In July, the world marked the 40th anniversary of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We don't know when the epidemic started, but that summer, we heard the first reports of a mysterious illness afflicting the American Gay community. That mysterious illness was soon recognized as HIV/AIDS.

At The History Project, we aim to document, preserve, and share all of Boston’s LGBTQ history: the good, the bad, the tragic, and the transcendent. Over the last 40 years, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been all of these things. We present the following video as a remembrance and celebration of those we’ve lost, their loved ones, and those impacted today by HIV/AIDS. To help support our work, such as our extensive digital collection of AIDS obituaries, please visit: http://historyproject.org/support