First things first. I don’t believe the national HIV agency, NMAC, acted thoughtlessly toward people living with AIDS – only one of the accusations leveled against them -- when NMAC decided to change the name of their annual conference from “the United States...
Something struck me, maybe halfway through the uproarious screening of the new, second season of the musical comedy web series, Merce. I surveyed the packed room at the LGBT Center in New York City, the audience laughing, clapping, cheering on the characters and...
What a distinct pleasure to be in the company of spirited Italians for the week of World AIDS Day in early December. I was honored to be the guest of Plus Onlus, their national coalition of gay men living with HIV and their allies, and on Saturday, November 30th, they...
The Positive Women’s Network (USA) has always stood up for gender expression and equality, and that is especially true of their unyielding support of trans women, a population heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS. Today, for Trans Day of Remembrance, PWN has released a...
The fact that sex worker Jacen Zhu is a fiercely intelligent and community-minded young man shouldn’t really come as a surprise, despite our habit of keeping porn stars in their porny boxes. The advent of online opportunities like "Just for Fans" pages on Twitter,...
When the photo appeared on social media only hours after the Atlanta AIDS Walk last week, it produced gasps and tears. There, standing pensively among the panels of the NAMES Project Quilt display, is a gloriously dressed man in white platforms heels. An enormous...
“I’m sorry to objectify you,” I said sheepishly to bodybuilder Raif Derrazi. For our videotaped interview, Raif was naked down to the nether regions of his sculpted abs, at my request. “Not at all!” Raif happily responded. “There’s a time and place for everything, and...
Local Gay Bar is a super cute comic strip drawn by an artist known as Adam. The strip is usually filled with colorful go-go boys, handsome bartenders and the kind of bulges we usually only find in the work of a generous illustrator. I was surprised, then, that the...
This is the story of the insidious influence of Big Pharma on our HIV/AIDS leadership and policy-making, and how an experienced activist like me was tricked into delivering messages for the HIV pharma giant Gilead Sciences. I was bamboozled because I didn’t do my...
Okay, I will admit I had no idea who Gareth Thomas was, beyond hearing on Saturday that a major rugby star in the United Kingdom had disclosed his HIV status. But anyone living with HIV could relate to the heart-breaking video he released announcing he is HIV...
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