Bridging the Generation Gap
I’ve noted and spoken many times over the past few years that there seems to be a generation gap in the way we look at HIV between those over and under 50 years of age. the younger generation never knew first hand of AIDS as an untreatable and almost inevitably fatal disease. They didn’t experience the weekly funerals or hospice and hospital visits with their young friends. The focus today is on prevention, PreP, PeP and DoxyPEP as well as safer sex practices. Any meet through apps that have already asked the hard questions on status and practices.
The older generation are focused more on treatment issues, both for HIV and the results of accelerated aging brought on by background inflammation from low levels of persistent infection. This is in addition to the traditional feelings towards younger folks as rash and inexperienced (we were them once). The younger folks look at older members of the community as “past it” or relics of the past. The reality is that we have a lot to learn from each other.
In 2022 Impulse San Diego, a group of younger LGBTQ+ activists in their 20s and 30s and POZabilities, most of whom are Long Term HIV Survivors in the over 50 age group decided to get together to share stories and provide a way for these groups to spend time together and learn from each other. It began as a dinner where someone from POZabilities joined a group of younger folks at a table at Uptown Tavern. This grew and in 2024 they decided to create the Red Ribbon Gala as way of remembering World AIDS Day. In 2025, this event grw to a much larger and grander event held at Rich’s and hosted by Delta Werk, a nationally known drag personality.
For the 2025 event, Impulse produced a video to have folks from multiple perspectives talk about how they view the work each group does around HIV and how it has affected their lives. This powerful piece is presented here, and I highly recommend taking a few minutes to check it out!
This was presented during a short panel discussion moderated by Delta Werk, who had received letters from some of her fans. She and Jeremy from Impulse and Michael from P{OZabilities addressed the issues her fans raised. OVerall, I hope this served as a way to more tightly bind thee parts of our community, as the perspectives from both younger and older hit many similar themes from their differing perspectives.
