“Doesn’t it look like an anus?
That question — posed in September 2023 by one of the 16,000 members of the Gay Men of Palm Springs CA Facebook group — ignited a firestorm over the initial design for the Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Task Force’s future sculpture in Downtown Park.
Hundreds of likes and comments followed. While some chose to compare the design by artist Phillip K. Smith III to a 9-foot-high doughnut, many were outraged by the anatomical likeness that the AIDS memorial evoked.
“I remember it was very difficult for me to keep the conversation civil,” said group administrator Raymond Lafleur. “I can’t even recall how many comments I deleted…”
[Read the full article at latimes.com]