I had a friend, a black, married heterosexual woman who volunteered for God’s Love, We Deliver. She got called into her boss’s office and told, point blank, that she either stop volunteering or resign her job. She refused to do either and got fired on various technicalities. She had not a judgmental bone in her body. Lora saw people suffering and in need, and she helped them. Simple as that.

The sheer bravery of those nurses and doctors who treated those with HIV and AIDS at a time when no one knew how the disease was transmitted. Those who maintained the humanity of the patient. Who treated without condemnation of who or how they loved.

In the early to mid 80's, I knew someone in San Francisco and warned them during a visit that they'd better be careful as their was evidence the disease was sexually transmitted. He loved going to the bath houses and refused to stop. I was mocked mercilessly for giving my warnings and treated like a nut standing on a street corner holding a sign saying "the world will end tomorrow!" Even his roommates were derisive about my warnings. Of the four people living in that house, three died of Aids. The fourth fellow was in his late 70's and survived. He said that towards the end for one roommate "R", that he had lost so much weight that even he could pick him up off the couch and this was from a guy who was barely over 5 feet tall and weighed about 110 whereas the roommate was over six feet tall and had weighed about 190. He weighed far less than 100 lbs when he passed away-about 80 pounds. The surviving person burst into tears and told how once the diagnosis was made, all their friends deserted them in droves and wouldn't even come across the bridge for fear they'd get Aids too and that they wouldn't even call on the phone. I tell this story so people will know that the fear was so great that many people were deserted by even their closest friends. It wasn't like everyone came together to fight and support each other as many videos show. A lot of people were treated like absolute dirt and thrown away like garbage and not just by family members but by their gay so called friends as well.

I lost my lover in 1988. Those were very horrifying times. Thankfully my Lesbian sisters stepped in to help. San Francisco truly was the model for AIDS care and wellness. Painful times I would never change, they have made me who I am now. I dodged the HIV bullet somehow. And I've survived cancer four times.

I’m a gay man, it’s 2020 now and I’m 47. I just put that there for context... there’s a lot I could say, but all I need to say is: 1. Thank you for this documentary. 2. Young people, you’ll appreciate your life even more by occasionally looking back to see where we’ve been, what you’ve missed. Not just HIV/AIDS, but in many aspects of human life. The day you were born was not the day the Earth started turning. Take care of yourself & your neighbors. - Ray

I was a gay man in L.A. when the epidemic became news and was first being talked about here in the early '80s. There was a lot of denial and a lot of "it's only the drug users and the such and such guys that are getting it", etc. Then the "such and such" list of guys exploded to include practically everyone. Suddenly it was right in my face as I was a hospital social worker, so I was dealing with AIDS patients who were my peers on a regular basis. Then it began striking my boyfriends, one by one. I had 6 of them and lived with them for varying periods of time'; we were all young and all had been sexually active. 4 of 6 died of AIDS one by one. A 5th was HIV positive but made it up to 2008 when he died of lung cancer. My only still living ex BF is alive ( a New Yorker, ha! tough as nails, and negative... I know exactly why he is alive but never mind that!) There is more to the story, much more... the story of a man who has not the least explanation for why he is still alive and survived the gay Hiroshima. I was just thinking the other day, "I never really had a chance to even cry for one or two or 22 or for us ALL because they all went so fast; nor any chance to cry for 'that young gay social worker' who went into hospital room after hospital room knowing the next patient I saw might be someone I knew or had seen out or danced with or even... had sex with..." No, I do not believe I survived because I am special or was "chosen" to survive (how narcissistic!) or because God has some 'special purpose' for me. They were all people; all those who died were special... It's just some random enzyme or molecular mystery, like buying a lottery ticket in a gas station with your last buck and then winning, I lucked out... but, that being said, I do thank Whoever is listening every day that my biggest health issue this month is I need a teeth cleaning. I am here; only god knows why, it's the mystery of my life, but I won't take it for granted. A lot of ghosts inhabit my dreams where they are most welcome, if painful reminders. There is always more to a story like this but this is just a post, not a memoir! Reminder to self: edit, honey: EDIT!! (

My great uncle died of AIDS in 1990 at 35 due to a blood transfusion that was infected. I feel for everyone who has to live with this disease or have died from it. It's so heartbreaking.

