Tomás Fábregas

Did You Know?

• Fábregas graduated in Geography and History at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
• He first came to the U.S. in 1979 to work at the UN Headquarters in New York City.
• He later moved to California to earn a graduate degree at UC Berkeley.

AIDS activism

After his HIV diagnosis in 1989, Fábregas set aside his career plans and threw himself into AIDS work. He started as a volunteer in the public policy department of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, quickly rising to its board of directors and also joining the board of the Healing Alternatives Foundation. He was active in ACT UP’s Immigration Working Group.

His most significant work targeted the U.S. ban on HIV-positive people entering the country, a policy from 1987 that George H. W. Bush later reinforced. It barred entry except for those with a special waiver. With the Immigration Working Group, Fábregas led an international effort that forced the 1992 International AIDS Conference to move from Boston to Amsterdam, since the U.S. could deny entry to HIV-positive attendees. He then spoke at the conference’s opening ceremony.

The most publicized moment came when he returned from the conference. Backed by Elizabeth Taylor, he dared the government to arrest and deport him at the airport. The stunt drew global media coverage, but he was allowed in normally, greeted by a crowd of activists. San Francisco’s mayor declared July 25, 1992, as “Tomás Fábregas Day.” Wearing a “No Borders” shirt, Fábregas fought not just U.S. policy but similar discrimination worldwide, including against migrants. The entry ban was finally lifted in 2009.

Legacy

The annual Tomás Fábregas Award is given by the San Francisco AIDS Candlelight Vigil as part of its AIDS Hero Awards, which honor notable people in the fight against AIDS and are named for prominent Bay Area activists. In November 2008, the Coruña Visible festival in A Coruña paid tribute to Fábregas alongside the pioneers Elisa and Marcela. On February 7, 2011, the city council of A Coruña, where he was born, approved naming a street after him; it opened in 2013. In 2019, several local associations began HIV education sessions inspired by his legacy. A documentary about him, Fighting Barriers, directed by Domingo Díaz, was released in 2021. The GLBT Historical Society of San Francisco holds Fábregas’s archive, six boxes of documents donated by his partner, Jeffrey L. Brooks.