AIDS Is Everyday / August

AIDS is an everyday experience. The dates on this calendar all relate to the AIDS crisis. Some are globally known; others are drawn from personal experiences.

This online calendar is produced in partnership with Visual AIDS and is an extension of the exhibition “EVERYDAY,” which was curated by Jean Carlomusto, Alexandra Juhasz and Hugh Ryan in 2016. The exhibition and accompanying print calendar explored the AIDS crisis—historically and currently—through the lens of art and ephemera that examines and evidences daily experiences and practices in response to HIV/AIDS. Artists featured in the “EVERYDAY” exhibition were invited to submit as many dates to the calendar as they desired.

We invite you to reflect upon these dates, and this artwork, in dialogue with one another. We also encourage you to submit dates of your own by clicking here. Submissions may include the date of your diagnosis, the date of the loss of a loved one to AIDS-related illness or a significant milestone in your life with HIV/AIDS.

New submissions will be continually added to the calendar because AIDS is not over.

AUGUST 1

U.S. health officials declare the nation’s blood supply is free of the virus that causes AIDS thanks to a new test that screens out contaminated blood.  (1985)

The Incredible Hulk loses his friend Jim Wilson to an AIDS-related illness in issue No. 420, “Lest Darkness Come.” The Marvel comic tackles HIV stigma and homophobia. (2004)

AUGUST 2

FDA approves Epzicom, a combination of abacavir and lamivudine. (2004)

Christodora, a novel by Tim Murphy about a group of characters whose lives are connected by HIV and an apartment building in New York City’s East Village, is released. (2016)

AUGUST 3

At ACT UP NY, Avram Finkelstein announces the opportunity for a window display at New Museum, eventually titled Let the Record Show. This leads to the formation of the Gran Fury collective. (1987)

AUGUST 4

Back on Board: Greg Louganis, a documentary about the Olympic diver’s life, premieres on HBO. (2015)

A jury finds “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical CEO notorious for spiking the price of the AIDS-related med Daraprim by 5,000% percent, guilty on three out of eight counts in a federal securities fraud trial. (2017)

HIV advocates send an open letter to the rapper DaBaby requesting an educational meeting with him after he makes a series of controversial comments about HIV and gay men while performing at a festival in Miami. (2021)

AUGUST 5

A federal judge orders Florida’s DeSoto County School Board to enroll brothers Ricky, Robert and Randy Ray—all of whom are living with hemophilia and HIV—in school. After the ruling, outraged residents refuse to allow their children to attend school, and on August 28, someone sets fire to the Ray house, destroying it. (1987)

The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that pregnant women be given AZT to reduce the risk of perinatal transmission of HIV. (1994)

Writer Eva Hayward has 8 T-cells. (2010)

AUGUST 6

Artist Klaus Nomi dies of AIDS-related causes at age 39 in New York City. (1983)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration grants accelerated approval to Pfizer’s HIV entry inhibitor Selzentry (maraviroc) for treatment-experienced patients. The drug is the first in a new class of oral HIV drugs in more than a decade. (2007)

FLOURISH, a virtual experience produced by For All Humans in conjunction with the CDC’s “Let’s Stop HIV Together” campaign, aims to end HIV stigma and promote HIV prevention, testing and treatment. Hosted by Bob the Drag Queen, the one-hour show provides essential HIV info presented by a drag queens and kings and community members from Miami, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Orlando and Atlanta. (2020)

AUGUST 7

HIV writer and activist Justin B. Terry-Smith marries Philip B. Terry-Smith. (2009)

Sean Sasser, an AIDS educator and reality television personality known for his relationship with fellow AIDS activist Pedro Zamora of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco, dies of mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer. (2013)

Howard, a film about the life of lyricist Howard Ashman, premieres on Disney+. Ashman wrote the lyrics to such Disney classics as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid before dying of an AIDS-related illness in 1991. (2020)

AUGUST 8

Bobbi Campbell, a nurse living with HIV, and his partner, Bobby Hilliard, appear on the cover of Newsweek. (1983)

In an effort to end HIV/AIDS stigma and normalize condom use, the BBC World Service Trust India launches a new safer-sex ringtone that sings “Condom, condom!” (2008)

Fred, the Yorkshire terrier that inspired the HIV nonprofit Fred Says, dies at age 10. (2021)

AUGUST 9

Drug counselor David Purchase sets up the nation’s first needle-exchange program on a sidewalk in Tacoma, Washington. Within five months, he exchanges 13,000 needles to prevent HIV. (1988)

AUGUST 10

American painter Paul Thek dies of AIDS-related complications at age 54. (1988)

FDA approves Complera, a combination of emtricitabine, rilpivirine, and tenofovir alafenamide. (2011)

Massachusetts becomes the first state to demand that insurers cover treatment for HIV-related lipodystrophy. (2016)

Demetre Daskalakis, MD, becomes the first public health official in the United States to sign a consensus statement concluding that there is “negligible risk” of HIV transmission when a person living with the virus is taking HIV meds and has maintained a consistently undetectable viral load for at least six months. (2016)

 

AUGUST 11

A meeting in Larry Kramer’s apartment forms the nucleus of what would become the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first community-based AIDS service provider, now GMHC. (1981)

Greg Louganis presents Ryan White the gold medal he won in the three-meter springboard at the Pan American Games. (1987)