The nurses and lesbian women helped me. They were very kind and helpful. I cry when I see these films. I lost so many friends. I'm still negative and I didn't plan on living this long. I'm 63 and I wish that I could deal with the loss. I got so familiar with what to do when someone died that I sailed through my parent's funerals.

What a terrifying time. Those infected early on didn't stand a chance and they were basically ignored and abandoned by the federal government.

I’m glad I watched this. I’m 32 and work with HIV patients, and it’s quite different to what probably felt like bio-genocide occurring in the 80’s/90’s. Especially the mass deaths of the 90’s. I still see AIDS patients. But a vast majority of them are given HAART and are saved from the brink of death. They go from having full blown AIDS, to just having HIV and chronic but manageable health conditions. I bet that was unimaginable in 1990. People still die from AIDS. I’ve seen it myself. Been there when they’ve taken their last breath. But it’s not automatically fatal to have HIV or AIDS in 2022. It’s one of the many reasons I continue to fall in love with science over and over again.

I was there as a social worker and I’m watching this 30 years later and I was there helping those men and watching them die heart wrenching.

My mother went to Columbia and lived with a group of gay guys in the late 60s and early 70s. She became very active in the gay community and actually witnessed every single one of her best friends die of AIDS. I know the pain it caused her changed her forever. I am gay myself and she only cared that I am safe because of it.

God bless the KIND nurses and doctors! Not the rude and disrespectful ones who would refuse to treat patients!!!!

The young people of today need to realize what a horrifying time this was. It came in like a lion and out like a lamb. No one talks about this anyone and it's a slap in the face to those who died and those who lost loved ones.

When i was 13, i went with my parents to San Francisco. The beauty, the magic, the energy in the air all overwhelmed this girl from a little Minnesota town. A 😮much older cousin lived there, having escaped the oppression in Minnesota decades before. He was a quit private man in a committed relationship and so did not contract the virus. I thought SF was heaven on earth i was devastated when i returned in 1986.. You could have shot a cannon down the empty streets. As if a nuclear blast had wiped out the population, leaving the buildings. Aĺl the joy had evaporated. Those wonderful people were gone

I'm in my early 40s and somehow this made me realize that, wow, we just about lost an entire generation of gay men. The generation older than me (baby boomers). The world's a darker place for that loss. I hope that gay men my age and younger would want to live their lives in tribute to the men who died so young.

Extraordinary video! I've had HIV for 20 years and still fighting it. Thanks to my Dear Lord and my incredible doctors I'm still living a normal life..

Many of us Gay men who lived in the 1980s and 1990s and test HIV negative have survivor's guilt. I lost the love of my life, a former boyfriend, and took care of another friend who's family threw him away until the day he died. By some miracle I missed getting HIV infected and continue to help those who are. I know I will see all of the people I have lost on the other side someday.

I lost family members, co-workers and friends to this. I am now in my 50's , and not many people of my generation survived. There's hardly anyone my age to date anymore. They're mostly gone. These nurses and doctors were braver than I will ever be.

I lived in SF (Castro) during this time (still do)and this is a remarkable insight to what came about when this most terrible health issue was killing off the world as I knew it. The health professionals presented here are some of the angels who made a difference. The loss is still unbearable, and still I weep at times. They were bright stars in my galaxy! Gone, cruelly, and they are missed!

I remember the first time I saw the AIDS blanket I was 14 and not very sympathetic towards this “gay” disease. Until I saw all the names and pictures of the people. I started crying so hard I had to walk my bike back home.

Thank you, Thank YOU! THANK YOU everyone who set the standard of care. I still remember the rooms of dying men. I was so young and I will never forget. The kids today do not know. I spent time in a hospital recently. I told the young nurses how bad it was. They were speechless. I am alone now. All my people have passed. Still, I will always remember them. Thank you so very much to you all for so much dignity.

