History Main / TragicAIDSStory

* In ''Theatre/{{Falsettos}}'', Whizzer spends most of Act Two hospitalized because of this [[spoiler: and dies just before the show finishes]]. [[note]] The two-act musical was originally two separate one-act musicals that were written in 1981 and 1990, and later combined into one show. The contrast between the Act 1 and Act 2 storylines shows the tragic impact of AIDS on the gay community. [[/note]]

* In ''Theatre/{{Falsettos}}'', Whizzer spends most of Act Two hospitalized because of this [[spoiler: and dies just before the show finishes]].

* In ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}'', Andrew Beckett dies of AIDS. However, his lover Miguel lives and, it is specifically noted, has not been infected with AIDS.

* In the 2021 film adaptation of ''Theatre/EverybodysTalkingAboutJamie'', [[MovieBonusSong Hugo's number "This Was Me"]] reflects on his time as a drag queen in London's gay club scene in the late 80s-early 90s, shown to Jamie through a home video montage. After two verses of triumph, partying, and rebellion, Hugo [[MoodWhiplash turns somber]] as, on video, the AIDS epidemic begins to impact his friends and community. Particular significance is given to Freddie Mercury's passing in 1991 as a milestone event that shook the British gay community. The montage ends on Hugo's lover and cameraman in the hospital, where it is implied he died.
-->We were peacocks in exotic herds\\
Wouldn't listen to the warning words\\
That's the problem with such pretty birds\\
They always fly away\\
Even Freddie couldn't stay\\
[...]\\
This was me\\

A story about someone being diagnosed with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which can develop into Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), [[ValuesDissonance formerly known as GRID]] ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay-related_immune_deficiency Gay-related Immune Deficiency]]), and not surviving. In most of the 1980's and 90's, the virus was pretty much a death sentence until antiretroviral medications in the early 2000's became more effective and accessible in keeping the virus under control.

Most storylines featuring AIDS show a long, painful, death. The drama comes from the way that family and friends react to the character's diagnosis: is there an internal battle and then resolve to stay and help in hospice, or do they get sick at the idea of either watching their loved one die or watching ''[[{{Squick}} how]]'' they die[[note]]Kaposi's sarcoma lesions, dementia, extreme weightloss, dying of AIDS is not pretty[[/note]], and run away? Expect a lot of {{angst}}. A lot of characters who end up with this line of treatment are gay and usually men, but that's not always the case. Still, it was a common way to BuryYourGays.

This trope is less common in work set after the 1990's, as [[ScienceMarchesOn advances in medicine]] mean most HIV-positive people in the developed world are able to keep the virus in check. It doesn't become AIDS until the immune cells fall below a certain level, and most people with the virus today are able to live their lives without ever reaching that point. In fact, when you do see characters with HIV in modern-day works, unless it's HistoricalFiction and/or set in a developing country, their plotlines usually have more to do with ''living'' with the virus rather than dying from it. Still, AIDS was a defining specter for an entire community for almost twenty years, and to this day it still affects millions around the world.

* In ''Film/ForrestGump'', Jenny dies of a newly-discovered illness that made her "real tired all the time." It's never stated what the illness is, but given the time period (sometime in TheEighties by the end of the movie), and the wild bohemian lifestyle she led in [[TheSixties '60s]] and [[TheSeventies '70s]] to cope with her painful childhood, it likely was AIDS.

* "Funny Boy", one of the ''Ford County Stories'' by Creator/JohnGrisham, about a Southern gay man who returns to Ford County to die despite his family's disowning of him, and where he finds friendship with a kindly old black lady in his final days.

* ''An Early Frost'' (1985 U.S. television) is about a homosexual man dying of AIDS who tries to reconcile both of these truths about himself with his family. It was and still is considered a landmark for its time as the first of any kind of movie (in its case made for television) about this subject when the disease and its virus were both very new and were both largely confined to male homosexuals and poor intraveneous drug users, especially in America's large mostly liberal coastal cities where so many of these people and reported AIDS cases were from.

* ''Film/{{Jeffery}}'' is about a gay man in mid-90's New York City who had sworn off sex due to the AIDS crisis. He falls in love with an HIV-positive man but is afraid to commit to him due to the possibility that he could die soon. One of the supporting characters is an older mentor figure played by Creator/PatrickStewart, whose ditzy younger partner ends up succumbing to AIDS.

* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Cartman contracts HIV after receiving a blood transfusion during routine tonsil surgery ([[ArtisticLicenseMedicine even though donated blood has been screened for HIV since the early '90s]] but it could speak to the incompetence of South Park doctors for having that happen), but he and his mom have a hard time finding anybody who cares since AIDS is viewed as a "forgotten" illness compared to cancer. He and Kyle seek out Magic Johnson and find out the reason he has been healthy all these years is because he sleeps with all his money, and scientists discover that the cure for AIDS is cash... which means precisely jack to the people of Africa. The world is apathetic to this development because it wasn't the cure for cancer.

* In ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'', several of the main characters have the disease, as was TruthInTelevison for writer Jonathan Larson's real circle of friends.

* In ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'', many characters have the disease and one character, Angel, dies from it. Mimi, a drug addict, has a NearDeathExperience and likely dies for real soon after the play ends, but still makes it to the final curtain. Roger's ex-girlfriend killed herself because she didn't want to live with it shortly before the events of the musical, and Roger himself suffers depression from it. The message implied was that Angel was TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth.

* ''Series/GeneralHospital'''s landmark 1995 storyline in which Stone Cates developed AIDS (he'd caught it from a previous girlfriend) and was devastated to learn that his current girlfriend Robin was now HIV-positive.

->''"Will I lose my dignity?''\\
''Will someone care?''\\
''Will I wake tomorrow,''\\
''from this nightmare?"''
-->-- "Will I?", ''Theatre/{{RENT}}''

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', the "Mother's Rosario" arc is about Yuuki Konno, a girl who was born with [=AIDS=] due to an infected blood transfusion given to her mother before she was born. Her whole family contracted HIV and had passed away, leaving her as the only one left alive (which included losing her [[AngstySurvivingTwin twin sister]]). She goes on to form a guild called the Sleeping Knights with several other kids who are also terminally ill, where they go on to play lots of [=VRMMOs=] together with their numbers dwindling as they succumb to their illnesses. When Yuuki debuts in the story, she and her friends decide to join the most fantastical game they can find ([=ALFheim=] Online) and permanently leave their mark. While there Yuuki made gained fame as the WorldsBestWarrior and recruited Asuna to help them defeat a Boss for a high score. Upon succeeding, Asuna finally manages to discover the truth behind Yuuki and finds her in the clean room of a hospital using a medicuboid VR device 24/7. No longer able to keep it a secret, Yuuki confesses her last wish is to attend a normal school, which Asuna arranges via a portable probe that allows her to see the real world without having to leave the hospital. From then on Asuna dedicates herself to making sure Yuuki can GoOutWithASmile. Eventually, Asuna is informed that Yuuki's condition has deteriorated and logs into ALO one last time. Yuuki passes on her Original-Sword-Skill as a parting gift before collapsing into Asuna's arms, as thousands of players come to visit her and honor her last moments.

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* ''Comicbook/AlphaFlight'' writer Creator/BillMantlo had wanted to have Northstar die of AIDS in a [[VerySpecialEpisode Very Special Issue]], but the idea was vetoed by editor Andy Mangels. Mangels explained his decision by saying he thought killing off Marvel's only gay superhero at the time by giving him AIDS was rife with UnfortunateImplications.

[[folder: Comic Strips]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/TheCure1995'' is about two boys trying to find the cure to AIDS, since one of them, Dexter, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. He dies from complications by the film's end.

