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William James "Bill" Kraus (June 26, 1947 - January 25, 1986) was an American gay rights and AIDS activist and congressional aide who served as a liaison between the San Francisco gay community and Congress in the 1980s.He attended Dartmouth for a semester and then Ohio State, where he received both his undergraduate and master's degree in history. He attended Ohio State University in 1968 and went on to become an aide to US Representatives Phillip and Sala Burton.
Upon arriving in Castro Street in San Francisco, he learned the meticulous nature of politics through Harvey Milk, who was the first elected homosexual city supervisor. Bill Kraus would be the president of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club. After Milk's assassination, Kraus would aide Harry Britt to be elected as Milk's successor to city supervisor.
He garnered a job as gay liaison to Congressman Phillip Burton. Together, they worked on legislation and funding to fight "gay cancer", later to be named AIDS. Through the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, Kraus conducted a "safe-sex" campaign, endlessly trying to bring awareness to the gay community of the dangers of unsafe sexual intercourse. Part of their campaign was demanding the closing of San Francisco's gay bathhouses. Kraus was hit back with criticism from the gay community, being called a "sexual Nazi".
AIDS Quilt
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Kraus
Homophobia led many decision makers to discount AIDS epidemic, partly because they didn't care much about those who were sick, and partly because they believed that as long as they were straight, they themselves would never have to worry about it. The only real heroes were a few scientists inside the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), who lobbied early and often for money to fight the epidemic, and a very small group of congressmen from California and New York, including Philip Burton, Henry Waxman, and Ted Weiss, whose openly gay staff members convinced them to take the epidemic seriously. Bill Kraus, a gay aide to Burton, and Tim Westmoreland, the gay counsel to a Waxman health subcommittee, were particularly important in sounding the alarm. --The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America by Charles Kaiser( Further Readings )
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton, Bt, between 1886 and 1896, was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter. Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage in history; after only one day his hereditary peerage ended with his death. (Picture: Self portrait of Leighton (1880))
Sometime is nice to have an insight on what is happening after the happily ever after; not that you want for the couple to break up or similar, but that little window in their future is usually nice and warming. For Eli and Geoff is exactly like that.