So many familiar names in this. I worked at Davies medical center and for Dr Marcus Conant from 90 to 99. I got a really bloody needle stick from a hep C HIV patient with a viral load over the top. We found out it was Dr. Lisa Capaldini's patient and she personally called me to see if I was okay. I took AZT prophylactically. It gave me more compassion and understanding what my patients went through taking those drugs.

i've made my way to this video after 5 or 6 days of researching archives...because i saw ONE comment thread on the internet by some 20-somethings talking about how HIV and AIDS "aren't a big deal anymore" and "it's just a status, not a death sentence" and then advocated for taking zero precautions while dating, having sex, (implied) doing drugs, etc, without protecting oneself, because "that [the infection] doesn't even happen now". and i could not believe how.....*sigh*.........it is SO enraging to read something like that thrown out so casually and knowing people actually believe and live by that. enraging and terrifying and just, sad. i'm not a "younger gen doomsdayer" by any means, i actually think they're pretty interesting and brilliant as a whole, but god damn...just a fraction of a percent of the population having that mentality, is all it takes to cause the stats we have today. or even a resurgance. 40 mil dead. 1 mil dead last year. nearly 80 mil total infections worldwide. 30% of the population don't know their status. very few can afford the drugs. it's a TRAGEDY, the biggest tragedy any of us will ever remember. i was born in '81 so literally ALL of my earliest media memories, and so sosososo much in the following decade or so, has been completely saturated with this tragedy. this anxiety, this sorrow, this powerlessness, and all the warnings that came along with those feelings, while everyone fumbled in the dark. my memories of this media started around age 4 or 5, having the luxury of a couple years of childhood innocence before my parents started letting me watch "real tv" with them. i am grateful that my parents afforded me these few years. probably until it became unavoidable. because ever since learning of it, it has become an inescapable black cloud over life. i feel almost like it's how our grandparents lived through and talked about polio. the other thing that's disturbing to me about this "not caring" and "not preventing" because "it doesn't really happen" and "but even if it does my life won't be affected at all" attitude is, most people afflicted STILL cannot afford even the worst of the worst of the most ancient, ineffective, toxic, resistant medications available. most people in america can't even afford a short prep period so as not to infect their fetus, or not infect their partner while trying to conceive, for just a few months let alone an entire relationship indefinitely, and those are just the bougie america problems. forget about anyone in africa and asia, they've been completely left in the dust, sacrificed, discarded, with no such american "hiv is over" false hope, their dollars not able to compete globally for even a week's worth of meds let alone a lifetime. all those people will die grisly deaths. and apparently no one wants to talk about how the medications fuck you up so badly that most people would rather deal with an impending AIDS or ARC diagnosis and just figure it out then, than to have to take them every day of their life, which in itself directly leads to the spread of the disease. but these young people are saying "hiv is over". my gawd. lord forgive em because they know not what they say. 80 million actual confirmed cases: half are dead, half are alive. tell those 80 million people that AIDS is over. tell all the people interviewed here and sharing their stories from ground zero SF / NYC that "AIDS isn't a big deal". seeing this careless attitude even once compels me to immerse myself in these stories, pay tribute on behalf of the people who are too callous to, and try to stay educated. *sad*

I entered the nursing career at 92 I should say 1992 and at that time my brother-in-law who is also a nurse was positive with aids full-blown and the cocktail doesn’t work for him. I remember from the very first of course I was 31 or 32 and I treated every one of my patients with the upmost respect in many times got chastised for not wearing gloves or counting up and all that but I just couldn’t bring myself to be less than a human towards another human

God bless these kind and brave caretakers!!!

I lived through this horrible disease in the Castro in the 70’s-80’s. I was a bartender at the Castro Station for many years and knew so many of my patrons who lost their battle to AIDS. Many of whom I worked with. It was a very sad time in my life watching so, so many people being sick and struggling just to carry on with life.

I was an AIDS social worker in San Francisco in the mid to late 90’s. Omg I haven’t seen anything like it since. My heart is still there with all those men.

I lost so many friends during the 80's and very early 90's in Australia. I thank all those who cared for them and worked in the AIDS wards. It was such a hard time. Some people were just so commendable, giving and caring toward others that really needed the love and care.

