AIDS, the Survivors

Last spring . . . I fell in love with an idea, and the idea’s name was Scott. I met him online. Not on a dating site. Not Match.com, or JDate, or Manhunt, not Grindr or Scruff — “Gay Guys Worldwide” ready to hook up with you; what could be more overwhelming? — but a site for long-term survivors of AIDS. Romantic stuff. Survivors, in particular, of the first fifteen years of the global AIDS crisis, 1981 to 1996, from the first reported cases of young gay men dying of pneumonia and a rare form of cancer in New York and California, to the development, release, and marketing of a lifesaving drug regimen, HAART, highly active antiretroviral therapy. Sound technical? It’s small talk on a website for a long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS.

“Humoresque”, story #9 in John weir’s collection, your nostalgia is killing me

Not everyone on the site had HIV, but we were all living with HIV . . . Millions around the world had been transfigured by the losses they had endured before there was an effective treatment for HIV. Millions still had no access to lifesaving drugs. More than five-hundred fifty-thousand people worldwide were dead from AIDS by 1996, and more Americans than had died in Vietnam.

“Humoresque”, story #9 in John weir’s collection, your nostalgia is killing me

Hate WordPress block editing. There was a paragraph break in the quote. Tried and tried to insert one, but finally had to create two separate quotes. Asked for help. Customer Service: “But BOTH quotes are there, what’s the problem?” Me: “The problem is that these are not TWO separate quotes. Both paragraphs are part of the SAME quote.” WordPress: “HUH?” Me: “DUH?” Finally had to end the conversation; we were going in circles. So frustrating.