You can say that again! As an older gay man, I survived the AIDS era, but many of my closest friends did not. I live always with a certain guilt over the fact that I lived and they didn't. There's not any reason for it. I was just luckier than than the approximately 40% of people in my late partner's and my address book who didn't make it.

All of us, those who lived and those who died, had to face up to the depraved indifference of our government. We had to organize care networks for those who couldn't or didn't want to return to families for their last days. We had to take to the streets to engage with the American people, asking them to join us demanding a truly effective national response.

Ultimately, we succeeded, but the cost was very high.

So, now, watching the Trump administration halt the PepFar program overseas, going so far as to order U.S.-funded clinics that already have HIV medication to immediately stop dispensing it ....

All I can say is that I know the depraved indifference is back.

I know the people now running my nation want people like me to die. Hell, they don't even try to hide their hatred and moral depravity, and so many of my fellow Americans are cheering them on for it.

A very long time ago, in feels like a different lifetime, I used to stand in front of a full-length mirror in our home, scanning my body for signs of KS lesions. Sometimes, doing that, I would tremble, waves of fear prickling up and down my skin as relentlessly as the tide.

I felt that happening to me again just yesterday as I read a hate-filled executive order attempting to ban gender-affirming care for all trans youth under the age of 19.

The language in that order! It talks about queer people like we're disgusting animals.

It's the 80s all over again!

The science denial. The disparagement of medical expertise. The assumption that society SHOULD use laws and regulations to corral us, stop us from existing, stop us from communicating. And so much more.

It's a lot.

But we did prevailed then! We can do it again. We shouldn't have to, but we can.

Thanks for the story!