Today is World AIDS Day. Each year, I spend part of the day remembering people I have known who left this world too soon because of that disease.

So: Frank, Mike, Tim, David, Todd, Chet, Jim, Steve, Brian, Rick, Stacy, Phil, Mark, Michael, Jerry, Walt, Charles, Thomas, Mike, Richard, Bob, Mikey, James, Lisa, Todd, Kerry, Glen, and Jack. Some of you I didn’t know for very long. One of you was a relative. One of you was one of my best friends in high school.

I miss you all. It was a privilege to know you.

Rex Huppke has a post on why fighting AIDS is still important: On World AIDS Day, pass this on. ‘Only a third of gay and bisexual men “realize that new infections are on the rise among gay men” and 22 percent think rates are decreasing. The survey also found: “Most gay and bisexual men are not aware of current treatment recommendations for those who are HIV-positive, or of the latest developments in reducing new infections.”‘

And in case you’re operating under notion the AIDS only something that happens to gay men who bring it on themselves: in 2014, around 1,000 adolescents (children aged 15-19) were newly infected with HIV every week in the Asia-Pacific region alone. And globally, the number of children aged 15-19 infected with the virus that causes AIDS is 26 every hour.