There have been many that have posted the press should leave Alexis Arquette alone,w e shouldn't worry about if she was living as a male or female or what she actually died of. It's a hard line to walk. In one way, we definitely should leave the Arquette household alone at this tragic time in their lives, but at the same time, learning more about her life, her death, and her health is news for if she is going through this, there has to be many more in our LGBT community going through the same thing.
She was a bucket of fun, danger, loving, emotion, tragedies, triumphs, questions, and answers.
They were gathered around a hospital bed in Cedars-Sinai, the famous brothers and sisters of Alexis Arquette, who lay before them in a medically induced coma. Alexis — who had been born Robert Arquette and had been straddling genders for much of her postadolescent life — had been battling health problems related to her positive HIV status for years.
A Hollywood nightlife fixture and charismatic performer who stole scenes in films like Last Exit to Brooklyn, Of Mice and Men, Pulp Fiction, and, perhaps most memorably, The Wedding Singer, Arquette had contracted the virus over two decades ago, when it was still considered a death sentence.
Arquette remained fiercely private about her health struggles and obstinate about seeking treatments, ignoring her friends' and family's entreaties to take the life-saving AIDS drugs that were emerging every year. In recent weeks, the battle became a losing one: Arquette, 47, had developed an infection in her liver that spread throughout her body.
She was pronounced dead at 12:32 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11. The news was first shared in a Facebook post from her eldest brother, Richmond Arquette, 53, perhaps the least-known member of a powerhouse acting family that includes Rosanna, 57, Patricia, 48, and David, 45. "Our brother Robert, who became our brother Alexis, who became our sister Alexis, who became our brother Alexis [has] passed," began his announcement.
Alexis had left specific instructions for her death: David Bowie's "Starman" was to play as her final moments approached. (Glam rock had always been her favorite genre of music, followed by new wave and punk.) And when the final breath passed her lips, she asked that everyone cheer "the moment that [s]he transitioned to another dimension." – hollywoodreporter.com
As part of the hollywoodreporter.com story, they shared the following video where Alexis talked about several things, including what may happen to us when we die and if there is an afterlife.
Tribute to Alexis Arquette with never before seen footage from the archives of pop artist Sham Ibrahim. Alexis discusses life after death in an interview along with her thoughts on ghosts. Sham comprised a simple version of David Bowie's Starman and edited footage he shot of Alexis on her grandfather Cliff Arquette's star on Hollywood blvd, footage of her drawing a portrait of a woman on a chalkboard, footage of her fixing her make up in a women's bathroom, and footage of Sham and Alexis climbing a fence. All footage was shot between 2004 and 2008. RIP Alexis Arquette. Never forget Alexis Arquette. – youtube.com
And Arquette's story is a long one. Hollywoodreporter.com describes the history of the Arquette family in detail, going back generations. It's definitely a story of a true Hollywood family. Head over there to read about the Arquette Hollywood Dynasty as well as her final weeks and days here.
What do you think?
Should the press move on from Alexis's story, life, and death?
Is there more to learn from hearing more about her final days and years?
Do you feel there are more that are living lives like Alexis, possibly transitioning back and forth, more fluid than binary?
Living in low-income housing and resistant to treating a rapidly progressing HIV, the transgender trailblazer, who died Sunday at age 47, spent her last days living as a man and struggling to make ends meet. Says one of her closest friends: "She was rightfully angry that she should have had the success and notoriety that comes with being such a talented actor and being born into a family that presents the opportunity." – hollywoodreporter.com