AIDS Memorial Quilt Display

Two sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt are on display in Reid Chapel through the month of June. The display commemorates the lives of those lost to the scourge of AIDS in this, the 40th anniversary of the first public meetings about the crisis.

Admission is free, though RSVP is requested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aids-quilt-at-first-franklin-tickets-640938493287

On April 27th, 1983, the first AIDS Support Group in Baltimore outside of a clinical environment was held at First & Franklin. On June 8, 1983, the first public AIDS crisis forum was held at First & Franklin to an audience of more than 300 people. In the following decades First & Franklin was a leader in the social justice movement for equality of LGBTQ+ people. As one of the first “More Light” churches in the country, First & Franklin began passing of the peace so that AIDS patients who attended worship would be touched physically by someone. The church also founded the AIDS Interfaith Network to support AIDS patients in need. First & Franklin began performing same sex union “Blessing Services” in 1982 and filed an Amicus Brief in the support of marriage equality before the State Legislature in 2009.