You’re never too old to learn how terribly ignorant you are. When I first heard about plans for a World AIDS Museum in Fort Lauderdale, FL, some years ago, I might have rolled my eyes a little bit. Who’s going to that? I wondered. Those of us who were there aren’t...
There are so many governmental and community programs that refer to “ending the HIV epidemic” that you might be excused for rolling your eyes a little when you hear about one. What do they even mean? Ending the HIV epidemic how, you might wonder. And for whom? Those...
You must know this, because it matters. Because it has already changed your life, no matter who you are, and you may not even realize it. It was 1983. Just a year prior, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) became the fearful nameplate for the murderer of gay...
The HIV Cruise Retreat, which has brought tropical fun and a sense of community to people living with HIV, their families and allies for the last twenty years, will sail to the Caribbean this fall. The fact the cruise is happening after the passing of organizer Paul...
There must have been something in the water at those New York City ACT UP meetings back in the day. There had to be. The band of ferocious, cheeky AIDS activists (immortalized in the Oscar-nominated documentary, How to Survive a Plague) has produced scientists,...
Any LGBTQ writer who has endured the gauntlet of getting their book to a reading audience knows what a frustrating, fitfully satisfying process it can be. God only knows how many queer masterworks are trapped in laptops because the writer has no idea how to navigate...
We all know the saying about freedom of speech. It doesn’t mean you have the right to yell “fire!” in a crowded movie theater. That kind of speech can risk lives. But what if the theater is already burning on all sides, and someone tries to convince people not...
(I tested HIV positive 38 years ago today. My 2017 POZ Magazine essay still rings true.) The young woman sitting across from me on the bus is in her mid-20s. She turns to her companion and her voice grows serious. “I know someone who died,” she says in the hushed tone...
(As it appeared Tuesday, February 28, 2023, in The Atlanta Journal Constitution.) As a high school junior in 1976, I was selected to play former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter in our mock presidential election. It taught me a lesson in politics – and the performative...
The issue of HIV criminalization used to intimidate me, because I didn’t understand State laws, much less how to change them. Thank God I got a scholarship to the first HIV Is Not A Crime Training Academy (HINAC) in 2014, because it opened my eyes and introduced me to...
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