My speech at NLGJA’s closing reception where I was inducted into their LGBTQ Journalist Hall of Fame, addressing HIV/AIDS activism, trans erasure, LGBTQ unity, and the fascist regime that is “picking the flesh from our democracy every single day.”
Here is the full text of that speech, with the video below as well.
Thank you NLGJA for this, I really mean it. This is really an acknowledgement of the power of storytelling of those of us living with HIV. The collective voice of HIV positive people who have dealt with this for more than forty years are powerful, they’re inspiring, and they’re a roadmap to how we deal with adversity. I’m really glad that you’re acknowledging, through me, all of us living with HIV/AIDS who have been on the front lines for so long and have been writing and sharing our stories. So thank you.
I had a milestone this year. This past March 15, I have been living with HIV and kicking ass for 40 years. That means that I have HIV antibodies older than most of you.
So, I’m going to take my privilege and tell you this. I just tell the story. That’s what I do. And this is the story I tell.
We lived in a graveyard in the 1980s. Where our friends died. We were truly forlorn. And every institution, every social institution, every religious institution, every government institution turned their back on us.That’s what happened to us. That’s the story I tell.
But it’s not a tragedy. It’s not a tragedy anymore. It is today a story of triumph and the human spirit.
Because this is what happened. This is what we did.
We had friends who were hungry and we loaded the groceries into the trunk of the car and we got them to him and that became food delivery services. We had friends who needed to talk about it so they met in our living room and started talking and that became support groups. And we fought to get organizations and governmental funding and went to the NIH and said “help us!” Do something! Research!
That’s what we did. We accomplished that. And the reason I’m telling you this is because we built and we ministered, in the true sense of the word. And we loved.
And that history lives in you. It lives in you. We are your elders. We are your ancestors. We are your lineage. And you are the courageous family that comes after. I know that you should take pride in that.
You shouldn’t look at me and feel sorry for me. You should feel pride in what your elders and ancestors accomplished. Because that lives in your DNA. I know that you can accomplish anything, even now, because I have seen it before with my own eyes.
But you will do it better. And the reason is because we did not finish the job. Why? Because a certain point came when gay white men, we got what we came for. We got the drugs. We got the medications that worked. We got the organizations and we built the big fancy AIDS services organizations and then we left the playing field. We left.
And we left behind our allies, our fellow warriors, Black and brown people we left on the playing field. Black trans women we left behind to fend for themselves. It’s shameful.
And that’s the story I’m going to tell.
I just got back from Washington, DC. I flew here this morning from the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS and there are armed militia in the streets. And I had conversations with public health people who are working in state public health departments, local public health departments, who are getting death threats for the work that they do. We held a rally on the steps of the Capitol, just a rally, where we expected hundreds of people, there were thousands of people at the conference, they expected hundreds. They got less than fifty. Because people are afraid for their own safety when exercising their first amendment rights.
I’m going to tell that story, too.
I am afraid. But I am mostly afraid for our own community and for what it is doing to us and the way we treat one another.
I am tired of hearing conversations about whether you’re going to move to Spain or Mexico. Like it’s some sort of escape hatch. That’s leaving the playing field again and I am not fucking going anywhere!
I’m tired of using the factually correct words “fascist regime” and having friends kind of roll their eyes like maybe I’m taking it too far, maybe I’m making too much of it. I’m not. This administration is a buzzard picking at the flesh of our democracy every single day. And it is a fascist regime.
I’m mostly tired of having conversations with well-meaning, intelligent queer people wondering to themselves, just wondering, whether or not maybe the “T” in LGBT is where all the trouble started. You’ve heard it. I know you have. Like lopping off letters is going to somehow keep the wolves at bay a little bit longer.
This life we lead is about addition, not subtraction. And don’t let them chop us up into little pieces hoping that we’ll turn against one another. Don’t do it. Don’t give in to it.
Because this too shall pass, and when it does, some of us are going to have some explaining to do. Don’t let it be you.
Those are the stories I want to tell. These are the stories I keep on telling. And I am asking you, I am begging you, keep writing those stories. Put that story up front, it is the only story. Write that story, and write it again, and then talk it. Talk to your friends, talk to your family. Live it, walk it, talk it, do it.
Your ancestors are watching. Please. Be courageous.
One more thing. My husband, Michael. Hi. They’re giving me an award for using my words. And my love for you, I have no words. There’s too many of them.
I love you! Thank you for this!
(Delivered at the NLGJA Conference closing reception and awards ceremony in Atlanta on September 6, 2025.)
