Mark Lawrence moved from Utah to San Francisco in 1982 and was living with a friend. Not long after Lawrence arrived, his friend was diagnosed with AIDS. Six months later, he died.
It was the early days of what would grow into an epidemic. “It was a completely different attitude [than in Utah] because everyone knew somebody who was sick or who had died,” Lawrence said.
He remembers he would go to a club or a party and see people he knew and the next time he went back, they would be gone. At its peak the local weekly newspaper would include between 100 and 200 obituaries for people claimed by the disease.