House of Hiv

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The first Dutch AIDS patients caused a stir in late 1982. A report with the same text in De Waarheid (1983-12-03) as the Nederlands Dagblad (1983-12-06) show which medical and moral problems the lesbian and gay community had to face.

The development of the epidemic was bleak. It stuck among minority groups to which the moral majority was opposed. It was obvious that medical care would be heavily burdened. At the same time, there was discrimination against affected groups. It became all hands on deck. The Netherlands learned from the U.S., but here too problems quickly arose.

Around 1990 the epidemic began to grow rapidly. There was no vaccine. Mediacations were often toxic. An experiment with a combination of three drugs started in 1995 and proved successfoul a year later. For most people with Hiv, the ‘dead sentence’ from the disease disappeared. Since then, medications have become so good that they even prevent the transmission of the virus. Yet there remains much shame.

Get a small impression of the exhibition House of Hiv which was on the IHLIA Plaza in Aug/Sept 2022.

Timeline with important events surrounding the history of forty years of HIV and AIDS in the Netherlands

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1982 (1)

2016

1982 (2)

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1982 (2)

1982 (1)

1983

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1983

First AIDS folder

1982 (2)

1984

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1984

Buddy care started

1983

1986

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1986

First Safe Sex festival
and first AIDS Memorial Day

1984

1987

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1987

First national education and condom campaign

1986

1988

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1988

First World AIDS Day

1987

1989

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1989

Hans-Paul Verhoef is imprisoned in the US because he has AIDS

1988

1990 (1)

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1990 (1)

Seropositive Ball (photographs of poster and banner above the entrance to Paradiso)

1989

1990 (2)

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1990 (2)

Women and Aids as main theme on World Aids Day 1990 and Section Positive Women HIV Vereniging established

1990 (1)

1991

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1991

Hiv Vereniging Nederland is moving
to PC Hooftstraat

1990 (2)

1992

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1992

AIDS Conference is being moved
to Amsterdam

1991

1995

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1995

Trial of HIV treatment with three
medicines at the same time (triple therapy)

1992

1996

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1996

Triple therapy effective. Minister Els Borst
provides financing

1995

1997

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1997

Oprichting Together We Live

1996

1999

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1999

Founding Stop Aids Now

1997

2000

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2000

Establishment of Service Point of the Hiv Vereniging

1999

2001

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2001

New prevention campaigns targeted
on the LGBTI community

2000

2012

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2012

First issue of Hello Gorgeous:
Shameless about HIV

2001

2014

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2014

Joep Lange and fellow researchers
die in the MH17 disaster

2012

2016

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2016

Opening HIV/AIDS Monument

2014

1982 (1)

New ways of processing grief and remembering friends emerged. Name flags (the size of a small grave) were lovingly assembled. Eight flags together form a Quilt.

On AIDS Memorial Day (around Pentecoast) there is an annual commemoration. This used to include the launching of white balloons. The red ribbon drew the attention of the general public (photo Tanne de Goei).

But there are also other forms, more private: a vase in the hallway with a dried flower for each lost friend. A series of artworks with which buddy Peter Bartels painted off the anger.

Since 2016 there is a new way via Instagram #theaidsmemorial. Mostly stories from the past, but unfortunately also quite recent stories.

Fighting

De zoektocht naar medicatie om het doodsvonnis bij een The search for medication to end the death penalty of the HIV infection took a long time. For most People with HIV, there was also a long struggle against being marginalised by heterosexual society. The role that the gay movement had in starting a HIV community on its own was therefore logical. From 1990 onwards, the Positive Women section of the Hiv Vereniging provided a different sound and different interests than the gay voice.

The broadening only really took shape after the introduction of the combination therapy. The Hiv Association became/is the platform for a cloud of groups that use their identiy to stand stronger together in living with HIV.

photo: collage from Instagram #theaidsmemorial

Fighting

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