The TRUE denialists are the gay movement and its major players who have become indifferent to the epidemic raging outside their narrow vision. Their own lives have been saved by drugs, at least for now. So move on.

The Human Rights Campaign has led the way. Where was AIDS at its Millennium March last April? Search its website (www.hrc.org) for AIDS and you get "No documents match that query." NGLTF and PFLAG aren't much better. Ten, even five, years ago, AIDS was a focus at every meeting; now it is shrugged off by a movement that views its own galloping consumerism and assimilation as signs of equality.

Many gay white men are still getting infected, and many more black and Latino ones. Not to mention the global struggle -- AIDS is the leading cause of death in much of the world. But we are increasingly guilty of what we were once victims of -- the "murderous neglect" of the powerful. We once made miracles happen to beat back AIDS. Why do we stop short now, when the situation is worse than ever?

Despite our desire to put a 20-year tragedy behind us, we must show compassion -- now when it is needed, now when it hurts. Otherwise, who have we become but our own worst nightmare? What a betrayal of our friends and comrades who lost their lives in the struggle.

-- Ron MacInnis is the director the Global AIDS Program in Washington, D.C.