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Mapplethorpe died in1989 from AIDS. Nearly a year before his death, the ailing Mapplethorpe helped found the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. His vision for the Foundation was that it would be "the appropriate vehicle to protect his work, to advance his creative vision, and to promote the causes he cared about". Since his death, the Foundation has not only functioned as his official estate and helped promote his work throughout the world, it has also raised and donated millions of dollars to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV infection.
It is difficult to see how a legal system that claims to take equality before the law seriously can deny marriage equality. Supporters of same-sex marriage regard inclusion into such an important social and legal institution as vital to the citizenship of gay men and lesbians.
But some take issue with this. As they are interested in preserving the diversity of gay relationships, they resist conforming to societal ideals of "normal" relationships. Their concern is that gay culture may perish as gay men and lesbians begin to pursue typical heterosexual norms by getting married and raising children.
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As a person with a partial Jewish ancestry, Beck was not deported with other German Jews. Instead, he remained in Berlin. He recalls in his autobiography wearing a Hitler Youth uniform into the pre-deportation camp where his lover had been arrested and detained. He asked the commanding officer for the boy's release for use in a construction project, and it was granted. When outside the building, however, the boy declined, saying, "Gad, I can't go with you. My family needs me. If I abandon them now, I could never be free."With that, the two parted without saying goodbye. He joined an underground effort to supply food and hiding places to Jews escaping to neutral Switzerland. In early 1945, a Jewish spy for the Gestapo betrayed him and some of his underground friends. He was subsequently interrogated and interned in a Jewish transit camp in Berlin.
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