Philadelphia HIV/AIDS History Portal – William Way LGBT Community Center

PortalPhiladelphia HIV/AIDS History Portal

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Projects

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Philadelphia AIDS Oral History Project

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Remembrance

TimelineYear by year timeline of the history of HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia

Philadelphia Area
National/ International

1979

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2001

2002

2003

2005

2006

2008

2011

2012

2015

2016

2017

2020

1979

- Lavender Health (becomes Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives, and later Mazzoni Center) is founded

1981

- First news story of an “exotic new disease” in the New York Native newspaper (May 18)
- Five Los Angeles gay men descrbed in the CDC’s MMWR as being treated for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (June 5)
- The New York Times reports on “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals” (July 3)
- Philadelphia’s first reported case (September)

1982

- CDC uses term “AIDS” (replaced CDC term GRID (gay-related immune deficiency)
- Gay Men’s Health Crisis founded in New York City by Larry Kramer (January)
- Philadelphia City Council passes Bill 1358 (Gay Rights Bill) by 13-2 vote

1983

- 700 from Philadelphia attend GMHC’s “Night at the Circus” AIDS fundraiser at Madison Square Garden in NYC
- AIDS symposium held at Philadelphia Adams Mark Hotel
- Philadelphia AIDS Task Force (PATF) is founded
- Philadelphia appoints its first Coordinator for Issues Relating to AIDS (Muriel Bell)
- Mayor Bill Green recognizes the city’s first AIDS Awareness Month (September)

1984

- Girlfriends Motorcycle Club founded, does AIDS charity work
- Mayor’s Commission on Sexual Minorities is established (Wilson Goode)
- “One New Case Per Week” campaign begun by Philadelphia AIDS Task Force
- Virus that causes AIDS is discovered (named HTLV-III)

1985

- Blacks Educating Blacks About Sexual Health Issues (BEBASHI) founded
- FDA approves commercially available test for HIV antibodies (ELISA) (March 2)
- First International AIDS Conference in Atlanta
- Interpreting Minority Perspectives for Action (IMPACT) founded
- Mayor Wilson Goode establishes Commission on Health Emergencies
- President Ronald Reagan mentions the word “AIDS” in public for the first time (September 17)
- “Respect Yourself,” a rap album about HIV prevention is produced by Black and White Men Together (Philadelphia), PCHA, and U.S. Council of Mayors

1986

- ActionAIDS (now Action Wellness) is founded
- Adodi Philadelphia is founded
- AIDS and Minorities in Philadelphia published by BEBASHI
- Cleve Jones creates first panel of AIDS Memorial Quilt
- John Locke Fund established
- Joseph Beam publishes In the Life
- Philadelphia AIDS Candlelight Walk and Rally (September 25)
- PCHA AIDS housing program established
- Programa Esfuerzo started at Congreso de Latinos Unidos
- Mayor Wilson Goode issues a ban on AIDS discrimination in Philadelphia government
- Mayor Wilson Goode declares AIDS Awareness Week in Philadelphia (May 12-17)
- Report by U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koops (October 26)
- Virus is renamed HIV

1987

- ACT UP is founded in NYC
- AIDS Activities Coordinating Office (AACO) is established in the Philadelphia Department of Public Health
- AIDS Library of Philadelphia is founded
- AIDS Memorial Quilt is displayed on D.C. National Mall for first time
- American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) art sale and exhibition, “Art Against AIDS”
- AZT, the first antiretroviral drug, becomes available for treatment of HIV
- Calcutta House is opened
- FDA approves Western blot test as more precise test for HIV antibodies (April)
- From All Walks of Life is founded (becomes the AIDS Walk)
- Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative (GALAEI) is founded
- The Hill of Hope Association sets up an AIDS memorial in Fairmount Park
- President Ronald Reagan makes first major speech on AIDS at Franklin Wyndham Plaza in Philadelphia for the 200th anniversary of the College of Physicians
- Randy Shilts’s And the Band Played On is published
- Silence = Death Project is established
- US issues travel ban to HIV-infected immigrants and travelers
- We the People with AIDS and ARC is founded (began as PWA/ARC Coalition of Philadelphia, became We the People Living with AIDS/HIV in the Delaware Valley)

1988

- ACT UP Philadelphia is founded
- AIDS Law Project of Philadelphia is founded
- First World AIDS Day is commemorated
- “Our Living Legacy: An Arts Festival on AIDS” is put on at the Painted Bride (also in 1989 and 1990)
- Pew Charitable Trusts establishes the Philadelphia Commission on AIDS
- Surgeon General C. Everett Koop mails “Understanding AIDS,” an AIDS information brochure, to every home in America (May)

