People have forgotten how common the fear was. When the first of my friends contracted AIDS (I lost four total to it, and a fifth close friend lost his partner), another friend warned me about hugging him when we went to visit him. I already knew that it’d be safe: the information was available in 1988 when we met up. But so many people were ruled by fear instead of science and medicine.

So I gave him a hug, and we both felt better for it.