I read about it on the cover of the New York Times on the walk to work and Schmader mentioned it in the morning news—the very good news that commonly available antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV also prevent the transmission of the virus to someone else 96 percent of the time. I'm one of those guys whose parents told him he was going to die of AIDS because I'm gay, laying the groundwork for one of the major anxieties in my life. Proving to my parents that they were wrong, that being gay didn't equal dying of AIDS before the age of 30, was a big theme throughout my 20s.

Now that I'm 30, a curious thing has started happening: More and more friends have become HIV positive, including several ex-boyfriends. And before I found my current fella, more and more people I wanted to have sexy times with were HIV positive. A lot of young people just don't think about it the way my parents taught me to. Even before today's news, the stigma was already softening: If it's not going to lead you to your death, there's less to be panicked about. And a couple times I did something I never thought I'd do: I slept with guys who were HIV positive. Took every precaution you can think of, talked about it a lot, but still took the risk because they were good people and I liked them—a risk I would have never taken 10 years ago.

I wonder what happens to the stigma now—now that it's fairly easy to prevent passing on the virus and now that there are more healthy young people living with it than ever. Clearly the stigma that's bedeviled gay people for three decades is on its way out.