Tuller: "We didn’t have access to constant information all the time. You know, the Times wasn’t it covering it basically at all. I remember GMHC in 1983 sold out Madison Square Garden for a benefit and no one had ever done that before and the Times didn’t have a word about it the next day, even though there were — I don’t know how many people can fit in Madison Square Garden — but it was a huge crowd and there was nothing.
The New York Native was actually the only publication covering it, so people were looking every Monday and seeing what was the latest because we didn't have access to all the studies and what was going on among the researchers.
There just wasn’t a way to get information. You really didn’t know in the beginning could you kiss even — forget about fucking — but sort of the other basic touching, it was very, very scary. We just didn’t have good information or much information for the first few years.
It was pretty scary. I remember one time for three days I had a cold and my mom was freaking out and she was calling me constantly, and she was like, 'I’m worried you have AIDS,' and I said I don’t think so it’s just a simple cold. Every time you had a sniffle or a little mark on your skin you were terrified of what it was or was it going to be the start of something — or you wouldn’t see somebody for six months and you would be wondering were they dead or were they in the hospital, you know, what had happened to them."