by Mark S. King | Feb 19, 2025 | Family and Friends, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy, Trump
The phrase sat there on my Facebook feed, staring back at me like an accusation. “If you aren’t resisting, you are assisting,” the post read. I felt flush with self-conscious guilt. It wasn’t a familiar feeling, not after nearly forty years of speaking up and...
by Mark S. King | Jan 10, 2025 | Family and Friends, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
When Jeremiah Johnson was perusing the Gilead Sciences website last November, as one does when tracking one of the most insidious assaults in history against people living with HIV, an item he found buried deep in Gilead’s pulldown menus literally took his breath...
by Mark S. King | Nov 25, 2024 | Family and Friends, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
The casket of my friend Jesse Peel, an elderly longtime HIV survivor who died in 2023, was crafted of gorgeous wood—oak, I think. As I stood admiring it in the alcove of the church prior to his memorial, a powerful sense of déjà vu brought suppressed emotions rushing...
by Mark S. King | Oct 14, 2024 | Book Review, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, Meth and Recovery, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
At Out Front Theater on August 8, 2024, seven Atlanta community members performed essays from my new collection, My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor. It was the last stop of a national tour that included events in Palm Springs, Ft. Lauderdale,...
by Mark S. King | Oct 7, 2024 | Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
This is a story about GLAAD’s 2024 State of HIV Stigma Report and why its botched release generated widespread condemnation from advocates throughout the HIV arena. It is also the story of how community leaders who keep their eye on the ball can collectively work...