On World AIDS Day I like to marvel at how things have changed. When I was a teenager, I was a volunteer at the local AIDS Project, mostly doing peer education on safe sex and getting tested (hilarious given I was a deeply closeted virgin, but anyway)

At that point, AIDS was still largely a death sentence. We were starting to be able to keep people in the HIV stage longer, but it was still the tail end of the AIDS crisis.

Now it's largely a disease that can be controlled by drugs into a managed condition, one that might not even shorten your life. One that you can avoid passing on to a partner. It's a marvel. For those who can access treatment.

I've met many of my elders who were in the LGBTQ community during the crisis, when I was still a little kid and not very aware of it other than as a scary disease. It was such a nightmare, and one they were largely on their own with

We went to a talk a few years ago with some women, mostly lesbians, who'd been community leaders during the worst of crisis. They talked about nursing their friends to the end. Going to dozens of funerals. Hurrying to deathbeds to collect expensive experimental medications

One of the doctors bluntly admitted to this, saying yeah, that was illegal, but also, she wasn't going to let patients suffer if they could get their hands on medication that could help. It wasn't like they had a lot of options for treatment

HIV/AIDS is still a huge problem in many parts of the world, of course. But the fact that it's no longer an automatic death sentence is just...so good. Let's celebrate that as we push to get these treatments freely available to all

Also, fuck Ronald Reagan

Anyway, if you're having sex: get tested, make sure your partner gets tested, and use condoms. If you're in highly at-risk communities, use PrEP, especially if you know your partner is positive (even if you're using condoms...which you should be). And never share needles