25 Years of HIV/AIDS:
Fighting, Loving, Healing and Fighting Again

The truth? I'm old. I remember gay life before HIV. I came out the year AIDS came out. In 1980, I discovered gay sex and our revolution that was only 11 years old. We were drunk on new freedoms. Legally dancing together in a bar was new. Gay newspapers, gay choruses and running clubs and the rest were being born.

Sex was easy. I was told, "Heterosexuals are monogamous, and we aren't." Then strange cancers showed up in New York and San Francisco. Then this pneumonia would normally only kill babies. "It was from bathhouses," said some. "It was from poppers," said others. Theories abounded. The mysterious syndrome was named GRID (gay-related immunity deficiency).

The late 80s felt like a slowly tightening noose. Finally it had a name and it was coming. HIV was "out there." Then the first cases were "here." Then it was among people I knew and loved. I immigrated to Chicago in 1989, to love a man who was positive. I am proof that safer sex succeeds. He is long dead from AIDS and I am still negative.

Before 1996, there could be little done, except make them comfortable while so many died.

Today's story is very different. Today's story is built on the miraculous shoulders of the gays, lesbians, families and friends of those with HIV. They marched, led civil disobedience and "die-ins." They learned how to be most effective grass-roots lobbying movement in health care today. These brave people demanded drugs and social safety net services, anti-discrimination laws and housing.

Today, we take it for granted that there are doctors who know how to treat HIV. In 1990, doctors used to come to TPAN just to see enough HIV+ people to learn.

Today, we take it for granted that there is effective medication. Yet combination "cocktail" therapies are only 10 years old. Sometimes we take it so for granted that we think HIV is nothing to worry about.

Ask any person with HIV if this is something you want. You'd hear why you still don't want this.

1.While HIV treatment is simpler and more effective, it still rules a person's life. It still often has unpleasant side effects.
2.HIV fatigue and illness are not fun and a major reason why many persons with HIV are poor.
3.And HIV still makes it hell to get a date.

Today, we stand at a crossroads. Funding is flat and about to be transferred away from the people who need it. People are living longer and better, which increases the need for services. HIV is increasingly a disease of men of color who love other men. We also see HIV linked to drug use, depression and other things that people don't like to discuss.

Those who came before us were fighting for people that were dying in front of them. Their stamina brought us miracles of medicine or ways of delivering medical care that were unheard of in America. We've grown more, loved more, learned more and cared so much because of this epidemic.

We must now look at people, who are not in front of us, but in neighborhoods far away. Most gay men in the world still have no freedom and no access to treatment. More importantly, when politicians need to cut budgets, who will scream the least loud? They count on our silence. What is our duty to today's gay men with HIV? We need to keep loving each other, stay safe and make sure that they are not expendable! Get involved with your local HIV organizations to help!!

Alan Amberg covered Chicago's gay world for radio and print in the 90s. He currently works for C&M Pharmacy, a specialty pharmacy serving people with HIV. Reach him at 888-399-1920 or aamberg@cmpharmacy.com .