sing, “I Will Survive” – what could be more important than that? That's our soul music. That's our vitality. That's our future.
So do it all. Have a ball, but stay vigilant and prudent. We're all in this together. I think anything that brings us together and helps us be who we really are is more important now than ever.
Together we will survive. And we will prevail!
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Thank you Dr. Larry Mass for giving your time to this story and all the work you and GMHC have done for all of us. You can learn more about the work of GMHC and contribute here. Read more about the GMHC Morning Party and the history of the Pines thanks to the Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society.