4 min readDec 1, 2021
WORLD AIDS DAY
The first time I kissed a boy I was fifteen.
The first time I gave myself to one I was seventeen.
The first time I saw a group of men in one place who looked like me I was eighteen.
On the other side of those awakenings, AIDS had been taking the lives of black gay men for a decade.
According to HIV.gov, 40 years ago on June 5th, 1981, the first 5 cases that would later…