Despite momentous progress, Jones says that the stigma facing those who are HIV-positive has changed, but not disappeared, over the past three decades. "For my generation, the stigma

came from the outside world, which was already hostile toward us for being gay or for being black or whatever [else]. The stigma that younger people with HIV face today comes largely from

their own community, from people who wag their fingers … and say things like, ‘Well, how could you allow yourself to get infected?'" Jones says that he would like to see better

sexual education — and more compassion — for young HIV-positive people today. He also points out that the fight is ongoing. In 2017, more than 38,000 people in the United States were

Nii-Quartelai Quartey, AARP senior advisor and national LGBT liaison. “World AIDS Day reminds us that the health security of LGBT older adults, sometimes seen as a challenge addressed and

dealt with in the 20th century, now requires 21st-century culturally competent solutions.” Another trend that longtime activists point out is the knowledge gap between older generations who

witnessed the early horrors of AIDS and younger adults for whom the disease is, as Harden puts it, “some long-ago historical story." But in many ways, that story is ongoing. Take the

AIDS Memorial Quilt. Recently, it was announced that the quilt will move from Atlanta, where it has been cared for in recent years, back to San Francisco, which will become its permanent

home. Jones says he is happy — and a little anxious — to see the quilt returned to the city where it was created. More than 30 years after he stitched the first panel, its message remains as

timely as ever. "For me, this isn't hyperbole, this isn't rhetoric. This is the truth of my life,” he says. “I am alive because of the movement. And I want people to

understand what we went through, what we won and what we lost.”