AUGUST 12

Chinese-American artist Martin Wong dies of AIDS-related complications at age 53. (1999)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves Tivicay (dolutegravir), the second antiretroviral in the integrase strand transfer inhibitor class to hit the market. (2013)

  

AUGUST 13

Dudley Saunders speaks about Ethyl Eichelberger’s death at ACT UP. (1990)

Ryland Restee Roane Jr., an AIDS advocate who for decades educated people about the virus and fought stigma, dies of acute myeloid leukemia at age 58. (2016)

After 11 years of service, the national HIV Prevention Justice Alliance ceases operations. The network included 13,000 people across the country who united to address the intersections of HIV/AIDS and economic, racial and social justice. It included activists, researchers, policymakers and others. (2018)

AUGUST 14

Between Ten presented by Visual AIDS at SPIN Gallery during the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada. (2006)

Winnie Byanyima, a former Ugandan politician and international humanitarian, is appointed as the new executive director of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and U.N. under-secretary-general. (2019)

AUGUST 15

Self-proclaimed “AIDS Poster Boy” Bobbi Campbell dies of AIDS-related complications. (1984)

AUGUST 16

Actress Amanda Blake, best known for playing Miss Kitty in Gunsmoke, dies of AIDS-related causes (1989)

The World Health Organization reports that the number of people receiving HIV antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa has surpassed 1 million for the first time. (2006)

The Black AIDS Institutes hosts the community empowerment summit, AIDS 2016: Atlanta. (2016)

AUGUST 17

David Ho publishes “Time to Hit HIV, Early and Hard” in The New England Journal of Medicine. (1995)

AUGUST 18

The FDA sanctions the first human testing of a candidate vaccine against HIV. (1987)

Congress enacts the Ryan White CARE Act, providing $220.5 million in funds for HIV care in its first year. (1990)

ACT UP members converge to protest during the Republican National Convention in Houston. (1992)

H. Clifford Lane, MD, and his colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases begin the first U.S. clinical trial to test an experimental HIV vaccine in humans. (1987)

Jeffrey, a romantic comedy about a gay actor who decides to become celibate because of the risk of AIDS, opens in theaters. (1995)

AUGUST 19

Activist Mary Fisher delivers her “A Whisper of AIDS” speech at the Republican National Convention. (1992)

AUGUST 20

Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

AIDS activists disrupt a speech by George Bush at a $1,000-a-plate fundraising luncheon. (1992)

Broadway performer Hernando Umana (Kinky Boots, School of Rock) discloses that he his living with HIV on Instagram. (2018)

AUGUST 21

Choreographer Michael Peters dies of AIDS at age 46. He choreographed Michael Jackson’s Beat It video and received a Tony Award for Dreamgirls. (1994)

Deadra Malloy, a cofounder of P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E Voices, an advocacy group for women living with HIV in South Carolina, dies of a heart attack at age 53. (2015)

AUGUST 22

FDA approves Triumeq, a combination of abacavir, dolutegravir, and lamivudine. (2014)

AUGUST 23

Interior designer Tice Alexander dies of AIDS-related causes at age 35 in New York City. (1993)

FDA approves Serostim to treat wasting symptoms in people with AIDS. (1996)

The 2016 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care and Treatment begins. (2016)

AUGUST 24

Actor Leonard Frey dies of AIDS-related illness at age 49 in New York City. (1988)

Helene Gayle, MD, MPH, president and chief executive of the charity CARE USA, is named as chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. (2009)

AUGUST 25

AUGUST 26

The Ministry of Health launches the first ever self-testing initiative in Vietnam. (2016)

AUGUST 27

FDA approves Stribild, a combination of elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. (2012)

AUGUST 28

The U.S. Postal Service issues a commemorative stamp to honor tennis star Arthur Ashe, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1993. (2005)

A federal class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Aetna contends that one of the insurer’s mailers violated the law by revealing the HIV information of approximately 12,000 customers in at least 23 states. (2017)

AUGUST 29

The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation is created. (1991)

AUGUST 30

John Hanning requests copies of his medical records and moves home to Arkansas to die. (1995)

Actor Michael Jeter (Evening Shade, Sesame Street) dies of AIDS-related causes. (2003)

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and California harm reduction advocates open the nation’s first model safe injection site at Glide Memorial Methodist Church in the city’s Tenderloin district. (2019)

AUGUST 31

The Pentagon declares that as of October 1, it will test all military recruits for HIV and reject those who test positive for the virus. (1985)

The city of Dearborn, Michigan, settles a federal discrimination lawsuit brought by Shalandra Jones, who was ticketed by a police officer during a traffic stop because she was living with HIV. She was awarded $40,000. (2015)

Westside Community Services, which provided home care, medical care and counseling services to people living with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco since 1988, terminates its HIV programs due to lack of funding. (2017)

LAST SUNDAY IN AUGUST

National Faith HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

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About the Artwork

Appointments—a self portrait. As the virus silently replicated in my body I came to hear and know its presence through the numbers the doctors reeled off at my hospital appointments. Like a cartographer’s lines chart the land, my scribbles mapped the virus’s course.

—darkroom danny

Founded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today, by producing and presenting visual art projects, exhibitions, public forums and publications—while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS. Visual AIDS is committed to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement.

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