The Gay History Wiki — Remembering Those We've Lost From AIDS

NYTimes.com ran an interesting article yesterday about how the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter has led to the creation of the Gay History Wiki — A social networking site for the dead.

Creator Chris Bartlett started the site last summer as a way to commemorate the nearly 5,000 gay men who died Of AIDS in the Philadelphia area during the 80's and 90's.

With its generic graphics and simple links, the Philadelphia-area social network of the dead, called The Gay History Wiki, lacks the jaunty bulletin-board appeal of Facebook or MySpace. "A social network for the dead shouldn’t be too fancy", said its creator, Mr. Bartlett. But neither, he added, should it be too spooky or grim. Like the AIDS quilt, a celebrated multiyear project to commemorate and document the AIDS pandemic, one quilt panel at a time, the site was forced into existence to commemorate people whose lives risked being forgotten, but also as a means of assembling in one place the random fragments of an atomized community and carrying its stories into the future.

Friends and family members of the deceased are welcome to add to each man's "wall" with pictures, anecdotes, and any vital information about the men they lost.

The "simplicity" of the site aside, it's a beautiful, poignant, and heartbreaking way to keep the spirit of these men alive, and will provide a permanent testament for them, and to how this disease has decimated our community.

Below you can see Chris Bartlett talk about what led to his decision to start the Gay History Wiki, and what he hopes it will accomplish.