Marc Regnard

“On April 18, 1992, Marc Regnard, my brother, passed away. He died of AIDS at the age of 28, just a few years before the release of the antiretroviral therapy that would later save so many lives.

Looking back on Marc’s short life, I can’t help but be amazed by what he accomplished. In the early 1990’s Marc moved from California to Paris, France, where he and a small group of friends founded Actions Traitements. This organization started with a straight forward mission: to promote the rights of HIV patients to access cutting edge medical treatment at a time when they desperately needed it to survive. Actions Traitements grew from the ground up; Marc and his partners had to distribute home-made fliers on the streets of Paris to raise awareness and funds.

Today, Actions Traitements is a leading non-profit in the field of HIV/AIDS in France. In December of 2016, Marc’s friend and Actions Traitements co-founder, Jean Marc Bithoun, received France’s Medal of the National Order of Merit (médaille de l’ordre national du Mérite) in recognition of his 25 years of service to HIV and AIDS patients in France and beyond. I can only imagine how proud Marc would have been of Action Traitement’s success, how far it has come, and how many people it has saved.

I know that if Marc were alive today, he would also be pleased with the progress achieved on legal, cultural and social fronts by the LGBTQI+ communities in North America and in parts of Europe. He would be encouraged to know that as a result of his contribution to activist movements throughout the 1980’s, today’s youth in many countries now have opportunities to live in ways that would have been unimaginable for him as a child growing up in the 1970’s.

Marc did not have an easy life. It was one of constant struggle, but he rarely complained. Even toward the end, when his body was failing him, Marc had few regrets. He lived the days that he was awarded to the fullest.

I still feel the void left by Marc’s passing; over 25 years without Marc’s advice, his laughter; without his stubborn passion. Yet as the poet Marie Howe writes: “I am alive. I remember.” Marc, on ne t’oublie pas.” — by Hugh Aprile