I will never ever forget taking a flight to Chicago heading towards Rush’s HIV unit where I could be with and say goodbye to a loved member of our family. The patients, their eyes, the physical pain was intense but the loneliness and sheer abandonment was beyond disturbing. Patients would sit in wheelchairs outside their rooms to have the most minimal of human interaction. The nursing staff said it was not common to see such a constant stream of support and family visiting the unit. Being able to see just how devastating this disease was so up close and personal had an everlasting impact on me. I tried to watch the movie Philadelphia and could not suppress uncontrollable sobbing. I did not recognize my own sound of sorrow. It has been over 30 years and the memories are vivid, the feeling of the loss of these men still resonates.

I am not sure that all nurses understand just how much of a crucial and profound care they can provide. Truly magnificent!

I started doing AIDS charity work over 16 years ago. I thought, by now, that AIDS would be a thing of the past. Despite the progress that has been made, we are practically at the same point where we started. Just because AIDS is no longer a DEATH SENTENCE, it still is an awful disease to manage.

“Treating the patient but nit being afraid “ at the same time. I laid in bed with my father thinking I’d rather catch it than leave him. But at first I was very afraid but the love was stronger. Rest In Peace Papi.

I was 21 in the summer of 1983 and was on the verge of embracing my repressed sexuality when I watched a documentary about a mysterious illness affecting gay men in NYC entitled ‘Killer in the village’. It absolutely altered the trajectory of my sexual journey and my newly acquired caution very likely saved my life. Sometimes throughout life’s journey timing is everything. Awesome documentary and the most compassionate caring individuals on display here. America’s finest!!

God bless those who were lost to this terrible disease and everyone who helped them.

Thank you for this documentary, the new generations doesn't know the fear, sorrow, sadness, loneliness, anger and the activism that shaped the 80's and 90's. In 1982 when the AIDS crisis exploded I was 15 yo son of a catholic family in South America, with a homophobe father and I was absolutely terrified, and 8 years later I was doing my Nursing Degree and clinical placements at AIDS Ward, I never felt fear about the patients I was terrified of accept the fact I was gay and it took me more 9 years to finally come to terms with my own sexuality. Today we have Prep/PEP and anti retrovirals treatment. I can only think the huge number of talented people we lost and the world could be a different place if we did not loose them. Now I am a 54 yo Happily married gay man living in London, life could not be better for me.

Many of the late 20th Century's greatest saints have gone uncanonized, but their kindness, care, love for those facing death under terrible circumstances shall never be forgotten.

I am so glad that these doctors and nurses where there at that time for the infected people... Really moving to see... Bless all of you doctors, nurses, patients and loved ones

Wow: I was a bit too young to be out at the beginning of the AIDS endemic. But not to young when it reached Columbus Ohio. I remember the person who was the first AIDS death, I actually knew him, in Franklin County. The fear, and the terrible, terrible things we did to each other if one tested positive. The number of my friends lost. I was a member of a local club at age nineteen. By 1989 I was the only one of us left. When it was brought up in the documentary about losing your life's witness. I lost all of my life's witnesses and all five of my best very good friends. One can never replace the people in your life who are gone because of a disease. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't old age. It wasn't moving away and losing track. Or just growing away from someone. It was something that happened to us, we couldn't change it. And we, all of us lost something special.

This was probably best program I have watched on this subject. Being a retired nurse who nursed through this era I do remember the horror that fell upon the victims. 😢

Thanks, Paul and Molly. You gave Dawn and me a role model in 1986 when there was none. I shall always appreciate the education I got under Connie Wofsy at SFGH.

This is so hard to watch; even all these later, the faces of people I knew and loved.

I have a friend here in dallas that was diagnosed as hiv + by his family doctor in the mid to late 1980’s. Upon hearing his doctor say your test came back poz, he said to his doctor okay so what do we do now and his doctor said if I were you I’d get a gun and go home and kill myself. Unbelievable how wonderful these doctors, nurses and caregivers were almost right from the beginning to those with AIDS. It took a while for the rest of the country.

My godfather died from AIDS in the early 90s, I was only 2 years old. My mom was with him everyday until he took his last breath....

Extremely chilling stuff here, good watch though. I've been doing a lot of research on HIV & AIDS, especially those grim years in the 80s & 90s, just to get the facts in order for myself. Thanks for uploading this.

I am a straight middle aged woman I pass judgement on no one I live my life in my opinion as everyone should whatever floats your boat you be kind to me I'll be kind to you! This was an awful time my heart goes out to anyone who lost their battle with this hellish disease.

such a powerful film. thank you.

