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, [...]
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 [...]
If you are a person living with HIV, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and your local health department probably already have your HIV genetic profile. They have been examining it and comparing it to a genetic analysis of other people. People in your community. People you might know. You probably never knew [...]
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 [...]
Alleged domestic terrorist Jake Angeli Humor is subjective, and born out of our desire to process complex emotions. “Comedy is my only weapon,” Mel Brooks once said, a man who has made a comedy industry out of destroying Hitler with sight gags. And then here comes Jake Angeli, the domestic terrorist who violently [...]
Who knew I had this final burst of energy, so wearying have the months been. But there I stood, running on one cup of coffee and without a bite of breakfast, tearing ornaments from the tree and dropping them inartfully into their tupperware tombs. Some were actually glass, as it turns out. I found out [...]
You know this will be an unusual interview, even for Instagram, when the host brings an enormous glass of wine to his lips and toasts his guest. “Let’s get into it,” Peter Staley says, and in the other chat box, Dr. Anthony Fauci laughs. The smile on the face of the Director of the [...]
New York City artist Mark Addison Smith respects your privacy, he really does. He just can’t help himself. If he overhears you say something fascinating, he might need to turn your words into art. Every single day since November of 2008, because of a promise Mark made to himself to be diligently committed to this [...]
(Tim Boyle/Getty) It has been ages since I have heard someone say the word “fag.” God knows the word is regularly weaponized on playgrounds and hurled from passing cars. I suppose that members of Westboro Baptist Church still carry around signs that say “GOD HATES FAGS.” It’s been nice not to give those [...]
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