* It was not '''intended''' as this by writer-director Creator/DavidCronenberg, but ''Film/TheFly1986'' -- coming as it did at the height of the panic over the disease -- was interpreted as this trope couched in fantastical terms by many critics and commentators: The DoomedProtagonist Seth, not long after he has entered into the first romantic relationship of his life, accidentally and unknowingly merges himself with a housefly via a TeleporterAccident. Now a HalfHumanHybrid his body begins to mutate from the inside out, with one of the first physical signs of the transformation being facial lesions. His entire human body effectively begins to painfully, inexorably rot -- he refers to it as "a bizarre form of cancer" -- and there seems to be no hope of staving it off or curing it; while it becomes clear that he's becoming a new lifeform, it is still going to be the death of him as a person. His faithful lover Veronica is discouraged by her ex-lover Stathis from being in contact with Seth because his condition might be ThePlague, and when she learns she is pregnant by Seth, realizes she might be bringing a mutant into the world. In the DownerEnding, [[spoiler: she must Mercy Kill him when his attempt to cure himself -- at her expense -- goes disastrously wrong]]. Cronenberg's story is actually a metaphor for aging, disease, and death in general, and if it's referring to a more specific illness it's TheTopicOfCancer, but the [=AIDS=] interpretation is still discussed and debated to this day.
* In ''Film/ForrestGump'', Jenny dies of a newly-discovered illness that made her "real tired all the time." It's never stated what the illness is, but given the time period (sometime in TheEighties by the end of the movie), and the wild bohemian lifestyle she led in [[TheSixties 60's]] and [[TheSeventies 70's]] to cope with her painful childhood, it likely was AIDS.

* When ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' was adapted to the big screen in 2005, it was a deliberate choice on the filmmakers' part to portray Angel's death from AIDS in a realistic manner (as opposed to the more abstract "Contact" from the stage musical) so that younger viewers--a generation removed from the AIDS crisis--could see the effects of the disease first-hand.

* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' ruthlessly spoofing ''RENT'' in a ShowWithinAShow (''LEASE'') meant that this trope was inevitable. It's parodied in the form of the musical number "Everyone Has AIDS", in which the protagonist's best friend has died of the disease, while a number of his family members, his dog, and '''[[UpToEleven the Pope]]''' has contracted it.

[[folder: Literature]]

* In ''Literature/{{Imajica}}'', a fantasy novel by British horror author Creator/CliveBarker (published in 1991), a subplot introduces an openly gay male couple who are friends of the Christ-like protagonist Gentle. One of the gay men, Taylor Briggs, dies of AIDS near the beginning of the story, while his partner Clem survives and goes on to help the protagonist. It is mentioned in passing that both men were in a lot of open relationships during the 1970s and "slept around" a lot, back before [=HIV=] became public knowledge; but only Taylor, the party animal, contracted [=HIV=] while his partner was plain lucky and never did, something for which Clem feels SurvivorGuilt. SubvertedTrope in that both men had been lovers for a long time and their love and relationship are depicted in a very positive light. Later on, Taylor returns as a ghost and reunites with Clem. At the end of the story, after the Reconciliation of all five realms, when all the souls of the dead of Earth and the other four Dominions are free to travel on to... somewhere else before he departs, Taylor asks his lover not to forget him but to go on with his life.

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]

* {{Averted}}, of all places, on ''Series/TakalaniSesame'', the South African version of ''Series/SesameStreet.'' [[https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Is_there_a_Muppet_with_HIV/AIDS_on_Sesame_Street%3F Muppet character Kami]] is HIV-positive due to a blood transfusion she received as an infant but is otherwise perfectly healthy. The character was created to teach children that the disease is nothing to be ashamed of, hoping to reduce the stigma in areas of Africa where HIV was at epidemic levels. Unfortunately, the news took some flak from MoralGuardians who wrongly thought the character was intended for the ''American'' version of the show.

[[folder: Music]]
* In a case of this trope mixing with TheCoverChangesTheMeaning, Music/MichaelJackson's 1991 cover of [[Music/{{Dangerous}} "Gone Too Soon"]] is a eulogy to Ryan White, an Indiana teenager who was infamously expelled from school in 1985 after contracting HIV from a faulty Factor VIII blood treatment the year prior; White, who died of complications from AIDS in 1990, had befriended Jackson in the waning years of his life.
* Music/LouReed's [[Music/NewYork1989 "Halloween Parade"]] is about how the disease had claimed so many of the regular participants in the Village's annual parade.

[[folder: Theatre]]

* In ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'', many characters have the disease and one character, Angel, dies from it. Mimi, a drug addict, has a NearDeathExperience and likely dies for real soon after the play ends, but still makes it to the final curtain. Roger's ex-girlfriend killed herself because she didn't want to live with it shortly before the events of the musical, and Roger himself suffers depression from it. The message implied was that Angel was TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth.

