Sex-Positive HIV Prevention Messages: A Case Study From the Early Years of the Epidemic

Beginning with the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, community-led lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health organizations created prevention materials that affirmed and celebrated gay identity, positing safer sex as a radical method of keeping their communities healthy and liberated past the onset of the virus. Often prioritizing pleasure and featuring erotic imagery, these strengths-based prevention messages implied that community members shared a collective responsibility to care for each other and stop the spread of HIV. Using archival public health materials from the early HIV/AIDS crisis and data collected through oral history interviews with former members of AIDS service organizations, this article explores the roles that gay liberation, community connectedness, and eroticism played in the first decade of HIV prevention messaging. As a case study, this article highlights the works created by GMHC (formally Gay Men's Health Crisis), New York City's premier AIDS service organization and a global leader in these campaigns. Lastly, we note similarities between historic examples of sex-positive prevention messaging and those used by community health organizations and practitioners in the 21st century. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(2):214-221. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308214).