The AIDS epidemic has perhaps had a larger impact on queer life than any other single event or phenomenon in the last quarter-century. Though a politicized issue for gay and bisexual men moreso than lesbians and trans people, those very men have often acted as the face of queer activism. For this reason, much of the coverage of queer-centric activism of the eighties and early nineties (though not the activism itself; the invisibility of lesbian and trans activism is a major point of contention for many historians) centered the AIDS crisis.

Of course, even in the shadow of AIDS, queer life marched on. Cultural feminism began to find support in lesbian communities, demand for information spurred the creation of switchboards, and queer folks continued going to college. In the second subsection we present an overview of queer life in the 1980s, beyond AIDS.