Lorenzini, John W 2 Aug 1990 Click on the thumbnail below to enlarge. If your browser shrinks the full obituary image to fit within the browser window, you may need to click on the image one more time to display its full size. 02 Aug 1990 Please add a message of remembrance to the guestbook for this obituary. Click the button below to add your thoughts. Wilford Fraser Atlanta 6 Jun 2021 I was only eighteen years old and very much in the closet when you left this world but because of people like you I live in a better world now. You fought the good fight. May you never be forgotten. Pia-Kristina Garde Sweden 10 Dec 2009 John Lorenzini was one of the teachers at the East Bay Aids Project in 1987, and I also heard him speaking at a seminar, The Challenge of the East Bay the same year, and he was an absolutely wonderful teacher. He was so alive, so funny, so smart. I am grateful to have known him, and some of his words are still helping me, so many years later. Thank you John! Yuri Wellington Portland, OR 2 Dec 2018 Thinking of you on this day, as always, dear John. You changed my life... I only wish I could have saved yours! You live forever in our hearts. Bill Blackburn Marin County, California 16 Jun 2024 Part Two: Officials and arresting officers assembled. John demanded that the SF head of the US HHS come down to speak with him and they had a brief, respectful conversation. Eventually, a federal officer cut through the heavy chain and they arrested John, taking him away in a squad car. Not long after, while we supporters were still standing around talking about what had taken place, John walked up to us, smiling. Authorities had no protocol for holding a PWA in jail and so they had released him. John, I will forever remember your sexy smile and your Howdy Cowboy, every time we met. And I will remember the lesson you gave me then, that a clearly expressed act of Gandhian civil disobedience could still be a powerful statement to the world. I miss you. David Hardy Oklahoma City 28 Sep 2020 John was the brother I never had. My trusted friend and mentor. 30 years after passing through the gates of Heaven I still pull out his scrap book and ask what if. I've had a great life Cowboy thanks to all you taught me. And I know I'm not the only one you impacted. Like I wrote on your quilt--see you in Heaven Bill Blackburn Marin County, California 16 Jun 2024 Part One: It was 1985 and I had just stepped away from being one of the leaders of the Emergency Response Network, the civil disobedience movement over Reagan's illegal involvements in Central America, where I had been tasked with maintaining Gandhian nonviolence at our large protests in SF. I received a call from a man I had never met, John. He had been guided to seek me out as advisor because he wanted to explore civil disobedience over Reagan's failure to focus the government on solving the growing epidemic. He was the first man I had knowingly met with AIDS. Over a series of conversations, I explained the basic tenets of nonviolent protest and helped John explore his motivations as well as his willingness to peacefully accept the consequences of his actions. We agreed upon a plan and quietly gathered a few supporters and a reporter from the BAR, wanting to surprise authorities. As it turned out, someone tipped off the Chronicle as well as federal authorities. At the appointed time, we assembled on the side of San Francisco's HHS Federal Building on UN Plaza. On the side, friends held a banner: PEOPLE WITH AIDS, CHAINED TO A SICK SOCIETY. Under a jacket, John was wearing a T-shirt which proclaimed in large letters: I AM A PERSON WITH AIDS, shocking for that time of secrecy and fear. And he had tightly wrapped and locked around him a heavy chain. The time had come and, knowing that I too may be arrested, I took the other end of that chain and wrapped it around the polished brass door handle and locked it in place there. I still remember the shock at the noise of metal on metal! All eyes inside the lobby turned toward us at the sound. Susan Dhifaoui Cincinnati, OH 30 Jul 2020 thank you, John for all you did to educate us in those early days. Copyright © 2009. No part of this database may be copied or reproduced without permission.