And worldwide, one million people died in 2017 from AIDS-related illnesses.

There is still much that needs to change; there are many fights that remain to be won.

We must advocate for research for even better tools to end HIV. We must continue to tear down barriers that keep people from accessing the tools we have now. As we start to see a resurgence of political and social climates similar to that of 1983—where proposed cuts to HIV funding loom and attacks on LGBTQIA communities and communities of color were commonplace—we are also seeing a resurgence of activism. We must retain the lessons of those who came before us and remain true to ourselves, hold on to that seed of hope that allows us to endure a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than thirty-five million adults, children, parents, siblings, and loved ones globally, fight for the needs of communities most affected by HIV/AIDS, and, like Michael, always choose to love.

Jeremiah Johnson is a New York–based HIV/AIDS activist focused on policy and research advocacy to end HIV as an epidemic in the United States and around the world. He has been living with the virus since 2008; following his diagnosis he obtained a masters in public health from Columbia University in order to better advocate for the needs of people living with and vulnerable to HIV infection. He currently serves as the HIV project director at Treatment Action Group in New York City.

Jason Walker joined VOCAL-NY as the organization’s community organizer for HIV/AIDS campaigns in February 2013 after working for the Louisville City Council. His previous activism includes working with the U.S. Student Association and the NAACP, founding the first LGBT organization for people of color in Kentucky, and fellowships with the Center for Progressive Leadership, Young People for the American Way, and the Drum Major Institute. He studied pan-African studies and cultural anthropology at the University of Louisville.

Acknowledgments

There are many people who left their marks on this book (and my heart) in one way or another, but two in particular deserve more gratitude than I could possibly put into words, although I’m going to take a stab at it, anyway.

Without question, writer and ACT UP activist Ron Goldberg is at the top of this list. We might have been thrown together by David France, but I echo Ron when he says it was besherit (divine providence). Ron is the truest mench I’ve ever met, and I’m grateful on a daily basis for his outstanding memory and ability to ferret out the most obscure bits of knowledge with great joy, his tough love, honesty, delightfully wicked sense of humor, and most of all his friendship (although his ability to talk me off ledges is a darn-close second). This book would have been a very different—and much lesser—thing without his input and guidance, and so would I. Thanks for helping me finish the hat.

My agent, Lauren MacLeod, has been a fierce and fearless source of support and brilliance. She’s a rock star of epic proportions, and I don’t know what I’d do without her. Her belief in this book when it was mostly smoke and mirrors constantly reminded me why I write. And I knew, when she told me to “throw in some more obscure ’80s music” that she got it in all the right ways.