October

8 – The first AIDS candlelight vigil/rally is held by the AIDS/KS Foundation in San Francisco. (1983)

14 – In a 94–2 vote, the Senate adopts the Helms Amendment, which requires federally financed educational materials about AIDS to stress sexual abstinence and forbids any material that “promotes” homosexuality or drug use. (1987)

15 – National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day

19 – HIV/AIDS activist, blogger, author and speaker Mark S. King releases A Place Like This: A Memoir. (2007)

A Place Like This Mark S. King

November

5 – Pop music stars, including Ciara, Kelly Rowland, Common, Romeo and Lyfe Jennings, quiz young adults about sexual health and safer sex practices during the one-hour HIV/AIDS special What U Know Bout That? Rap-It-Up Sex Quiz on BET. (2007)

6 – Philip Reed—an openly gay Black man with HIV who was elected to the New York City Council in 1997—dies. He appeared on the March 1998 cover of POZ. (2008)

24 – Jack Mackenroth, of Project Runway fame, and the global LGBTQ social app Moovz launch the HIV Shower Selfie Challenge using the hashtag #weareALLclean to raise awareness of HIV and funds for Housing Works. (2014)

smart phone jack mackenroth

(Phone) istock; (Mackenroth) Instagram/@JackMackenroth