Remembering Lam Kim Huynh
When we were living together, I would often find Lam lying in bed, just before going to sleep, and looking at pictures of himself and his family in Saigon, when he was a boy. I'm sure that he was reminiscing about his home and about Vietnam. He really loved to travel, and I'm sure that he would have loved to go back to Vietnam for a visit.
I'm very happy to hear that Lam's panel is going to Vietnam. Lam would be thrilled.
Lam Kim Huynh never backed down from the challenges life threw his way.
Lam became profoundly deaf when he was four. Lam persevered, learning how to read, write, and sign both Vietnamese and English. Born in Vietnam, Lam immigrated in the mid-1970s, when tensions between his home country and the United States were high. Lam persevered, fighting to find a community and friends that made him feel at home.
This is merely a small glimpse into the rich story of Lam’s life. A gay, deaf, immigrant from a country despised by Americans, Lam’s story could have easily been forgotten after his life was taken by AIDS in 1986. Lam’s loved ones, early stewards of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and the National AIDS Memorial today, however, all took a page out of Lam’s book and persevered, fighting to ensure that his story will never be forgotten.
Here is Lam’s life story, told in a letter from Jim Bill, one of the many who cherished the time they had with Lam.
The Story of Lam Kim Huynh
Dear Names Project,
In December of 1979, I met an attractive young man named Lam Kim Huynh. At that time I was 34 years old, and Lam was 25 years old. I learned that Lam had been born in Saigon, Vietnam and had left Vietnam, with his family in 1975. At the time I met Lam he still had brothers and sisters in Vietnam.
I learned that Lam was profoundly deaf and had been deaf since the age of about four. I believe that his deafness was due to a fall or illness.
After arriving in the U.S. at Camp Pendleton in California (near San Diego), the family lived on the East Coast for a while. Lam went to the Connecticut School for the Deaf, where he studied printing, American Sign Language and how to read and write English. In Vietnam, he had learned to read and write Vietnamese and French. English was something like his fifth language (after Vietnamese Sign Language, Vietnamese, French, American Sign Language).
Initially, we communicated by writing simple notes in English. I soon learned how to finger-spell, that is how to sign the individual letters of the English alphabet.
Sometime in January, 1980, we started to live together in Santa Clara, California. At this time one of his sisters, Kim, lived in San Jose. Later, another sister, Nga, and her family, moved into the area.
Lam got a job at the Deluxe Check Printing Company in Campbell, California. He worked there for about four years.
Lam taught me American Sign Language, and I also took a beginning Sign Language course. We both joined the Rainbow Deaf Society, which is a nationwide organization of lesbian and gay deaf people. We attended a lot of Rainbow Deaf Society parties in San Francisco. Lam enjoyed traveling to Rainbow Deaf Society conferences in Chicago, Montreal, Canada, and other cities.
After working for a few years, Lam saved up enough money for a car. He got his California driver's license and bought a used Honda Civic.
Sometime in 1984, Lam left his job at Deluxe Check Printing. He tried to find another job, but was not able to.
By this time his sister Kim had married and had a child. Lam's parents and grandmother came from the East Coast to live with Kim and her husband in Contra Costa County, not far from San Francisco. Another sister, Cha, and a brother, Hung, arrived from Vietnam.
By the end of 1984 Lam moved out of our apartment, (by that time we had moved to nearby San Jose, California), and went to live with his sister and parents in Antioch, California.
Before he moved out of our apartment, he applied for U.S. Citizenship. Lam finally became a U.S. citizen on February 13, 1985.
In early July of 1985, Lam and I drove down to Los Angeles, where we attended the Deaf Olympics. We spent a week together in L.A., going to the games and sightseeing.
In October of 1985, I got a call from Lam's brother-in-law. He told me that Lam had a confirmed diagnosis of AIDS. Lam had had a pneumocystis carinii attack and had to be hospitalized. This, unfortunately, is how Lam's family learned that he was HIV infected and also that he was gay.
At first Lam didn't want anyone to visit him in the hospital. But after a few days, I was able to visit.
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After Lam recovered from the pneumocystis attack, his family rented an apartment just for him. They were afraid that if he was around his sister's baby, that the baby would get AIDS. A member of the family stayed with him to care for him. Eventually, his sister and brother-in-law moved into a new house and Lam lived with them until his final hospitalization. I visited Lam occasionally, sometimes with Bruce Rudolf, a deaf friend of his. Lam and I were able to make a few visits to San Francisco together and Lam attended a Rainbow Deaf Society Valentine party in San Francisco.
Making a quilt panel for Lam helped to ease some of my pain and loss. By the time I made the panel for Lam, Bruce Rudolf had also died from complications of AIDS, so I made a panel for Bruce, too. Both panels were in the quilt when it made its first visit to Washington, D.C. in 1987.
Lam died in the early morning of June 17, 1986, after being hospitalized for a little more than a week. He was 32 years old.
When we were living together, I would often find Lam lying in bed, just before going to sleep, and looking at pictures of himself and his family in Saigon, when he was a boy. I'm sure that he was reminiscing about his home and about Vietnam. He really loved to travel, and I'm sure that he would have loved to go back to Vietnam for a visit.
I'm very happy to hear that Lam's panel is going to Vietnam. Lam would be thrilled.
Sincerely,
Jim Bill
Remembering Others Lost to HIV and AIDS
The AIDS Quilt aims to end HIV and AIDS by going behind the statistics, highlighting the rich, unique stories of those like Lam whose lives were taken from us. By sharing the stories of lives taken by HIV and AIDS, the Quilt puts names and faces to the heartbreak experienced throughout the ongoing crisis.
The Library of Congress record collection enhances these stories by delving deeper into the lives of those remembered through the Quilt. Jim’s letter, the images included above, and more mementos are preserved through this collection. Thousands of stories like Lam’s are enhanced, allowing us to remember, in perpetuity, the lives lost, offer healing and hope to survivors, and inspire new generations of activists in the fight against stigma, denial, and hate for a just future. Read more about these stories:
