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Lee Schy was
a photographer, an activist and member of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash
Power).Partner Joe Ferrari
Queer Places:
51 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011
Lee Schy was
a photographer, an activist and member of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash
Power).
Schy was born on February 2 1959, and passed away on January 14 1995, at age 35, of vancomycin-resistant staphylococcis sepsis.
"When Lee Schy died, family had Joe Ferrari at the funeral, but wouldn’t tell anyone that he was Lee’s lover or boyfriend or partner, or any euphemism. He was Lee’s friend, and Joe freaked out and caused a scene, and they’d been together for five years. And he actually kind of thought they liked him. But they couldn’t honor him at that moment." - Karl Soehnlein
Joe and Lee lived at 51 West 19th, apartment number 4, New York. "The first time I came to this apartment was for an ACT UP committee meeting, Logistics." said Joe. "Lee Schy, my future boyfriend at the time, lived here. I had come here for an action. I think it was called Logistics, or it was probably the Actions Committee meeting on a Friday night back in like ’87, I think November of ’87. [...] ACT UP was a big part of his life, as it was mine, and he was HIV-positive from the minute I met him. He was HIV-positive when he joined ACT UP. And he, like everybody else, became educated and politicized, and that became part of who he was. His stuff never became darkly political necessarily, or only political. It was always tied to these kind of joyful moments of individuals and people, and he tied that into being gay as well and being part of this gay extended family. Not only did Lee do artwork about this, but he also started organizing some fun events tied around being gay, specifically July Fourth parties at Long Beach, which were kind of genius. Some of them were really classic, and many of which then generated a bunch of photographs."
51 W 19th St
My published books:
