You either loved him or hated him.
Today while many in New York City and politics celebrate the man, there are many in the LGBT blogging world who find fault with the fact that Koch lived a lie by not coming out as gay.
Koch was of a different generation than those today who for various reasons are able to come out now at a time when it has become more acceptable for announcing one's sexuality and declared identity.
I have less care to be frank and honest about whether Koch stayed in the closet than things brought up at the blog the Petrelis Files (from where this writer obtained the photo in this posting) about Koch and what he didn't do during the AIDS epidemic which many of my generation lived through, watched or knew folks who died and the denial by a standing President, Ronald Reagan, and politicos such as Koch who did little during the gay plague much less acknowledged.
During the years when he could have done so much to prevent the then-burgeoning AIDS problem into a full-bore epidemic, he choose to do so little in order not to be lumped in with the gay men who were the majority of people contracting HTLV-111, later known as HIV, Micheael Petrelis wrote.
As Petrelis noted outspoken AIDS activist and playwright Larry Kramer wrote in 2012, We must never forget that this man was an active participant in helping us to die, in murdering us,”.
It is a fair thing to say in this writer's opinion that Ed Koch died with the blood of many gay and bisexual men on his hands. While others will mourn and praise Koch, I shall not. I can't be that forgiving.
