Continued through the mid-90s, though perhaps at lower levels than the mid to late '80s. But even when I joined Act Up in 1990, the Catholic Church and other Christian churches constantly proclaimed that we were evil and deserved to die.

I was a young man by that time, so I didn't internalize those messages like I did when I was 12 sitting in church and learning that I was a sinner. This time, I was able to fight back and call the churches out. Call the politicians out. You know what I always hit me the hardest about the AIDS crisis? Young people were especially vulnerable. Because efforts to provide safer sex education to keep young people alive were met with the fiercest resistance.

Religious leaders, especially Catholic priests and bishops, seemed almost anxious for teenagers to die of AIDS rather than grow up to accept being gay as perfectly normal and moral

We see the same sort of hatred directed at trans young people today as adults who have no stake in the matter work their asses off to pursue laws and policies that will absolutely kill trans youth.

I don't know what it is about human nature that makes people try to control other humans with such fierce determination.

What's so hard about just leaving trans kids alone? What's so hard about leaving their caring parents alone? What's so hard about leaving their caring doctors alone?

I don't know, but all my life I've been tortured by the reality that so many busy bodies are so fiercely determined to hate on and harm queer people who aren't even members of their family.

We must resist with every ounce of our energy and determination. Because we are every bit as much human as the busy bodies.

We have every bit the same human right to live as we choose as any human being on earth.

Despite political and religious leaders who hate us.