This is a story about how the staff at the very first HIV/AIDS agency in Los Angeles managed to handle the stress of that time without falling apart - and a random, whimsical twist of fate that followed many years later. My first job in the AIDS arena was at the Los...
If there is anything I love sharing, it’s my opinion. I just love taking surveys. And talking to therapists. And writing blogs about myself. I think you see the pattern here. But my favorite kind of opinion-sharing is when it helps my community in a really tangible...
The students who hang out in the Dr. Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Center of East Carolina University (ECU) are welcome guests in a dynamic, welcoming space. Among them are all manner of gender expression and burgeoning sexualities. You’ll find them lazing on couches or typing...
As I say in my recent interview for Dennis Hensley’s podcast (“Dennis, Anyone?”), it’s hard to talk about this without sounding like a total dick. But really, when has that ever stopped me before? Dennis has a way of entertaining his audience with zippy one-liners...
(I will never explain the early days of AIDS better then this, so I post this essay to commemorate World AIDS Day every year. This essay, written in 2007 for Southern Voice newspaper, won "Outstanding Opinion Piece" from NLGJA, the national LGBTQ journalism...
Charles Sanchez is one busy New Yorker. There’s the writing he does for nearly all of the major HIV outlets, his regular Instagram show featuring community notables, and then his dashes to the gym to contend with the five pounds, give or take, that continue to mock...
My husband Michael and I were sitting on the front steps of our new home in Atlanta. I tell you this because it is one of those moments that gets seared into your consciousness, one of those Where Were You When moments. Michael was explaining where he wanted to plant...
The day has come. Today, My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor is officially released. This book represents - and I know how this sounds - my life’s work. It features essays culled from writing over the course of four decades. It is joyful and dark and...
You know what a fan I am of the annual United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA), produced by NMAC. I’ve been writing about it for years, and providing videos and photo essays for those of you who couldn’t make it or wanted to relive the highlights. If...
It felt presumptuous of me to believe I have much in common with historic Olympian Greg Louganis. His level of fame, his record-shattering sports career, and the worldwide scrutiny he faced when he went public with his HIV status in 1995 are all beyond anything I...
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