When the short video “27000” premiered at London Pride in 1996, featuring a live performance from Jimmy Somerville, the world of HIV was a much different place. The new HIV drug "cocktail" that would finally curb the epidemic was only in its first weeks of use, with no promises it would eventually succeed. 27,000 people [...]
A financial crisis that will curtail hundreds of millions of dollars to HIV clinics and the community-based organizations that run them is coming on January 1, 2022. It’s only weeks away. Meanwhile, our national advocacy groups are essentially frozen into inaction, caught like deer in the proverbial headlights. Spoiler alert: pharma giant Gilead Sciences [...]
In less than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more Americans than have died from HIV/AIDS since the AIDS epidemic emerged 40 years ago. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that more than 700,00 Americans have been lost to HIV/AIDS as of 2019, the last full year for which [...]
Cover art detail from Never Silent by Peter Staley Activist Peter Staley's much-anticipated new memoir, Never Silent, opens with almost unbearable nail-biting suspense, sweeping us into the behind-the-scenes machinations of an ACT UP takeover of the New York Stock Exchange at opening bell. It's legitimately dangerous, timed to the second, and absolutely thrilling, [...]
Some past submissions to A Day with HIV One of the sunnier, and always inspiring, HIV anti-stigma campaigns in our communmity will hit social media this Wednesday, September 22, when A Day with HIV takes place, and you’re invited. People living with HIV (and our wonderful allies) are invited to snap a photo [...]
Jessica Chastain and Rev. Steve Pieters at the premiere of The Eyes of Tammy Faye (AFP via Getty Images) When Rev. Steve Pieters attended the red carpet premiere of the upcoming film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, he never imagined he was about to meet his biggest fan -- the film’s star, Jessica [...]
Steven Reigns, author of A Quilt for David You probably don’t know his name, but you might have heard the name of his most famous “victim.” In 1990, dentist David J. Acer was accused by his patient, Kimberly Bergalis, of infecting her with HIV. It was the start of an onslaught of accusations [...]
Udo Kier in "Swan Song." (Amazon) “Where will we dance?” The elderly gay man asks the young queer bartender the question with all sincereity, confused about where gay men will be able to congregate, much less dance, once the small town’s last remaining gay dance club is closed. The criminally young bartender only [...]
Ultimately, the organizers of the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) ran out of viable options for hosting the largest annual HIV conference in the country as an in-person event. For weeks, as the delta variant of COVID surged and the prospects for any large in-person gatherings this fall diminished, officials at NMAC, which [...]
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 [...]
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