Cagliari, Italy, December 2, 1991. Immunologist Fernando Aiuti stood in front of a group of journalists and kissed Rosaria Lardino, a 25-year-old woman living with HIV, on the mouth.
At that time, the WHO had still not completely ruled out transmission through saliva, and millions of HIV-positive people faced brutal rejection simply for existing. Aiuti and Iardino had planned it together: they knew that no scientific article would do as much to stop such fear, so they decided to prove it with their own bodies, in front of the cameras.
The photo made the covers in Japan, Russia, and Italy and became one of the most powerful symbols against AIDS discrimination. Aiuti died in 2019 at the age of 83, and Lardino said goodbye to him on Twitter, calling him “my kiss man”.