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]
* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Cartman contracts HIV after receiving a blood transfusion during routine tonsil surgery ([[ArtisticLicenseMedicine even though donated blood has been screened for HIV since the early 90's]] but it could speak to the incompetence of South Park doctors for having that happen), but he and his mom have a hard time finding anybody who cares since AIDS is viewed as a "forgotten" illness compared to cancer. He and Kyle seek out Magic Johnson and find out the reason he has been healthy all these years is because he sleeps with all his money, and scientists discover that the cure for AIDS is cash... which means precisely jack to the people of Africa. The world is apathetic to this development because it wasn't the cure for cancer.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', the "Mother's Rosario" arc is about Yuuki Konno, a girl who was born with [=AIDS=] due to an infected blood transfusion given to her mother before she was born. Her whole family contracted HIV and had passed away, leaving her as the only one left alive (which included losing her [[AngstySurvivingTwin twin sister]]). She goes on to form a guild called the Sleeping Knights with several other kids who are also terminally ill, where they go on to play lots of [=VRMMOs=] together with their numbers dwindling as they succumb to their illnesses. When Yuuki debuts in the story, she and her friends decide to join the most fantastical game they can find ([=ALFheim=] Online) and permanently leave their mark. While there Yuuki made gained fame as the WorldsBestWarrior and recruited Asuna to help them defeat a Boss for a high score. Upon succeeding, Asuna finally manages to discover the truth behind Yuuki and finds her in the clean room of a hospital using a medicuboid VR device 24/7. No longer able to keep it a secret, Yuuki confesses her last wish is to attend a normal school, which Asuna arranges via a portable probe that allows her to see the real world without having to leave the hospital. From then on Asuna dedicates herself to making sure Yuuki GoesOutWithASmile. Eventually, Asuna is informed that Yuuki's condition has deteriorated and logs into ALO one last time. Yuuki passes on her Original-Sword-Skill as a parting gift before collapsing into Asuna's arms, as thousands of players come to visit her and honor her last moments.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'', Joanie met a gay man, Andy, in the 1970's. Flash forward fifteen years, and Joanie meets him again in his final days before he dies of AIDS.

* ''Film/TheCure1995'' (1995) is about two boys trying to find the cure to AIDS, since one of them, Dexter, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. He dies from complications by the film's end.

* {{Averted}}, of all places, on ''Series/TakalaniSesame'', the South African version of ''Series/SesameStreet.'' [[https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Is_there_a_Muppet_with_HIV/AIDS_on_Sesame_Street%3F Muppet character Kami]] is HIV-positive due to a blood transfusion she received as an infant but is otherwise perfectly healthy. The character was created to teach children that the disease is nothing to be ashamed of, hoping to reduce the stigma in areas of Africa where HIV was at epidemic levels. (Unfortunately, the news took some flak from MoralGuardians who wrongly thought the character was intended for the ''American'' version of the show.)

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}''[='=]s Andy Lippincott first appeared in 1976 as a law school classmate of Joanie Caucus, who pursued him romantically until he confessed that he was gay. In 1989, after a long absence from the comic, Andy was diagnosed with AIDS, and made sporadic appearances over the following year before dying while listening to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" on the then-new CD release of Music/TheBeachBoys' ''Music/PetSounds''. The NAMES Project honoured Andy with a panel on the AIDS quilt (although it was never actually sewn into the quilt and currently hangs in the organisation's Atlanta office).
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/TheCure'' (1995) is about two boys trying to find the cure to AIDS, since one of them, Dexter, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. He dies from complications by the film's end.

* ''The Cure'' (1995) is about two boys trying to find the cure to AIDS, since one of them, Dexter, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. He dies from complications by the film's end.

* ''Longtime Companion'' is about AIDS impacting the lives of several gay men, many of which die because of the disease. The film ends with a heartbreaking ImagineSpot where the three surviving main characters are walking along the beach and are reunited with their lost friends before it cuts back to the three of them alone and wondering if anyone will ever find a cure.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' the inseparable lesbian couple Chantal and Zelda both die from AIDS. Chantal contracted it from an infected kidney transplant, Zelda is implied to have deliberately infected herself so she wouldn't have to be alone.

