It was a time of fear and panic. A mysterious illness was spreading, and young, gay men were rapidly falling sick.

Felicity Young, aged 24 when the HIV epidemic emerged in Queensland in the 1980s, describes a state gripped by hysteria.

“It terrified the shit out of people,” recalls Young, now 66.

In the kitchen of her apartment in the Brisbane suburb of Newstead, Young traces the early years of HIV.

A stack of archival material – Condoman comics, AIDS campaigns from the ’80s, policy manuscripts she wrote while living overseas – sit within reach.

The sunlit morning retrospective has been prompted by Young’s recent decision to retire from HIV…

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