Among the many online condolences to the family of Chad Noel ("Jim and Bonnie, so sorry to hear of the loss of your son...") are glimpses of the boy this young man was, while growing up in the ironic hometown of Laramie, Wyoming (where Matthew Shepard lived and...
Tracking the elusive “bug chasers” of HIV
"I (have) always hated any suggestion that AIDS was a gift. A Mercedes is a gift." -- Mark S. King, "A Place Like This," pg. 180 I must admit my belief that bug-chasers are an extremely elusive and exotic form of pervert that aren't as much seen as talked about. For...
Win a car, bed a star in “a place like this…”
When I was nineteen years old, I vacationed to Los Angeles and won a car on "The Price is Right." And so begins my first book, "A Place Like This," about my years in 1980's Los Angeles. The book has been on my mind lately because of my work preparing a new one. Since...
We’re AIDS walking “post-crisis.”
While attending the South Florida AIDS Walk yesterday I was struck with the obvious. These walks just aren't what they used to be, and neither is the HIV/AIDS crisis. In fact, "crisis" is hardly a word to describe it anymore. This isn't simply about the fact that, for...
In My Humble, Closeted Opinion
This is the story of how one AIDS activist sold his soul for sixty bucks. Being queer can be expensive -- you never know when you may need to dash to The Gap for some damn thing. Or renew Vanity Fair. So I was happy to get on a list for a marketing company that would...
Medicare to pay for facial wasting treatments
In what may be seen as a controversial decision by some, the U.S. Medicare program will begin paying for facial filler treatments for HIV patients who have experienced the loss of fat in their face (facial lipoatrophy). The catch: those patients must not only be...
Scholarships exhausted for HIV Cruise Retreat
Well, they went faster than plasma TV sets on Black Friday. The capacity for financial assistance for fare on the HIV Cruise Retreat has been exceeded, and it's nice to know that the organizers will be able to assist some folks with expenses. Remember, the cruise...
Health Care Reform saves HIV-positive lives!
After decades of inaction, a year of work, unparalleled Republican obstruction and no small amount of leadership by President Obama, health care reform soon will be law. This bill will save lives. Millions who don't have health coverage now will. And insurance...
I’m MC’ing the HIV Cruise this October!
Warning: Very excited aging poz queen here. I'm so thrilled I'm leaking t-cells. I have the pleasure to announce that the coordinators of the annual HIV Cruise Retreat have invited me to join the voyage this year as M.C. I am humbled, flattered, and just plain damn...
Guess who’s headed to Vienna!
TheBody.com, the great HIV resource site that premieres each episode of the "My Fabulous Disease" videos, has invited me to join them in Vienna, Austria this summer for AIDS 2010, the international AIDS conference. I'll be blogging live from the event and also...