1989

- AIDS Memorial Quilt in Philadelphia (on display at the Philadelphia National Guard Armory, sponsored by ActionAIDS)
- Critical Path AIDS Project is established by Kiyoshi Kuromiya
- Ecumenical AIDS Information Resources Center founded by Rev. J. Jerome Cooper
- First Day Without Art (on World AIDS Day) is commemorated
- Philadelphia AIDS Consortium is founded
- “Pieces of Life Project” curated by David Acosta at Taller Puertorriqueño
- SafeGuards is founded
- Working Fund for Philadelphia Area Artists Living with AIDS/HIV established

1990

- “Images & Words: Artists Respond to AIDS” exhibition is mounted in New York City and at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia
- Metropolitan AIDS Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA) (now Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance) is founded
- Philadelphia FIGHT is founded
- Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (Ryan White CARE Act) is passed
- Unity, Inc. is founded
- “Works of Heart,” art sale and exhibition for Philadelphia AIDS Task Force at the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum

1991

- Betak AIDS Care Facility is opened (closes in 1997)
- Blue Ball (becomes Sapphire Fund), fundraising circuit party is established (through 2011)
- “Classic Rock Art Show,” benefit exhibition and sale for Philadelphia AIDS Task Force at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park
- The COLOURS Organization, Inc. is founded
- David Wojnarowicz’s “Tongues of Flame” exhibition mounted at Tyler Gallery, Temple University
- Dining Out for Life is begun
- Photo exhibition and silent auction to benefit ActionAIDS at the Book Trader (and 1992)
- Prevention Point is founded
- Visual AIDS Artists Caucus starts the “Red Ribbon Project”

1992

- “Art in Mourning,” Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition “part of an annual nationwide commemoration of the shared loss due to AIDS” (November 29-January 31, 1993)
- First “Cocktail” drug therapies introduced
- Minority AIDS Coalition is founded
- Shut Up and Dance benefit begun by the dancers of the Pennsylvania Ballet
- Thrift For AIDS opens on South Street (through 2001)

1993

- AIDS Information Network established
- “Artists for AIDS Show,” sale and benefit for ActionAIDS at the Marketplace Design Center (also 1994)
- Film Philadelphia opens in theaters
- “Paper Prayers: A Celebration of Life and a Memorial to Loss,” fundraising exhibitions for MANNA (through 1996)

1994

- Betak 17-day hunger strike to keep the facility open
- “Moving Pictures: Videos on AIDS,” exhibition mounted at Philadelphia Museum of Art (November 29-December 4)

1995

- AIDS Services In Asian Communities (ASIAC) is founded
- Protease inhibitors (such as Saquinavir) first approved for the treatment of HIV

1996

- AIDS Memorial Quilt is shown in its entirety for the last time on the D.C. National Mall
- AIDS Ride (Philadelphia to DC) (1996 only; a local Philly ride in 1997)
- “Bid for Life,” auction benefiting AIDS Information Network
- Gay Bingo (program of the AIDS Fund) is begun
- Minority AIDS Project of Philadelphia and Vicinity (MAPP) is founded
- Project TEACH (Treatment Education Activists Combating HIV), program of Philadelphia FIGHT, is founded

1997

- AIDS Fund established
- Kiyoshi Kuromiya participates in lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act (CDA), in Reno v. ACLU
- Philadelphia AIDS Housing Needs Assessment published by University of Pennsylvania
- “Sanctuary of Remembrance,” exhibition held at Fleisher Art Memorial and William Way LGBT Community Center
- The Time to Act is Now! A Report on the Direct Care Needs of African Americans Living with HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia published by We the People

1998

- Philadelphia HIV Commission established
- Kiyoshi Kuromiya lead litigant in class action lawsuit calling for the legalization of medical marijuana in Kuromiya v. The United States of America

1999

- “Artists Living with HIV and AIDS,” exhibition at William Way LGBT Community Center (December 3, 1999-January 31, 2000), in memory of Gene Hurley
- Health GAP (Global Access Project) is founded

2001

- First National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

2002

- Sapphire Fund (sponsor of Blue Ball) (through 2012)

2003

- First National Latino AIDS Awareness Day
- Mazzoni Center (formerly Lavender Health, then PCHA), established

2005

- First National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
- Philly AIDS Thrift opens

2006

- First National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
- First National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

2008

- First National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
- First National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day

2011

- “Witness: Artists Reflect on Thirty Years of the AIDS Pandemic,” exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative curated by David Acosta

2012

- FDA approves the use of Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)

2015

- “Fighting Back: Defending the LGBT Mind and Body in Pennsylvania” conference (Historical Society of Pennsylvania and William Way LGBT Community Center)
- Philadelphia AIDS Oral History Project begun (John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives, Philadelphia FIGHT, Drexel University School of Public Health)

2016