Not Just Gay Men: Honoring the Stories of Women With HIV 40 Years Later
Courtesy of the subject
This article is part of “AIDS Is 40. But It Really Isn’t,” a series of personal stories, news reports, and interviews that pushes back against commonly held narratives regarding the start of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic.
On June 2, the
Today show released a six-minute video news report titled, “40 years since first AIDS cases, men living with HIV share their perspectives.” In it were old news clips from the early years of the epidemic showing imagery of hospitals, clinics, and ill-appearing men in beds. Well-known men with HIV were mentioned, including Rock Hudson, Magic Johnson, and Pedro Zamora. Later in the segment, four men from different generations were interviewed about their lived experience with HIV, the anguish of the early years of the epidemic, scientific advances—including undetectable equals untransmittable (U=U)—and HIV-related stigma.