For gay men (and lesbians, our allies) living through the 1980s & 1990s, we definitely have PTSD.

God comfort those with this disease

I am now 62. AIDS has nearly liked off my generation of gay men. I came out in ‘84 in northeastern Indiana. 2 years later, I volunteered as a buddy for one of 2 gay men who dead from AiDS in Fort Wayne, In. They were the first people living with AIDS. Fast forward to 2001, I am living in the Castro, and working at CPMC-Davis campus in San Francisco. CPMC-Davis was one of the first hospitals that took care of AIDS patients since it is very near the Castro. It was so eerie to work there 20 years after the epidemic of AIDS. What an experience. I was and still am HIV negative. I am one of the lucky one’s

I know and have known many that died from this disease. I’ve been out since 1999/2000 and it’s still heartbreaking. I couldn’t have imagined it during those times.

This was such a well produced documentary. I'm glad I discovered it.

Wow, what a remarkable, important and powerful historical record of what happened, how people responded, the political aspects and heartfelt, often emotional first hand accounts of the early years of the epidemic. I'm a long time San Francisco resident (since 1978) and a gay man. The film was a time warp and brought back so much of those horrible, hopeful, sometimes humorous moments of our lives then. I'm grateful for the producers of this fine film. Blessings all around to those we've lost, to those who were touched by this horrible disease. and to those who contributed to help those in need.Thank you.

17;43 That hit home! I remember families coming and kicking out friends and significant others, taking away the patient's support symptoms. It was horrible for everyone.

I was immediately violent with violent food poisoning in 2009 on a road trip with a friend to San Francisco and I only had Cal. State. poverty limit insurance (Medi-Cal), and the treatment I got even in one day was just, It was just so human. I wish in San Diego the staff in hospitals had the level of humanity that the nurses did in San Francisco.

This was not easy to watch. I am so thankful for all of the pioneers who started so early to address the needs of people living with HIV in a loving way. I know it wasn't easy for them or for caring survivors. I made a promise to Cleve Jones in 1984 that I would do what I could and I did as a pioneer and activist in Arizona and Southern California facing ostracism and threats University officials and students, my parents, and the general community. I was tasked with helping to set up Arizona's first free and anonymous HTLV-III antibody testing site by the Maricopa County Medical Director in the summer of 1985. There were no support services available when we started the program. I was consoling crying people in the Health Department parking lot. The armed services of the United States were sending recently medically discharged soldiers with a letter with my name on it to me to explain what it meant to have already tested positive. The government required me to tell women who tested positive that it had to be a false positive because they weren't in a high risk group. (Of course, I told women what the government had told me to say, but also cautioned them with precautions and next steps since a virus cannot discriminate.) After setting up the program in the summer with a nurse, I had to quit my paying job as a counselor with the health department in the fall, take out loans to complete my master's degree, and volunteer distributing food boxes because the School of Social Work refused to give me credit for the work I was doing as a counselor. The School of Social Work Field Advisor chuckled and said there was no way he would supervise me in a position "working with THOSE people." It was not an easy time for any of us. I'm 66 now. Many friends didn't make it past their 20s and 30s. (In case you might see this, I know you are not happy with me now Cleve after my failure to produce a book, but I will always love, respect, and honor you for all you have contributed and endured.) Thank you for this important documentary.

God bless all this people who helped at that time!It made me cry.

I was working in San Francisco at Garden Sullivan Hospital with all these men dying of AIDS in the 90’s. ❤️💜❤️💜

I came out in my 20"s in the 1980's. 80-82 were magical. Then the nightmare was in full swing in 1983. Every month I was going to a funeral. In 1985, I attended my last funeral. 15 at that point. I told myself no more. I can't do this anymore. I lost my best friend, my sister lost her best friend. I lost a co-worker. Then I lost 13 close friends in my group. I just couldn't do it anymore. By 1991, I had lost my Partner to suicide and for the next 10 years. I just went back into the closet and concentrated on my career. I rarely look back. To this day it is too hard. I remember my friend Eugene, his family had turned against him. He was alone and no one wanted to touch him. I would drive 70 miles to go see him. My Mother would go with me and she would hold him in her arms and hold his head. I will never forget how incredible a gift that was to Eugene. He had gone blind from CMV. He would just cry and she would just hold him tightly. No one today that wasn't there can imagine the horror. Eugene died at 28 years old. My God, 28.

