Attendees at the "OUT WITH IT" pre-conference of AIDS2018 in Amsterdam. One of the great joys of my HIV/AIDS writing and video blogging over the years has been capturing the sights, sounds, and incredible people of the International AIDS Society’s (IAS) biannual conference. I’ve spent sleepless nights in hotel rooms everywhere from Vienna [...]
Mark S. King and co-producer Theodore Tsipiras The International AIDS Conference will be held in Amsterdam on July 23-27, and My Fabulous Disease – that’s me! -- will once again be there to share daily video reports from the event. I have attended and provided video coverage for each of the bi-yearly conferences [...]
It’s no surprise to me that the two causes I am most passionate about, HIV and addiction -- the two issues that drive my activism -- are both things that my older brother, Richard “Dick” King, cared about first. He showed me the way. May 16th marked the third annual “National Honor Our LGBT Elders [...]
Torres, second from left, with St Vincent's staff in 1992. The article appeared in New York Magazine in 2008. I remember it quite distinctly. Titled “Another AIDS Casualty” and written by David France, the profile of once-famous New York AIDS physician Dr. Ramon “Gabriel” Torres was a heart-wrenching read. The story outlined a [...]
Jon, left, celebrates another victory. My friend Jon is a gracious winner, as well he should be. He has had a lot of practice. During the months we have been playing racquetball together, I have never won a game. Not one. I hate Jon so much. I like to play games I can [...]
Mark S. King gets some vape love from advocate Damon L. Jacobs. My years of smoking are much more likely to kill me than HIV. I suppose that’s progress, and testament to how far we have come in my 32 years living with the virus. So why am I so defensive about my [...]
The good people at Thrive Alabama has been working their butts off for years, covering twelve counties in northern Alabama with five free clinics and vans that travel country roads you would never find on your GPS just to fetch clients for appointments and get them home again. But don’t ever say that the hardworking [...]
When my guard is down, it comes to me. It flashes across my mind, an uninvited assault, sometimes when I am beginning to drift off to sleep or, more cruelly, when my mind is enjoying a pleasant reverie. It is then that the dark memory rushes in like a raid. He lived in a house [...]
Thirty-two years ago this month, I received a phone call from a nurse at my doctor’s office telling me that I had tested HIV positive. We didn’t schedule a follow-up visit or begin a treatment plan, because there wasn’t a single medication approved for the virus, which had only been identified the previous year. The [...]
When I was nineteen years old, I vacationed to Los Angeles and won a car on "The Price is Right." In the following years, if I really liked you and wanted to impress you -- or give you a small, wacky glimpse of my life -- then at some juncture I'd say "So hey, have [...]
