Chandler Bearden's smile is creeping through the phone during our call. I've just suggested that his winning the impressively sexy title of Mr. Atlanta Eagle 2010 might be a boon to his sex life, but he's laughing it off. "Just because I won a title doesn't mean I'll...
Has my AIDS crisis ended?
A few weeks ago I spent the day at the Florida AIDS Walk, and it was striking how different it was from the Walks I attended years ago. Smiling faces, racial and ethnic diversity, baby strollers, and most of all a feeling of happiness and celebration. That's progress,...
Choose one: always “safer sex” or always tell your HIV status?
Once again, the HIV disclosure debate has heated up among prevention advocates, the media, and front-line sexually active men and women just trying to get laid. It all boils down to this: should sharing your status be morally mandatory, or does having protected sex...
Did the Bareback Time Machine kill Chad Noel?
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...
“The Clap” is becoming The Applause!
After living with HIV infection for nearly 30 years, the thought of acquiring an STD like gonorrhea makes me feel... nostalgic. But my flip attitude may be put to the test by a recent report at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh,...
My interview on serosorting for HIV Plus Magazine
This month HIV Plus Magazine ran an article on serosorting, or the process in which people limit their sexual partners to those with the same HIV status (I'm quoted as part of the piece). As you might imagine, it's a controversial practice and hardly perfect. But what...
The Real Poz Guys of Atlanta
Social support means a lot when you're living with HIV/AIDS, especially from friends who tease you, insult you, feed you, and share their secrets with you. Once again, pals Craig, James, Eric and Antron came for an evening of laughs, chocolate and soul bearing (they...
Serosorting and Gay Sex Clubs
By far the most viewed episode of the series so far (was it the guided tour of a sex club? Hmm. I wonder.). Since serosorting (limiting ones sex partners to those with the same HIV status) has been written and discussed a lot lately, I interviewed Bill from...
Mark’s R-Rated Sex Pig Blog
Barebacking, glory holes, casual sex and disclosing my HIV status are all discussed in this funny, provocative episode from January of 2009. Aging and negotiating sex as a gay man is as funny as it is frustrating, if you ask me. If you're new here, you'll wonder why...
