Few folks know about this historic mass grave of HIV-positive people near New York City

[DonViejo]

By Daniel Villarreal 1 hour ago


A scene on Hart Island from “Pose” season two (image via FX

Hart Island is a small islet located a mile east of the Bronx. It’s one mile long and a third of a mile wide (roughly 213 acres), and during the mid ’80s and ’90s, New York City buried thousands of people who’d died of HIV on the island out of fear the bodies might infect others.

The island and its dark history were recently explored in season two of Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking FX drama series Pose. Two HIV-positive queer characters travel to the island in 1990 to visit the grave of their dead friend.

True to history, the friend’s grave is marked only by a number. Crates, each with a dead body (some weeks or months old) were stacked atop one another deep in the soil. Men in hazmat suits, some of them Rikers Island prisoners forced to become gravediggers, walk around the island rubble as bulldozers covered the graves in earth.

Hart Island is a small islet located a mile east of the Bronx. It’s one mile long and a third of a mile wide (roughly 213 acres), and during the mid ’80s and ’90s, New York City buried thousands of people who’d died of HIV on the island out of fear the bodies might infect others.

The island and its dark history were recently explored in season two of Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking FX drama series Pose. Two HIV-positive queer characters travel to the island in 1990 to visit the grave of their dead friend.

more
https://www.queerty.com/folks-know-historic-mass-grave-hiv-positive-people-near-new-york-city-20190626

[Docreed2003]

1. Incredible story Don...thank you for sharing this!

[smirkymonkey]

2. Thanks for posting. I would like to know more about this. I lived in NYC for years and

never knew about this. Did they keep records of the people who were buried here in case relatives, friends or others would like to find their whereabouts one day? I wonder if anyone has ever done a documentary on this or if anyone intends to. I think it would be a worthy subject.