“Community has always been at the heart of the fight against acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, the advanced stage of an HIV infection.
When the disease was first reported in 1981, most mainstream government, medical and news organizations failed to discuss the issue and to provide solutions to the gay community, which was being disproportionately impacted.
In the absence of institutional help, activists and community members took matters into their own hands, distributing informational pamphlets, forming buddy systems, organizing hotlines, cooking food or just sitting by the bedsides of friends and strangers in the hospital dying of the disease.
That sense of community still remains among those who have survived the AIDS epidemic, particularly within a local group called Let’s Kick ASS Palm Springs, or LKAPS…”
