Multimedia | Page 116

Bruce Brockway

Bruce Brockway, ca. 1980. Brockway co-founded the Positively Gay Cuban Refugee Task Force with Thom Higgins in 1980. The name of the task force was adopted from the Minneapolis newspaper Positively Gay, which Brockway published between 1979 and 1980. From the Thom Higgins papers, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

Bruce Brockway

Bruce Brockway, the first Minnesotan to be diagnosed with AIDS and one of the founders of the Minnesota AIDS Project, ca. 1982. From box 36 of Tretter 153 (Minnesota AIDS Project records, 19179–2008) in the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.

Bruce Brockway and Rene Valdes

Bruce Brockway and his partner, Rene Valdes, in 1980. Used with the permission of Alan Lessik.

Bruce Brockway and Rene Valdes at Bde Maka Ska

Bruce Brockway and Rene Valdes at Bde Maka Ska in the summer of 1980. Valdez met Brockway when the latter came to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, where Valdes and other Cuban refugees of the Mariel Boatlift were being detained. Valdes and Brockway became partners and remained together until shortly before Brockway’s death from an AIDS-related lymphoma in 1984. Used with the permission of Alan Lessik.

Bruce Brockway at home

Bruce Brockway at home in Minneapolis in 1981, the year he started noticing his AIDS symptoms. Used with the permission of Alan Lessik.

Bruce Brockway at Minnehaha Falls

Bruce Brockway at Minnehaha Falls in 1980. Used with the permission of Alan Lessik.

Bruce Brockway on his AIDS diagnosis

Excerpt of a lawyer’s deposition of Bruce Brockway, conducted on August 27, 1982. Brockway was a person of interest in a Minneapolis murder case at the time. In the clip, he discusses his AIDS diagnosis and state of health. A gay activist and the publisher of the Twin Cities’ first gay newspaper (Northland Companion, later renamed Positively Gay and then GLC Voice), Brockway was the first documented Minnesotan diagnosed with AIDS. From the personal collection of Alan Lessik. Used with the permission of Britt Aamodt.