The Nearness of Others: Searching for Tact and Contact in the Age of HIV

All AIDS, All the Time!

8 Diagnosis AllAIDS,AlltheTime! I had the terrible misfortune of testing positive for HIV on the eve of the epidemic’s silver jubilee. It was indeed in early summer 1981 that the first articles appeared, describing unusual clusters of rare diseases among gay men in New York and Los Angeles. A quarter of a century later, I found myself caught in the hoopla surrounding the anniversary. Every newspaper, TV news show, and Internet wire service, it seemed, was giving AIDS the royal treatment. The four-­ letter word kept jumping at me from all corners at once.AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! AIDS!!! And it felt as though it was all about me personally—­ which of course it was. Picking up the New York Times in front of my house every morning became an ordeal. So did turning on my computer or the TV. What were they all going to say about me today? I didn’t feel bombarded so much as stoned. ...