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An HIV-positive diagnosis sometimes forced difficult discussions about sexual behaviors, including the new potential consequences of cheating on a partner. Instead of shaming its audience, campaigns like this encouraged people to take precautions to protect themselves, their partners, and their families. A group of concerned mental health and medical professionals in San Francisco formed the AIDS Health Project (AHP) to support a growing community of people who needed emotional and psychological support as well as medical treatment. The AHP provided crucial, groundbreaking support in getting people tested: the organization offered the first large-scale testing programs along with resources to help people manage either a positive or negative result. This campaign used frank, simply put descriptions of the multiple costs of not knowing one’s HIV status, stressing the financial, personal, and family consequences of remaining ignorant.

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