For many young gay men in the US and the UK, the Aids epidemic that cut short so many lives in the 1980s is history – something terrible that shook their community long before they were born. These days, Britons who fear they may have become infected with HIV can access post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) on the NHS. Those who do contract it can be prescribed antiretroviral drugs. And for those at a high risk, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is increasingly available in Britain (though not Northern Ireland). The effectiveness and availability of these treatments would have been unimaginable to the campaigners and patients of the 1980s.
And yet this encouraging picture does not apply everywhere, or to everyone. In the US, the situation divides depending on geography, and, most strikingly, race. According to the Centers for Disease Control, African Americans accounted for 44% of HIV diagnoses in 2016, despite comprising only 12% of the population. And the disproportion seems to be growing. That year, HIV diagnoses among African American gay and bisexual men aged 25 to 34 increased 30%. If you are a young gay black man in America, you have a one in two chance of contracting the virus – compared with a one in 11 chance if you are a white gay man.