by Mark S. King | Nov 25, 2024 | Family and Friends, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
The casket of my friend Jesse Peel, an elderly longtime HIV survivor who died in 2023, was crafted of gorgeous wood—oak, I think. As I stood admiring it in the alcove of the church prior to his memorial, a powerful sense of déjà vu brought suppressed emotions rushing... by Mark S. King | Sep 26, 2024 | Film Review, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News
Matt Nadel has quite a connection with the viatical settlement industry – the cottage industry created to purchase life insurance policies from largely gay men dying of AIDS. Based on their life expectancy, policies were purchased and a settlement offered the... by Mark S. King | May 29, 2024 | Family and Friends, Film Review, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News
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... by Mark S. King | Feb 27, 2024 | Family and Friends, Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, Meth and Recovery, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy, Trump
When an audience member gives a dollar bill to a drag performer in Oklahoma City, they bow ever so slightly in a kind of reverent curtsy when handing it over. Here at the County Line nightclub on a recent Saturday night, I watch it happen again and again. Maybe... by Mark S. King | Feb 12, 2024 | Gay Life, Living with HIV/AIDS, My Fabulous Disease, News, Prevention and Policy
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...