Regular Testing And Retesting Is The Only Way To Know If You Have HIV Or Another STI, Including Syphilis,

Perhaps the people that claim “immigrants are taking their jobs” should go work on those farms.

we can’t let this happen

A bus poster designed by Gran Fury for Art Against Aids in 1989. Gran Fury was an art collective which used the power of art to battle the Aids crisis

Photograph: Gran Fury, Courtesy of the New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division

Wtf @staff

This is my first post if you want to know more ask please

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on this date in 1981, the new york times printed an article with the headline “rare cancer seen in 41 homosexuals.” this headline is historic because it is the first mention of what would become the hiv epidemic. at this time, on this date in 1981, the epidemic didn’t have a name. 

even after 36, it is still chilling to read this headline because it is a sobering reminder of all that the world didn’t know about hiv. what caused it? how to treat it? we didn’t know shit! it took three years to identify HIV. three years to find out that it wasn’t cancer. however, in those three years, stigma, blame, and shame didn’t need a name to thrive. many died not even knowing the name of the disease that robbed them of breath and humanity. 

this headline is historic because it is the first mention of what would become the hiv epidemic. 

36 years later we know so much. we have survived so much. we now have life-saving meds. we now even have PrEP - the pill that helps to prevent hiv infection. this is huge because, in 1981, treatment for any virus was rare, yet alone a virus that was virtually unknown. 

we still have work to do. we still have to shift culture and we still have to fight health care and access. we still have to fight to live. but we know so much more now than we did on july 3, 1981.

A bus poster designed by Gran Fury for Art Against Aids in 1989. Gran Fury was an art collective which used the power of art to battle the Aids crisis

Photograph: Gran Fury, Courtesy of the New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division