Jade Elektra performs at the Toronto AIDS Vigil on June 18, 2019. (Bob Leahy) When Toronto drag queen Jade Elektra, aka HIV positive activist Alphonso King, Jr., stepped to the stage of the 2019 Toronto AIDS Vigil on Tuesday night, she knew she had a message. It wasn’t simply that she would become [...]
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 [...]
"It's 3:00am and I have a plane to catch in the morning, people." Fainting is weird, especially the third time it happened during one weekend. By that time, I knew enough to grab a safe spot – the front steps of the house, I had been admiring the blooms in the courtyard – [...]
On Thursday, May 16, 2019, the House Oversight Committee conducted a hearing to try and get to the bottom of the Truvada pricing and patent scandal. They were not messing around. The title of the hearing was, “HIV Prevention Drug: Billions in Corporate Profits after Millions in Taxpayer Investments.” The hearing was the culmination of [...]
I’m a Southerner, first and foremost. We love beauty pageants and drag queens. So, the new video series Anal About My Health is right up my (ahem) alley. Produced by MPACT (Global Men’s Health and Human Rights), the cheeky series is based on the actual life experiences of several Bay Area drag personalities. In each [...]
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 [...]
(UPDATE: On April 27, 2019, Ella Johnson's video proceeded to Nationals. She ranked first in the "Senior Individual Documentary" division.) When Ella Johnson made a video documentary about Greg Louganis for her National History Day project, she knew most of her fellow students would be shocked. Ella is a high school freshman in Whitehall, a [...]
Meeting of Trump's team to end HIV on Feb 6, 2019. (Photo: Carl Schmid) Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, so let’s hear it for the Trump USA team behind his master race plan to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. I’ve even included an actual photo of their meeting on January [...]
The GLAAD Media Award nominations are out, and for the fourth consecutive year My Fabulous Disease has been honored with a nomination in the category of Outstanding Blog. While the GLAAD Awards have risen in stature over the years (now comprised of two star-studded ceremonies in New York City and Los Angeles honoring journalism, television, [...]
