There are trials by fire, and then there are trials by wildfire. Nursing student Brian Thomas never imagined his on-the-job education would transform into fighting on the very front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, or that he would be forced to take extreme safety precautions each time he arrived home from his internship at a [...]
The flyer was in my mailbox, folded and placed by an unknown neighbor. “NEED CORONAVIRUS HELP?” it read, explaining a local “Self-Quarantine Response Team” was here to support those “with compromised immune systems, those in quarantine – or even those who must work or have kids or feel isolated due to social distancing. Please retain [...]
Alon Reininger Contact Press Images People ask me if our lives today feel like the early years of HIV/AIDS, and I want to scream. There is no comparison. Just stop. No one cared about people dying of AIDS in the early years of the pandemic. The stock market didn’t budge. The President didn’t [...]
With KOMOS, the LGBTQ choir of Bologna, Italy, as I bear witness to the HIV epidemic during their World AIDS Day event on November 30th, 2019. What a distinct pleasure to be in the company of spirited Italians for the week of World AIDS Day in early December. I was honored to be [...]
Local Gay Bar is a super cute comic strip drawn by an artist known as Adam. The strip is usually filled with colorful go-go boys, handsome bartenders and the kind of bulges we usually only find in the work of a generous illustrator. I was surprised, then, that the strip tagged me in a recent [...]
A choral performance during Plenary II of the USCA. (Photo: Luke Hammerman) A picture, and sometimes a video clip, can tell a thousand words. Sometimes they shout those words, or even sing them to you. In these amazing pictures and video clips from the 2019 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA), the activists, advocates, and [...]
Jade Elektra at USCA (Photo: Scott Henrichsen) Toronto drag personality Jade Elektra captivated the Saturday plenary of the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) with her live rendition of “Undetectable,” part of a program devoted entirely to the “Undetectable Equals Untransmittable” (U=U) movement. Jade Elektra is the stage name of Alphonso King, Jr. [...]
Jack Thompson, who just won the 2019 International Mr. Leather (IML), is a lot. And he carries it well. Jack is biracial. He’s gay. He’s transgender. He’s extremely kinky, depending on what scale you use to measure such things. Jack is also utterly transparent about all that he is, to a disarming degree. His speech [...]
This November, the HIV Cruise Retreat (also known as “the Poz Cruise,” although it is not associated with POZ Magazine) will celebrate its 15th Anniversary voyage with a cruise to the Caribbean from Ft Lauderdale. As the host and MC, I can’t wait to join them. Grab a floppy hat and some sunscreen and come [...]
Brace yourselves, Gilbert & Sullivan fans. The Rev. Steve Pieters has a treat for you. Steve is a long-term survivor – and by long, I mean since before 1985, when HIV/AIDS was known as Gay Related Immune Disorder (GRID). Steve has been an advocate of many decades for both HIV causes and for the religious [...]