* In ''Film/ForrestGump'', Jenny dies of a newly-discovered illness that made her "real tired all the time." It's never stated what the illness is, but given the time period (sometime in TheEighties by the end of the movie), and the wild bohemian lifestyle she led in [[TheSixties]] and [[TheSeventies 70's]] to cope with her painful childhood, it likely was AIDS.

Contrast with the unsympathetic KarmicSTD, which involves people contracting [=STDs=] for malicious behavior (or at least what the writer assumes to be malicious).

* ''An Early Frost'' (1985 U.S. television) is about a homosexual man dying of AIDS who tries to reconcile both of these truths about himself with his family. It was and still is considered a landmark for its time as the first of any kind of movie (in its case made for television) about this subject when the disease and its virus were both very new and were both largely confined to male homosexuals and poor intraveneous drug users, especially in America's large mostly liberal especially coastal cities where so many of these people and reported AIDS cases were from.

* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Cartman contracts HIV after receiving a blood transfusion during routine tonsil surgery ([[ArtisticLicenseMedicine even though donated blood has been screened for HIV since the early 90's]] but it could speak to the incompetence of South Park doctors for having that happen), but he and his mom have a hard time finding anybody who cares since AIDS is viewed as a "forgotten" illness compared to cancer. He and Kyle seek out Magic Johnson and find out the reason he has been healthy all these years is because he sleeps with all his money, and scientists discover that the cure for AIDS is cash...which means precisely jack to the people of Africa. The world is apathetic to this development because it wasn't the cure for cancer.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', the "Mother's Rosario" arc is about Yuuki Konno, a girl who was born with [=AIDS=] due to an infected blood transfusion given to her mother before she was born. Her whole family contracted HIV and had passed away, leaving her as the only one left alive (which included losing her [[AngstySurvivingTwin twin sister]]). She goes on to form a guild called the Sleeping Knights with several other kids who are also terminally ill, where they go on to play lots of [=VRMMOs=] together with their numbers dwindling as they succumb to their illnesses. When Yuuki debuts in the story, she and her friends decide to join the most fantastical game they can find ([=ALFheim=] Online) and permanently leave their mark. While there Yuuki made gained fame as the WorldsBestWarrior and recruited Asuna to help them defeat a Boss for a high score. Upon succeeding, Asuna finally manages to discover the truth behind Yuuki and finds her in the clean room of a hospital using a medicuboid VR device 24/7. No longer able to keep it a secret, Yuuki confesses her last wish is to attend a normal school, which Asuna arranges via a portable probe that allows her to see the real world without having to leave the hospital. Eventually, Asuna is informed that Yuuki's condition has deteriorated and logs into ALO one last time. Yuuki passes on her Original-Sword-Skill as a parting gift before collapsing into Asuna's arms, as thousands of players come to visit her and honor her last moments.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1550817177070390700
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

** John Byrne planned to bring Northstar out and have him die of AIDS in issue 50 of the first series and had laid the groundwork, dropping hints as to Northstar's homosexuality and giving him a mysterious disease. At the last minute, this was changed, with Loki telling Northstar that he was half Asgardian elf and his illness was an allergy to Earth. Northstar moved to Asgard briefly and when he returned he was shown bored out of his mind and kicking himself for believing such a ridiculous story told by the god of lies.

* In ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}'', Andrew Beckett dies of AIDS. However, his lover Miguel lives and, it is specifically noted, has not been infected with AIDS.

* ''Longtime Companion'' is about AIDS impacting the lives of several gay men, many of which die because of the disease. The film ends with a heartbreaking ImagineSpot where the three surviving main characters are walking along the beach and are reunited with their lost friends before it cuts back to the three of them alone and wondering if anyone will ever find a cure.

* ''The Cure'' (1995) is about two boys trying to find the cure to AIDS, since one of them, Dexter, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. He dies from complications by the film's end.

* The plot of ''Film/TheLivingEnd'' centers around two gay men who, after discovering they have AIDS and not long left to live, embark on a nihilistic and murderous road trip. Neither character definitively dies or survives the film, but the film is a rumination on the interconnectedness of life, sex, and death for queer men in a world with AIDS.

