In the studio with photographer Darrell Snedeger for POZ Magazine

My husband Michael is the one person who will try to put the brakes on my writing. He will suggest a softer way around a topic, or simply ask, “Are you sure?” in a gentle way that makes his misgivings clear. Michael isn’t trying to censor me. He just worries is all. He knows what a comments section can do to my feelings. 

But there is one story that I haven’t dared to write before. It belongs to  Michael, and it is so sensitive and heartbreaking that I have never asked him if I might write about it.

Until, “Family Portrait,” my essay for the September 2026 issue of POZ Magazine. The piece is about the home we build as we age, and the families, biological and otherwise, we gather to make that home a loving and supportive place.

The cover and inside flap of the September 2026 issue of POZ Magazine.

My older brother Richard “Dick” King moved in with us last year. Together with our regular chosen family, we gather for Sunday dinner at a table filled with love and mutual support. HIV lives in this home, too, and the three of us – my husband, my brother, and myself – have very different stories about how HIV burrowed into our lives. There is sadness and beauty to them all. That includes Michael’s story, which he allowed me to tell. He knows it might help someone.

Oh, and once POZ Magazine decided to make the essay their cover piece, the level of excitement and theatrics between my brother and myself reached epic proportions. Lights! Makeup! Wardrobe! We were beside ourselves. Michael was mortified by all the fuss. 

Read the essay, my friends, for the pleasure of family, and for stories that release us from secrets at last. 

Please be well,

Mark