It’s so funny how generational perspectives differ. Not to downplay your perspective at all as someone who’s a bit younger, but for me the late 90s are about when things started going back to normal. When all my friends finally stopped dying of AIDS. When I stopped having to go to funerals all the time.

I watched “It’s a Sin" a couple of weeks ago, and even though it’s about the '80s, I flashed back hard to the early and mid-90s when the AIDS crisis reached its horrific peak of diagnosed cases and deaths.

When I think back to my lower Manhattan neighborhood, the World Trade Center’s presence or absence outside my window almost defines the epidemic.