* The last quarter or so of ''Film/BohemianRhapsody'' inevitably brings up Freddie Mercury's AIDS diagnosis and plays it for existential drama, positing that it motivated him to get back to working with the rest of Music/{{Queen}} and to perform at the 1985 Live Aid concert. ([[ArtisticLicenseHistory In reality, however, he didn't get an AIDS diagnosis until 1987.]])

* In ''Film/ForrestGump'', Jenny dies of a newly-discovered illness that made her "real tired all the time." It's never stated what the illness is, but given the time period (sometime in TheEighties by the end of the movie), and the wild bohemian lifestyle she led in [[TheSixties]] and [[TheSeventies 70's]] to cope with her painful childhood, it likely was AIDS.

* It was not '''intended''' as this by writer-director Creator/DavidCronenberg, but ''Film/TheFly1986'' -- coming as it did at the height of the panic over the disease -- was interpreted as this trope couched in fantastical terms by many critics and commentators: The DoomedProtagonist Seth, not long after he has entered into the first romantic relationship of his life, accidentally and unknowingly merges himself with a housefly via a TeleporterAccident. Now a HalfHumanHybrid his body begins to mutate from the inside out, with one of the first physical signs of the transformation being facial lesions. His entire human body effectively begins to painfully, inexorably rot -- he refers to it as "a bizarre form of cancer" -- and there seems to be no hope of staving it off or curing it; while it becomes clear that he's becoming a new lifeform, it is still going to be the death of him as a person. His faithful lover Veronica is discouraged by her ex-lover Stathis from being in contact with Seth because his condition might be ThePlague, and when she learns she is pregnant by Seth, realizes she might be bringing a mutant into the world. In the DownerEnding, [[spoiler: she must Mercy Kill him when his attempt to cure himself -- at her expense -- goes disastrously wrong]]. Cronenberg's story is actually a metaphor for aging, disease, and death in general, and if it's referring to a more specific illness it's TheTopicOfCancer, but the [=AIDS=] interpretation is still discussed and debated to this day.
* When ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' was adapted to the big screen in 2005, it was a deliberate choice on the filmmakers' part to portray Angel's death from AIDS in a realistic manner (as opposed to the more abstract "Contact" from the stage musical) so that younger viewers--a generation removed from the AIDS crisis--could see the effects of the disease first-hand.

* In ''Literature/{{Imajica}}'', a fantasy novel by British horror author Creator/CliveBarker (published in 1991), a subplot introduces an openly gay male couple who are friends of the Christ-like protagonist Gentle. One of the gay men, Taylor Briggs, dies of AIDS near the beginning of the story, while his partner Clem survives and goes on to help the protagonist. It is mentioned in passing that both men were in a lot of open relationships during the 1970s and "slept around" a lot, back before [=HIV=] became public knowledge; but only Taylor, the party animal, contracted [=HIV=] while his partner was plain lucky and never did, something for which Clem feels SurvivorGuilt. SubvertedTrope in that both men had been lovers for a long time and their love and relationship are depicted in a very positive light. Later on, Taylor returns as a ghost and reunites with Clem. At the end of the story, after the Reconciliation of all five realms, when all the souls of the dead of Earth and the other four Dominions are free to travel on to... somewhere else before he departs, Taylor asks his lover not to forget him but to go on with his life.

* ''Literature/TheLineOfBeauty'' is set as the AIDS crisis emerges, and the disease figures heavily into the characters' arcs. Leo, a boyfriend of Nick's, dies from the disease before the third act, and Wani, who is gay and closeted, [[spoiler: ends the novel wasting away because of it and will likely die soon. Nick muses that his own HIV test will likely come up positive as well]].

* "Funny Boy", one of the ''Ford County Stories'' by Creator/JohnGrisham, about a Southern gay man who returns to Ford County to die despite his family's disowning of him, and where he finds friendship with a kindly old black lady in his final days.

* ''Series/WhyWomenKill'': Karl contracts AIDS in 1984 when there was huge stigma toward sufferers (especially gay men like him) and a death sentence for most due to limited treatments. We see him visit a man dying from AIDS who he knows too. [[spoiler: He decides to kill himself rather than suffer until the end. Later Simone euthanizes him at his request.]]