The amazing work of brave health care professionals made the biggest difference. These people are heroes!

this brimgs tears to my eyes ...thank you for uploading this video

It's Pride Month 2023. I'm seeing this video for the first time. As a 67 year old gay man, who managed a gay bar, in Texas, during the 80s I was surprised to see a hiv/aids video enlighten me. Having lost two lovers, to hiv/aids (first one in 1991, second one about 5 years later) it was nice to hear some positive unknown (to me) information on the topic. Being in Texas back then we were forewarned. HIV seemed to start on the east/west coastlines before it showed up here. But since my life was a bar life, I lost a lot of friends and went to a lot of funerals. We also had lots of benefit shows at the bars trying to raise money to help the sick and bury the dead. Even the funeral homes didn't want to touch the bodies! One bar owner made a deal with a funeral home to cremate the bodies. So many were disowned by families and ended up in a paupers grave! Very sad times. If you've ever seen the movie Longtime Companion, it's a bit like that. We were all just trying to enjoy life and folks just started dying left and right!

This video and story is so well done. This is the third time i have watched. I am a retired R.N. and lived and worked in Los Angeles working for different home health agencies in the 80's . The hiv treatments were constantly changing and improving. I was lucky enough to see the advent of protease inhibitors being added to the cocktail that allowed real hope. I like many will never forget those trying times. Today the treatments are so good and advanced. I'm glad to have survived and still think about those who battled to the end. I will never forget them and that time of in my life. We should never forget.

This was beautiful. Thank you.

I'm 19 now, and educating myself on all this stuff. Interesting how schools hardly touched on any STDs, and I never knew anything about how harmful they were until I started doing the research. Most kids my age still have no idea, and they act in dangerous ways because of it.

I have had hiv for 19 years I was scared thanks so much for progress and caring understanding people . I am so sorry for those family members that did not stand a chance lots of love to others going through it ❤

This was beautiful. God bless everyone in the story: medical people, patients and we learning compassion ever so slowly. 🙏🏽

This was a well-done documentary. I felt it did a good job of getting to the heart of the humanity of the issue, while at the same time acknowledging the very real sadness and devastation that occurred. But I appreciated that it was also mentioned that not everyone died, and that there were in fact people who were able to hang on to life long enough to be there for the advent of better meds. Because that's also a real part of the story that I feel isn't usually talked about as much.

My heart goes out to all of you that went through this terrible time and of course all that lost loved ones . I am 42 but I remember being 14 knowing I was gay and scared of not knowing if AIDS would come into my life.

Wonderful documentary. Thanks.

Lisa youre a champion of care takers.

I was an RN and took care of my first AIDS patient in 1982. I had a tremendous amount of sympathy for those infected when they were ignorant of this horrible disease, but that sympathy ended with the second and third waves of infection later in the decade. When you know something can kill you and you know how to avoid it and you keep doing it, then it's on you.

My lover, Phillip Ryder Ortiz, died in early '93. But i wanted him to survive for another 12-18 months because i knew real life saving medical and pharmaceutical help was on the way and about to arrive. Unfortunately he couldn't servive. He died exactly 28 years, 6 days, and 2 hours ago. My life hasn't been the same since. It isn't nearly as much fun. Nor as interesting. And neither is San Francisco!

Simply, they, the doctors and nurses and ALL the support staff are the HEROES! The patients themselves, SUPER BRAVE. Let's pray that we are near the corner to beating this disease to death. A really important video. Well done and thank you for producing this doco. BRILLIANT!!!!!

It breaks my heart to see this to see what inhumanity was happening during the beginning but I am completely in awe and admiration of the doctors and nurses in SF that really dived in head first into what was happening and change the health care model for not only HIV/AIDS but for palliative care for the terminally ill in general. The work of these true heroes has done not only for the patients but for the families and the general public is truly immeasurable. The patient-centric health care model, which was sooo hard fought for then, is the bare minimum standard of care now. It is harrowing watching this and hearing the stories but they need to be told so that horrors of that time are never experienced again. RIP to all those that were lost to this disease. May God bless and keep them.

