To say that Pose is an unlikely hit is an understatement. It’s a goddamn miracle, and while we’re at it, Pose is also a gift to LGBTQ history, to the visibility of marginalized people, and to HIV awareness in the here and now. It challenged me, then, when the most recent episode, “Blow” (7/30/2019), left [...]
Pose on FX is nothing less than astounding to me. So much could have gone wrong, with the era, the themes, the characters, and – the aspect of the show closest to my heart and my critical eye -- the disease that looms over it all. Trans writers and advocates are better qualified to remark, [...]
A die-in on 5th Avenue during 2019 Pride Weekend in New York City. (photo: Leandro Justin) Our friend Larry Kramer, the godfather of the AIDS activism movement, hasn’t lost his edge. That should surprise no one. In his speech at the Queer Liberation March on Sunday, however, Larry was nearly wistful, reminiscing on [...]
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 [...]
