Central to that story has been the LGBTQ+ community but this project is wholly diverse, reflecting the experiences of men, women, trans, gay and straight, of all races, UK born and migrant. It also reflects the experiences of those infected through blood transfusion and drug addiction.
The stories of those involved are already in danger of being forgotten, yet the epidemic is the most significant event in modern day LGBTQ+ life and continues to affect the community and its history today. It changed the way that people were cared for and died and also importantly it changed the way we live now. AIDS probably advanced gay rights more than anything else in history and many of the freedoms the LGBTQ+ community enjoy today are due to the changes the AIDS pandemic instigated.
The project charts not only a key and tragic part of LGBTQ+ history, but of our society’s shared history. The HIV crisis cut into every kind of life, and the aftershocks reverberate on to this day.