I remember our first AIDS case in Lethbridge. They roped him off with a sign "our first AIDS case". I went beyond the rope shook his hand and said loudly "I'm sorry your health issue was announced in a sign. "I would like to put a rope around them and put a sign up "our one millionth hemroids patient ". I came back the next day to visit my grandfather. He didn't have the rope or a sign around him. We have to make sure we give them their dignity back.

This was truly done very well. I would like to say thank you to all who was there at the start, late 70's till now. A big thank you for this short film and, all whom had a hand in it. Well done. I do hope that with the years that pass we do not see anything like we did, and still do in us as people. To not help, not love but place judgement on to others we do not know, understand, all in a blink of an eye forgetting we are all people.

Thanks, for sharing these Great People !

Wonderful recap of the efforts and humanity afforded those of us without any hope. Uplifting. Nurse power!

I had a friend who should have made it: died in 2001. The combination of such tragedy and the miracles that made it from early eighties diagnosis. It's so hard to describe the stew of emotions but anyone who was in the gay community in the 80s has this bond: this "thing" that is like living through a war together.

I am 54 now and when I was 19 I mived to the gay area of Houston and watched an entire small 18 unit apartment complex of gay men die. I was the only one that was left. So scary. I wish my young gay brothers and sisters safety and long lives. I'm still here and I'm negative but the trauma! Is still with me

Thank you.

It would be so terrifying to see loved ones rapidly die around you. So sad.

I remember those days as "The Dying Time". I barely made it through and was able to catch the "lifeboat". But even the lifeboat had it's drawbacks, as we suffered the crippling side effects of the medications. Everyone who we through that, knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Really well done. Lots of lessons to be learned about patient care and public health for sure.

Thank you...

Came here after watching incredible docudrama “When we rise”. Glad to see real-life Cleve and Diane here

Thank you for making this film. It is so wonderful to see that there were people willing to be compassionate to those suffering with this illness, I'm so very sorry for all that suffered, those that actually caught the virus, in whatever way, and their families and friends who had to watch them lose their lives. We really do have to ensure that newer generations learn about the early days of the epidemic, and that it hasn't gone away. We don't want them to become complacent, or for our bodies to

I was diagnosed 1991 feb 3rd...Im 55 today...Knoxville Tn here

Powerful and moving. Peace and love to those who fought the valiant war alongside their lovers families and caretakers. Thank you for uploading and sharing this. ❤🧡💛💚💙💜💗♾

Excellent documentary

I wished I was taught more about this growing up in the 90's/2000's. An ongoing epidemic, that peaked less than a decade before my birth... finding that out on my own was so unbelievably messed up. We learned absolutely nothing from this travesty.

I was a kid during the 1980's and I remember hearing a lot about HIV and AIDS on the news and it was a terrifying time. Although, I was a kid, I was scared to touch door knots and being around HIV people. I thought I could catch HIV by touching the same door knot that HIV people touch. During the 1980's, people weren't sure how we could catch HIV, so there was a huge panic. By the time I was in my 20's during the 1990's, I was terrified of having sex with men, even with condoms. I didn't have intercourse until I was in my late 20's. Every time, I meet a guy, I assumed that he has HIV immediately. In my mind, every gay man had HIV and AIDS. For two decades, HIV and AIDS dominated our society.

Thank you wonderful doctors

I could not understand the denial of people who wanted to keep the bath houses to remain open . I still cannot .

I'm still alive, 35 years now since being diagnosed in '88. Those first 10 - 15 years were a nightmare, I shouldn't be here today, but, I'm glad I am. Peace.

I’m only in my 30s and I remember my lesbian friends (a couple) who used to live in Miami (she’s Cuban) and she would tell me so many stories of so many friends she lost during the AIDs epidemic in Miami. It scared me so much hearing about it. And very sad that wonderful beautiful gay men dropping like flies. Imagine how the world would be if we never lost them?

I feel for the family and the victims I can imagine what they went through at that time must of been very traumatic

Those that survived the disease must feel like waking up to a new dawn

So many innocent men died of this awful disease. We truly lost a whole generation. To think of what could’ve been had they survived. May the all Rest peacefully xo