Matt Nadel has quite a connection with the viatical settlement industry - the cottage industry created to purchase life insurance policies from largely gay men dying of AIDS. Based on their life expectancy, policies were purchased and a settlement offered the client,...
This is a story about how the staff at the very first HIV/AIDS agency in Los Angeles managed to handle the stress of that time without falling apart - and a random, whimsical twist of fate that followed many years later. My first job in the AIDS arena was at the Los...
You should know the end of the story first, because the ending demands to be heard. It took place last month in the largest event space at The LGBT Center in New York City, where hundreds of people were excitedly greeting each other, grazing at the food table or...
The day has come. Today, My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor is officially released. This book represents - and I know how this sounds - my life’s work. It features essays culled from writing over the course of four decades. It is joyful and dark and...
Writer and comedian Michael Henry has become a sly critic of gay culture and sexual politics, regularly tackling issues such as body image, masculinity, and every aspect of queer desire you might imagine. His sharp wit and social insight have endeared him to nearly...
There are so many governmental and community programs that refer to “ending the HIV epidemic” that you might be excused for rolling your eyes a little when you hear about one. What do they even mean? Ending the HIV epidemic how, you might wonder. And for whom? Those...
Among the glittering nominees of Hollywood films, television and music honored at the annual GLAAD Awards, one category celebrates grassroots queer media like no other. The “Outstanding Blog” award honors ongoing blogs, typically written and curated by a single...
When the short video “27000” premiered at London Pride in 1996, featuring a live performance from Jimmy Somerville, the world of HIV was a much different place. The new HIV drug "cocktail" that would finally curb the epidemic was only in its first weeks of use, with...
When Rev. Steve Pieters attended the red carpet premiere of the upcoming film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, he never imagined he was about to meet his biggest fan -- the film’s star, Jessica Chastain. In 1985, Pieters appeared on televangalist Tammy Faye Bakker’s...
“Where will we dance?” The elderly gay man asks the young queer bartender the question with all sincereity, confused about where gay men will be able to congregate, much less dance, once the small town’s last remaining gay dance club is closed. The criminally young...
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