Death rites in the San Francisco gay community: Cultural developments of the AIDS epidemic

This study of rituals of dying and death is based on narrative accounts of fifty-two gay men whose partners died of AIDS in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1991 and 1994. Sixty-seven percent of the deaths occurred at home, 71 percent of the caregiving partners were present at the time of death, and 71 percent of the dying partners chose cremation as a means of disposition. These factors influenced the nature of rituals enacted during the final stage of life, immediately after the death, and in the two months following the death. Culturally unique rituals included division of ashes with multiple distribution sites, multiple memorials, self-designed and delivered religious and secular memorials, and private dispersion of ashes without the use of mortuary services. The rites of death described in these data are reflective of the mobile life style among gay men as well as the drive for freedom and control of their own lives that is characteristic of gay liberation.