* In ''Theatre/{{Falsettos}}'', Whizzer spends most of Act Two hospitalized because of this [[spoiler: and dies just before the show finishes]].
* ''Jerker'' is a short play about two men with AIDS who connect over a phone sex line. Their relationship quickly moves beyond the erotic. Then one day the phone goes unanswered; soon the line is disconnected.

A story about someone being diagnosed with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which can develop into Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), [[ValuesDissonance formerly known as GRID]] ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay-related_immune_deficiency Gay-related Immune Deficiency]]), and not surviving. In most of the 1980's and first half of the 1990's, the virus was pretty much a death sentence until antiretroviral medications became more effective and accessible in keep the virus under control longer than before such medicines were available.

Most storylines featuring AIDS show a long, painful, death. The drama comes from the way that family and friends react to the character's diagnosis: is there an internal battle and then resolve to stay and help in hospice, or do they get sick at the idea of either watching them die or watching ''[[{{Squick}} how]]'' they die, and run away? Expect a lot of {{angst}}. A lot of characters who end up with this line of treatment are gay and usually men, but that's not always the case. Still, it was a common way to BuryYourGays.

This trope is less common in works especially after the 1990's, as [[ScienceMarchesOn advances in medicine]] mean most HIV-positive people in the developed world are able to keep the virus in check. It doesn't become AIDS until the immune cells fall below a certain level, and most people with the virus today are able to live their lives without ever reaching that point. In fact, when you do see characters with HIV in modern-day works, unless it's HistoricalFiction and/or set in a developing country, their plotlines usually have more to do with ''living'' with the virus rather than dying from it. Still, AIDS was a defining spectre for an entire community for almost twenty years, and to this day it still affects millions around the world.

A story about someone being diagnosed with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which can develop into Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), [[ValuesDissonance formerly known as GRID]] ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay-related_immune_deficiency Gay-related Immune Deficiency]]), and not surviving. In most of the 1980's and first half of the 1990's, the virus was pretty much a death sentence until antiretroviral medications became more effective and accessible in keep the virus under control.

A story about someone being diagnosed with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which can develop into Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), [[ValuesDissonance formerly known as GRID]] ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay-related_immune_deficiency Gay-related Immune Deficiency]]), and not surviving. In the 80's and early half of the 90's, the virus was pretty much a death sentence until antiretroviral medications became more effective and accessible.

This trope is less common in works set after the 1990's, as [[ScienceMarchesOn advances in medicine]] mean most HIV-positive people in the developed world are able to keep the virus in check. It doesn't become AIDS until the immune cells fall below a certain level, and most people with the virus today are able to live their lives without ever reaching that point. In fact, when you do see characters with HIV in modern-day works, unless it's HistoricalFiction and/or set in a developing country, their plotlines usually have more to do with ''living'' with the virus rather than dying from it. Still, AIDS was a defining spectre for an entire community for almost twenty years, and to this day it still affects millions around the world.

This trope is less common in works set after the 90's, as [[ScienceMarchesOn advances in medicine]] mean most HIV-positive people in the developed world are able to keep the virus in check. It doesn't become AIDS until the immune cells fall below a certain level, and most people with the virus today are able to live their lives without ever reaching that point. In fact, when you do see characters with HIV in modern-day works, unless it's HistoricalFiction and/or set in a developing country, their plotlines usually have more to do with ''living'' with the virus rather than dying from it. Still, AIDS was a defining spectre for an entire community for almost twenty years, and to this day it still affects millions around the world.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'', Joanie met a gay man, Andy, in the seventies. Flash forward fifteen years, and Joanie meets him again in his final days before he dies of AIDS.

* ''An Early Frost'' is about a gay man dying of AIDS who attempts to reconcile with his family.

* ''The Cure (1995)'' is about two boys trying to find the cure to AIDS, since one of them, Dexter, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. He dies from complications by the film's end.

* In ''Film/ForrestGump'', Jenny dies of a newly-discovered illness that made her "real tired all the time." It's never stated what the illness is, but given the time period (sometime in TheEighties by the end of the movie), and the wild bohemian lifestyle she led in TheSixties and [[TheSeventies 70's]] to cope with her painful childhood, it likely was AIDS.