The number might be a little low. Over the course of my “phone fantasy” career in the 1980s, I spoke to as many as ten customers in a given day, numbering in the many thousands over the years. That’s a lot of heavy breathing. It began when I was a struggling actor in Los Angeles [...]
Mary Bowman performing at the opening of the 20th Anniversary Community Summit. The team behind the 20th Anniversary Community Summit, being held in Atlanta this weekend and sponsored by ViiV Healthcare, knew how to open the event today on exactly the right foot. The first words attendees heard were the poetry of Mary [...]
Benjamin Schatz of The Kinsey Sicks at the 2018 United States Conference on AIDS. The Kinsey Sicks have been at this a long time. The acapella singing group of gay men in drag are celebrating 25 years of performing shows that are equal parts camp comedy and very of-the-moment political humor. Benjamin Schatz [...]
Original ACT UP activists Mark Harrington, Peter Staley, Gregg Gonsalves, and Ann Northrup at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on October 11, 2018. The AIDS activists who regularly stormed the homes, offices and even churches of the powerful beginning in the late 1980’s weren’t the only ones who were scared [...]
Lesley was my closest friend to become sick in the 1980's, and he fought bravely until his death from AIDS. Today, there are little rituals I have to honor his memory, and I often write about him, the first of many friends lost to the epidemic. But there's something I will not do. I will [...]
Very little happens by accident. The most iconic moments in HIV/AIDS activism – the appearance of the early SILENCE=DEATH meme, the footage of AIDS activist Peter Staley being peeled from a building during a protest, the photos of Sen. Jesse Helms’ home wrapped in an enormous condom – were the product of weeks of careful [...]
A moment of reverence, please. In 1975, I went to the movies and discovered everything I needed to know about men, sexual allure, chest hair and the masculine ideal that would fuel my fantasies for the rest of my natural life. The film was Lifeguard and the star was Sam Elliott. You unfortunate folks under 40 may only [...]
It is every bit as absurd as it sounds. The International AIDS Society (IAS) plans to hold their global AIDS2020 conference in San Francisco – an insanely expensive and privileged city located in a country that has become dangerously inhospitable to the very populations the IAS claims to serve. Thank goodness for a growing army [...]
The presenters of the HIV Survivor Monologues: Lillibeth Gonzales, Bryan Jones, Teresa Sullivan, Mark S. King, Rick Guasco, and Esther Ross. “What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?” -- Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Lion in Winter The 2018 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA), the HIV advocacy, education and networking behemoth produced [...]
(This essay, which originally appeared in the April/May issue of Poz Magazine, ignited conversations about "unexpected" AIDS deaths among those in our circle of friends. It is also the basis for a workshop at the upcoming United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) entitled "Are We Shaming Those Who Are Detectable?" The workshop will take place [...]
