And when you’re gone, who remembers your name? Who keeps your flame? Who tells your story? Who tells your story? Who tells your story? — From the musical Hamilton In March of 1985, I stood in the kitchen of my West Hollywood condo. The phone was attached to the wall, and I can remember how [...]
Michael Gottlieb, MD (photo: Elizabeth Nathane) This June 5, 2021 marks 40 years since the famous report in a CDC publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), in which Dr. Michael Gottlieb outlined the troublesome cases of five gay men dealing with pneumonia and skin cancers. It is widely considered the “start” of scientific [...]
Last night I sat with my husband and a member of our pod (is there a more 2020 expression than that?) as we watched a perfectly sweet and entertaining movie that gets pretty sad at the end, and throughout its last twenty minutes I cried like my mother had just died. I cried the first [...]
Sir Elton John has always shown great generosity towards younger artists, especially those with whom he shares a sense of theatrical DNA. At the Brit Awards last night, the legendary performer and lifelong HIV/AIDS activist proved his taste for talent is still incredibly well-placed, owning the stage with Olly Alexander (Years and Years) for what [...]
Tyshawn Gooden and Greg Piccirilli in Jerker. (Tyler Ogburn Photography) (Readers: Please join me when I host a virtual screening of this play on April 28th, including a talk-back with the cast and crew. Details below.) When the monumentally important play Jerker begins screening online as the latest virtual offering of Out Front [...]
Kiara St James, Ben Plumley, Jose Romero, and Mark S. King Two broadcasts this week took a look at the words we use as people living with HIV - and the words others use to describe us. Those words can be hurtful or weaponized, even among ourselves. As a participant in both conversations, [...]
Included on my long list of Black women in the HIV movement I admire are writer Deirdre Johnson, entrepreneur and activist Hydeia Broadbent, social media influencer Davina Conner, and editor and ally (and proud mom) Olivia G. Ford. The Black women that have shaped and inspired my HIV activism -- and my personal [...]
If there was any question that Charles Sanchez is the Mad Hatter of the HIV community, his latest project should remove all doubt. “The More You Can Ho,” a completely looney set of new HIV public service announcements, is the brainchild of Sanchez and his SkippingBoyz producing partner, Tyne Firmin. The pair is responsible for [...]
Rush Limbaugh once mocked AIDS deaths by playing disco music while gleefully reporting who died. Now that Limbaugh himself is dead, here is my first (and last) episode of "Rush Limbaugh is Dead," in which I name just a few of the HIV activists who have outlived him. Rush Limbaugh apologized years later for mocking [...]
The promise of a new, ambitious television series about “what happened” to gay men in the 1980s is tremendously exciting for long-term HIV/AIDS survivors like myself, starved as we are for representation in the media and for another chronicle of our history to be told. It is often a promise unfulfilled. Already, the British limited [...]
