AIDS in the Deaf Community

Squares from the AIDS Memorial Quilt on display in 1994.

Deaf LGBTQ+ people faced unique challenges during the AIDS crisis, stemming from language barriers and isolation from the broader queer community. Newsletters like RAD’s Tattler and CMRA’s Potomac Prism became lifelines for sharing information about HIV/AIDS in a way that was accessible to deaf people, printing visual guides to AIDS education and frequently asked questions about AIDS written in ASL gloss (a written English representation of ASL using ASL sentence structure).

Earnest Hoffman, a CMRA member, served as one of the Whitman-Walker Clinic’s AIDS buddies, offering emotional support and help with everyday tasks to people living with AIDS. Hoffman was featured on a 1988 episode of Deaf Mosaic, a Gallaudet-run deaf news and culture TV program. The episode addressed fears and misconceptions about AIDS, specific challenges faced by the deaf community in AIDS education and healthcare, and highlighted the work of local organizations like Whitman-Walker.

A postcard of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on display in 1992.

Another member of CMRA, Tom Kane, took up the mantle of AIDS activist and educator within D.C.’s Deaf community. After the NAMES Project created the AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1987, Kane founded the Deaf NAMES Project to ensure that deaf people lost to AIDS would be remembered. One of the earliest squares of the quilt was made in honor of Reggie Hightower, a deaf man from Georgia who was also the first Black man memorialized in the quilt. His quilt square was made by his partner Art, from pieces of their favorite shirts sewn together. Kane arranged for squares of the quilt representing deaf people to be shown at Gallaudet’s Deaf Way Conference in 1989.

In 1993, Kane co-founded Deaf AIDS Action with Michael Felts, a Gallaudet alum and leader within the Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf. They created Deaf AIDS Action to address needs for AIDS education and support in the Deaf community. Felts also created a national AIDS hotline for deaf callers, and Kane staffed the Metro Teen AIDS hotline counseling young deaf callers. Kane and Felts were both HIV-positive themselves, Kane died of AIDS-related complications in 1995 and Felts in 1996. They left a legacy of education, care, community, and history.