This piece is the third in a series of three that explores the perseverance of the queer community. Despite the attempts at our erasure, we will always persist and we will always fight back. This is the second piece in the series that explores the AIDS crisis. The reference is a colourised photo taken from ACT UP activists at Peter Staley's speech at the 6th International Conference on AIDS. 

Without those who fought and died during this tragedy, the queer community would not be here today. A cure would not have been made, and millions more lives would have been lost.

An Army of Lovers Cannot Lose highlights the tragedy of the AIDS crisis that took so many lives and caused so much racism and homophobia for those suffering and for the community as a whole. This painting honours everyone during this time who suffered, fought, died, and lost someone dear to them. They will never be forgotten and will forever live on as heroes. 

There's a quotation that is important to share in relation to this painting by Vito Russo, an ACT UP activist who passed away due to AIDS complications. 

“When future generations ask what we did in the war, we have to be able to tell them that we were out here fighting, and we have to leave a legacy to the generations who will come after us. Remember that someday the AIDS crisis will be over. And when that day has come and gone, there will be people, gay people and straight people, Black people and white people, men and women, who will hear the story that once there was a terrible disease, and that a brave group of people who fought, and in some cases died, so that others may be free”