Well, it had to happen, sooner or later, if my luck held out. This December, I’m turning 60 freaking years old. And what better way to celebrate during these insulated times than to throw a virtual party to celebrate all long-term survivors who are hitting major life...
New York City artist Mark Addison Smith respects your privacy, he really does. He just can’t help himself. If he overhears you say something fascinating, he might need to turn your words into art. Every single day since November of 2008, because of a promise Mark made...
(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.) The ceiling fan isn’t twirling fast enough to cool our bodies, not after the cardio workout we just had. My...
My brother Richard will tell you stories about his long-time partner, Emil Matzner, with great enthusiasm. Emil’s endearing quirks, their adventures as a couple, things like that. Richard might even provide details about Emil’s death from AIDS thirty years ago, but...
When POZ Magazine began work producing their online series, “POZ at Home,” editor Oriol Gutierrez came to me with a question. Would I like to come up with something, together with my friend and performer Charles Sanchez, that could be an entertaining coda to their...
The judgment of the social media gods, decreed Monday morning, was withering and furious: the buff gay men on the Fire Island beach over the holiday weekend were nothing less than suicide bombers. Virtuous gays everywhere watched the video posts of these gurls gone...
“I’m just a guy with HIV and a keyboard,” I often say. It’s meant as a pithy remark, sure, but it also feels like I’m somehow diminishing my power, and I won’t do that right now. Today, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association (NLGJA) announced the winners...
When a group of entertainers were creating an online fundraiser for the Triangle Club, a Washington, DC, facility providing meeting space for LGBTQ people in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, I knew it was time for Anita Mann to emerge from the duffel bag in...
Circus of Books, the Netflix documentary premiering Wednesday, begins with old home video footage of a large and boisterous family during domestic mealtime chaos. Children are tugging sleeves for attention while parents shoo away the camera. It is a fitting opening...
The first time it happened, a couple of weeks ago, I was waking up from a nap. My eyes were moist. The dream began to fade but the emotion lingered, and so did the central image. Mom was standing in the kitchen, looking at me fondly, saying something reassuring. It...
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