The 'AIDS Quilt' that showed the scale of suffering. In the early 1980s, Doctors in San Francisco began noticing healthy young people were contracting a strange and deadly disease. At the time little was known about HIV or AIDS. No one knew how to treat it, or how to stop it.
It had a devastating effect on the city, and the vibrant LGBT community was particularly badly hit. Thousands of gay men died.
In 1985, LGBT activist Cleve Jones came up with a creative idea to help show how many lives had been lost.
Witness History: The stories of our times told by the people who were there. 28 Mar 2020