A piece of San Francisco history that we'd rather not have had.

[gridlore]

The Bay Area Reporter is one of those local weekly papers that everyone sees everywhere. It is probably the biggest paper (there were several) aimed at the FLBT market in SF. And in the 1980s, it became one of the largest publishers of obituaries in the nation. Some weeks, the obituaries ran for two full pages, and this was after such submissions were limited to 200 words due to the overwhelming need for the community to publicly acknowledge their fallen.

AIDS-related obituaries became such a permanent feature in the BAR that the August 13th, 1998 issue featured NO OBITS! as a huge, above the fold headline to cheer the fact that for the first time in 17 years they didn't have a single AIDS obituary to run. The respite didn't last, but the flood has ceased, and is now just a tragic stream.

Now the obituaries are on-line.

Go take a look.