Pride Series - Kelli Lape

Introduction

Silence Equals Death was a movement of 6 people during the AIDS Pandemic most notably known for their iconic pink triangle political posters. Act Up which is also known as AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international grassroots political group working to end the AIDS Pandemic. Pride was and still is an important part of the AIDS Pandemic. As many of you know AIDS was deemed a gay man’s disease which we all know now without a doubt that AIDS does not discriminate against anyone. 

Meet Kelli Lape (she/her/hers)

Kelli Lape is a trans woman who lives in Washington State. She was born in 1964 and graduated high school in 1982. Right after graduating high school Kelli joined the Navy and served 20 years in the Navy from 1983-2003. She began her transition on September 1, 2017. Kelli has been on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) as of May 27th of 2020 for 1000 days. To her this was the start of when she no longer pretended to be a man. 

Podcast Episode

In this episode we talk about:

-       ACT UP 

-       Silence Equals Death Movement

-       Vancouver Pride

-       Being Queer in the Military

-       What pride means to Kelli

Quotables

“Pride is just letting you know were your children, were your parents, aunts, uncles, cousins friends, neighbors.” – Kelli Lape

“We had politician’s who were hostile towards our community and we didn’t have any real federal money going into researching the virus.” – Kelli Lape

“We were losing people who were incredibly important to us.” – Kelli Lape

“We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.” – Kelli Lape

“The studies have shown that prep works.” – Kayden Taylor

Resources

Act Up Archive

https://actupny.org

Silence Equals Death Project

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence%3DDeath_Project

Vancouver Washington Pride

http://vanusapride.org

Find Kelli Lape

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/kelly.lape

Facebook Diary

https://www.facebook.com/KelliBethLape/