By Anna Lucente Sterling New York City PUBLISHED 6:30 PM ET Jun. 15, 2021 PUBLISHED 6:30 PM EDT Jun. 15, 2021 SHARE It’s been 36 years since Eric Sawyer was told by his doctor that he had two years left to live. It was 1985, and his boyfriend Scott was dying of AIDS. The trauma of that time is why his doctor initially withheld that life sentence when Sawyer first found out he was HIV-positive years earlier. “The doctor said, ‘I didn't want to let you know that Scott literally had less than a year to live at that point, but you have probably less than two years to live so you should get your affairs in order,'” said Sawyer.