A Clippings Scrapbook: Peta Church, Therese Frare, the Shot that Defined the AIDS Crisis, and the Two Spirit Healer Who Let the World In
In November 1990, LIFE Magazine ran a now-legendary photograph of AIDS activist David Kirby’s last moments. Just out of frame was another eventual victim of AIDS, and the reason Therese was in the room at all; Peta, a two-spirit caretaker with their own story to tell.
by Piper Bly
Sources:
“Wam Spotlight Series featuring Therese Frare”, from the World AIDS Museum and Educational Center. https://youtu.be/5zs0QTtI8JU
https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/us/gallery/world-aids-day
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/256785005/patrick-david-church
https://queermedia.org.uk/thereseandpeta/
https://ramanisblog.in/2012/07/16/the-face-of-aids-that changed-aids/
https://memoriandofotografia.blogspot.com/2012/06/detras-de-la-imagen-la-foto-que cambio.html
https://www.vintag.es/2016/11/extraordinary-story-behind-photo-that.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/12/01/g-s1-99925/world-aids-day-trump
Piper Bly is a professional illustrator and underground cartoonist. When she’s not busy plowing away at her drawing board, singing dirges in the moonlight, or wandering throughout the United States, she can often be found tending to her ivies, frying up some biscuits, spending unreasonable hours in the gym, or floating above the Mississippi River at midnight, waiting for the tide to wrap her in its loving embrace and take her away. Her whereabouts are currently undisclosed. You, however, can find her at piperbly.com.