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Monkeypox

'Here we go again': Monkeypox crisis unnerves AIDS activists. Have lessons been learned?

Those who lived through the peak of HIV see a lack of progress in how the stigma of illness is addressed, especially around diseases that can be transmitted through sexual contact.

Portrait of Cady Stanton Cady Stanton
USA TODAY

When 55-year-old Ken Pinkela was first navigating his coming out process as a gay man, the community he emerged into was no stranger to crisis.

In the throes of deadly HIV infections, gay men turned to self-made support groups to ask health care questions, organize protests and combat the isolation and stigma of illness.