Within a few years of Coming On Down, there would be enormous differences between that video boy and myself, shaped by life events that would throw a wet blanket on my aw shucks optimism. I’ve tried to recover from them, to regain the hopeful, expectant glimmer found in the eyes of the kid from “The Price is Right,” with mixed success.
In Praise of HIV Negative Gay Men!
In the anxious world of sexuality and HIV risk, we could all use a little love and support. So, in the spirit of everyone getting the attention they deserve, allow me a moment to throw a party for HIV negative gay men. HIV negative gay men hear a lot about what they...
The 2010 HRC Dinner (in under four minutes!)
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest GLBT political advocacy group, held it's annual black tie dinner in Washington, DC on October 9, 2010, and I was there to sit through all the speeches on your behalf. HRC has done commendable work for gay rights,...
Fighting Back Hard Against Bullying
"You've got to fight back. You've got to fight back hard." -- Abby, the young vampire of the new film Let Me In In the melancholy new vampire thriller Let Me In, the most unnerving scenes for me had nothing to do with fangs or bloodletting. They were the scenes of...
My Forbidden Love for Gay Monsters
Zombies are deeply misunderstood, in my mind. They're outcasts, picked on, and are the perfect stand-ins for things we fear or don't understand. Things like death. Or gay people. Or disease. Or getting a disease from gay people that could lead to death. Work with me...
Condoms & Bareback Sex at Gay Summit
While "gay men's health" as a concept -- aging, mental health, relationships, physical fitness -- tried mightily to get some respect at the 2010 Gay Men's Health Summit in Ft Lauderdale, HIV continued to dominate much of the workshops and discussions. The evergreen...
Dueling Videos: Oprah in 1987 and AIDS activism in 2010
In 1987, I was a 26 year old living in Los Angeles and trying to face the horror of having tested positive with HIV. Television blasted daily reports of the death toll, the suicides of people with HIV, and even the deterioration and death of Rock Hudson. But nothing...
HIV Stigma (and my lover Jack) at USCA
At the United States Conference on AIDS in Orlando, I've learned that HIV stigma is alive and well. Providers report that client will travel to distant counties to get services just so they aren't recognized -- and that's if they bother getting tested in the first...
Tracking the elusive HIV “Bug Chasers”
"I hate any suggestion that AIDS is a gift. A Mercedes is a gift." -- Mark S. King, "A Place Like This" I must admit my belief that bug-chasers are an extremely elusive and exotic form of pervert that aren't as much seen as talked about. For the mercifully uninformed,...
Sex while HIV Positive: The New Criminals
As you and I relax here surfing the internet, an HIV positive man is sitting in a Texas prison, serving a 35 year sentence for spitting on someone. In Michigan, an HIV positive man was charged for not disclosing his status under a bio-terrorism statute. And just weeks...
