#non-rammstein

Currently obsessed with Beastars and this plushie of Legoshi with his giant ass head and teeny little body. 🥺

I won't overwhelm you but here are some I've enjoyed

Before we start though, regardless of whether you're at risk I recommend learning about pre-exposure prophylaxis aka PrEP. For some reason nobody ever talks about it but essentially it's a drug that dramatically, somewhere between 90-99%, lowers risk of contracting HIV. PrEP combined with condoms and/or your positive partner(s) meds getting their virus down to undetectable levels (undetectable=untransmittable) essentially eliminates your chances of getting it.

PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) is also available if you have been, or may have been, in transmittable contact. It shouldn't still be like this.

Anyway, enough of that.

UK:

Stephen Fry's HIV and Me - documentary about HIV/AIDS in the UK

Tell the Wolves I'm Home - a fiction book by Carol Rifka Brunt about a girl whose best friend and uncle died of AIDS. A surprise since she didn't even know he was gay and had a long term partner living in the home she visited so often. It's really fucking good

The series anon mentioned is It's A Sin, a five part series set in the UK in the 1980s and spanning the main portion of the epidemic. It's very good and I guarantee you will sob. Sidenote, it's nice watching things involving effeminate gay men etc. that don't feel like mockery (the cast and also the guy who made it are gay).

US:

How to Survive a Plague - both a book and a documentary. Disclaimer, I've read the book but only watched a few clips of the documentary (which I think is available on Amazon but like... It's old it's okay if you steal it for educational purposes). David France is a gay man and so the book contains a lot of personal anecdotes about the gay/bi men and lesbian/bi women involved in particular (since the men were, you know, dying, women were the ones running a lot of groups and organising care in hospitals and whatnot).

And the Band Played On - a very comprehensive book by journalist Randy Shilts. I believe there's also a film. It's a little older than HTSAP but just as important, I think. Don't mistake the shorter paragraph for lower enthusiasm.

Pose - TV series focusing on American ballroom culture, specifically trans women of colour, and how the AIDS epidemic affected them. Can be found on netflix.

Here is a clip of people emptying the ashes of the people they lost onto the Whitehouse lawn in protest of the government purposefully ignoring them (since the people who got AIDS were gay/bi men, trans women, IV drug users etc) and an interview with Peter Staley, a prominent activist who was involved in ACT UP, TAG, amfAR etc

The quilt you see at the beginning of the first clip is the AIDS memorial quilt. Every panel is roughly the size of a grave and there are eight to a section. And no, it's not even remotely close to one for everyone.

Where in this entire exchange did I say exempt disabled people were included in this? As a disabled person myself I am, in fact, fully aware of our existence and rights, thanks.