Ray Navarro was a gay Mexican-American filmmaker, artist, and gay rights & HIV/AIDS activist during the 1980s. He was an active member of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and a founding member of Diva TV which documented ACT UP’s activism. He was featured in the 2012 film How to Survive a Plague. Ray famously dressed up as Jesus during a demonstration at NYC’s St. Patrick's Cathedral to protest the Catholic church’s response to AIDS. After Ray lost his vision and hearing as a result of AIDS-related illnesses, he created “Equipped”, a series of photographs which depicts the intersections of race, class, sexuality, disability, and fetishism. He died in 1990 at age 26.
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