by Mark S. King | Aug 7, 2013 | Anita Mann and Acting Gigs, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, Meth and Recovery, My Fabulous Disease
“We’re born naked… and the rest is drag.” — RuPaul When I was nine years old, I took my parents’ album of the Broadway musical “Damn Yankees” and memorized every syllable of Gwen Verdon’s show stopper, “Who’s Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo?” Once I was...
by Mark S. King | Jul 26, 2013 | Family and Friends, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease
(This essay appears in my collection of essays, My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor, available now at online outlets or your local bookstore.) “Did I ever tell you about the night that Emil died?” my brother Richard asked me. It was 1992, and...
by Mark S. King | Jun 24, 2013 | Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
My first “AIDS job” in 1987 was at the first AIDS organization in Los Angeles, LA Shanti, and we provided emotional support to clients with AIDS who were usually in their last weeks of life. The intimacy our trained volunteers experienced with the dying, helping them...
by Mark S. King | Jun 20, 2013 | Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
National HIV Testing Day is next Thursday, June 27, and there is no better time to praise the many HIV negative gay men who are making smart decisions to remain that way. Hooray, HIV negative gay men! Let’s show some love for our negative brothers, who’s with me? Oh,...
by Mark S. King | May 29, 2013 | Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News
Every month or so, a group of people in my area host “poz socials,” a house party for people living with HIV. I found myself at one recently, because I thought it was important to make an appearance since becoming a literary superstar. I was settled into the living...