Two broadcasts this week took a look at the words we use as people living with HIV - and the words others use to describe us. Those words can be hurtful or weaponized, even among ourselves. As a participant in both conversations, the question boils down to, “how...
The Black women that have shaped and inspired my HIV activism -- and my personal growth -- weren’t present in my life before my HIV diagnosis in 1985. I’m trying hard to even place a significant Black woman in my (very caucasian) upbringing and early college years,...
If there was any question that Charles Sanchez is the Mad Hatter of the HIV community, his latest project should remove all doubt. “The More You Can Ho,” a completely looney set of new HIV public service announcements, is the brainchild of Sanchez and his SkippingBoyz...
Rush Limbaugh once mocked AIDS deaths by playing disco music while gleefully reporting who died. Now that Limbaugh himself is dead, here is my first (and last) episode of "Rush Limbaugh is Dead," in which I name just a few of the HIV activists who have outlived him....
The promise of a new, ambitious television series about “what happened” to gay men in the 1980s is tremendously exciting for long-term HIV/AIDS survivors like myself, starved as we are for representation in the media and for another chronicle of our history to be...
The Counter Narrative Project (CNP) continued their boundary-busting content creation by hosting a recent virtual event honoring the legacy of Mario Cooper. Cooper, who died in 2015, has been described as the "Nexus Between AIDS Activists and Black Leaders." Mario...
Karl Schmid, the plucky television broadcaster who revealed he is living with HIV in 2018, has been putting his notoriety and adorable Auusie accent to excellent use since his courageous announcement. Schmid has created Plus Life, a series of social media posts and...
Have you heard the one about the gay porn dude who tried to produce a Palm Springs event for this October that he called the “POZ Pride Fest” to raise money for HIV groups and it would include a “Chaser’s JAMboree!” sex party where HIV negative guys could meet their...
Deirdre Johnson’s poem of grief and empowerment, below, begins a series of guest posts on My Fabulous Disease from Black women living with HIV. It’s my salute to Positive Women’s Network USA’s (PWN) upcoming “Celebrate and Honor Black Women in the HIV Movement Day” on...
Humor is subjective, and born out of our desire to process complex emotions. “Comedy is my only weapon,” Mel Brooks once said, a man who has made a comedy industry out of destroying Hitler with sight gags. And then here comes Jake Angeli, the domestic terrorist who...
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