The musty gym bag stays in my closet, ironically enough. Inside, a crumpled black wig fights for space with a sequined dress, heels, a string of fake pearls and a bag of make-up. After more than twenty years since performing with the Armorettes, this is all that...
My brother Richard smiles a lot. He has an easy laugh. But there was a time, years ago, when he held a poisonous drink in his hands and begged his dying lover not to swallow it. A time when Richard held the concoction they had prepared together and wept. Emil couldn't...
Remembering the moment in March of 1985 when I learned I was HIV positive is difficult. I speak and write about it often, but the actual emotions aren’t easy to access. I know it was horrific because my brain tells me it was, but putting myself back into the mind of...
Stop what you’re doing. An exhilarating new short film produced especially for people living with HIV (PLHIV) is about to grab your heart and make you stand up and cheer. To commemorate World AIDS Day 2018, the Sero Project has released Sing Your Song, a short film...
(In my day, all you needed was a way with words. Now, with video conferencing in the age of COVID, the "suspension of disbelief" in an audio phone session has been ruined. Let me take you back to a simpler time...) The number might be a little low. Over the course of...
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 Bowman, delivered by the...
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 is an original member of the group,...
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 for their lives. Frank Young served as FDA Commissioner during the massive “Seize Control of the FDA”...
(This essay appears in my collection of essays, My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor, available now at online outlets or your local bookstore.) Lesley was my closest friend to become sick in the 1980's, and he fought bravely until his death from AIDS....
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...
To receive notifications on my latest posts.