Vote or I Might Die (And Win a Messenger Bag!)
April 30, 2010
Gwenn loves her fashion blogs, and came across a contest for H&M’s Fashion Against AIDS launch party in NYC, where one lucky band gets to perform. I am calling on you- reader, bleeder, friend, enemy, relative, former lover- whomever is reading this for whatever reason…
It literally takes less than 15 seconds. H&M isn’t even gathering any personal information like your email address. You rate my video (10 stars!) and click vote. That’s it. H&M selects one of the Top 10 vote-getters to perform at their Fashion Against AIDS event in New York City on May 19th.
Right now I’m in the Top 20, which isn’t nearly good enough.
Voting ends on May 7 at midnight. Winner announced May 8.
What’s in it for you? A cool Synthetic Division Symptom of Life messenger bag, pictured below on me and above on Gwenn who wisely insisted on their existence. We will randomly draw one winner’s name from anyone who 1) votes and then 2) leaves a comment on this blog entry. Wait, what if you vote for me in this contest, your name is drawn for the prize and you already pre-ordered a bag? Well then, I will kiss you full on the lips for your prize. (tongue optional)
I really think we could crack the Top 10. And I really think I have a shot if we can break that threshold in the next seven days… please help even if you don’t want a cool messenger bag or a sloppy kiss from me. If I don’t make the Top 10 I am going on the two week tour riding this mini-bike. Without a helmet. While drinking an iced mocha. Oh, and with my bandmate riding on the back. If you don’t vote, my life could very well be on the line.
Those are the stakes! Go vote- let’s do this: HIV awareness + synthpop + messenger bag =
Positively Yours,
Shawn
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One Condoms, One Cover of So Alive
April 30, 2010
I know I’ve been pushing my music a lot recently- and I appreciate your patience if you’re not a music person or not a my-music person. I’ll get back to regular life bloggin’ again soon but, right now, this is kind of what’s happening in my life and I’m kind of diggin’ it.
One Condoms are one of my co-sponsors for the upcoming tour, along with Poz and MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, and they are on board to provide free condoms for the entire tour! (Or as long as supplies last.) I included the One/Synthetic Division condoms in the pre-orders for Symptom of Life so everyone who isn’t in the touring cities can get one. Fortunately if you just want regular One Condoms, they are now as close as your nearest Target.
Why the One love?
Well, because I’ve tried to find condom sponsors before for my work with Gwenn, and in doing so I found out- no matter how many folks I speak to- I am a tough sell because I have HIV. Condom companies- I’ve been told by friends in the know- don’t want to be associated with “the infected”, whether it’s HIV or any of the other lifelong viruses that some of us carry. To be fair, I was hitting some condom companies up for a lot of money, but mainly because I wanted to be able to speak at every school, event and barbecue that I’m invited to.
One are not only supportive of my tour, they are also supportive of the idea behind it: to tie the music with HIV awareness and the need to promote safer sex practices.
So swing on over to One’s site. Give them some love. You can also check out their Synthetic Division music page, where you can hear my cover of Love and Rockets’ “So Alive”- a song that I thought appropriate for commemorating 20 years of surviving a dying wish. If you need a refresher on the song before hearing my take, check out the ultra-cool Love & Rockets music video below by the legends themselves.
I hope everyone is feeling So Alive and has a great weekend ahead.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
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I Emailed the President, You Should Too
April 29, 2010
People in the United States are dying on AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP). We need to urge the president to continue to fund these, and he must hear from you to make it happen. If you have a moment, follow one of these two easy steps (thanks to Dab “the AIDS Bear” Garner for posting this on Facebook!).
1. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 and leave the following
message:
“My name is _________ and I am calling today to urge President Obama to
provide $126 million in emergency funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance
Programs. These programs provide life-saving medications to
HIV-positive individuals who have no other access to care. However,
nearly 1,000 HIV-positive individuals are on waiting lists to receive
their medications. Please take action to address the crisis.”
2. Or email AIDSpolicy@who.eop.gov the same to the Office of National AIDS Policy.
I bookended my email with some personal information, beginning with: “My name is Shawn Decker, and I am a happily married, 34 year old man living with HIV. I’m alive because, after living with HIV since age 11, I was able to have access to HIV drugs when I needed them in 1999. In most other countries, I would have died from AIDS-related causes at the age of 23.” After including the info above, I ended with: “It saddens me that we have lost people on these waiting lists. Those waiting today need your help, Mr. President, and they need it now.”
If you’ve been the beneficiary of receiving timely HIV treatment that helped you, definitely mention that. Even if you haven’t, those on the waiting lists will be extremely grateful if you take action today.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
PS… it’s important that they hear from us by Friday! Also check out the ADAP Advocacy Association
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… A Week Plan?
April 28, 2010
So now that pre-order prescriptions have dried up, I turn my wide eyes to the road ahead. I have been mapping out the route, and the cool thing is that I have a bed to sleep in every night: a major plus! I’m cashing in some of me and Gwenn’s Hilton Honors points, accrued from our HIV/AIDS educational travels, for “free” stays on two nights.
When staying with friends, I have to be diligent about getting at least 5 hours of sleep a day. The tour is about two weeks, with a couple days near the end that open up once I get back to Virginia. I’ve done crazy travel before for World AIDS Week, like flying to California in the morning, speaking, and then taking the red-eye back to the East Coast two hours after the talk, so I can go for a few days on less without dealing with anything other than exhaustion.
All in all I’m happy with my tour plan.
But, yesterday, I had a thought: What about my HIV meds?
As has been well-documented on this blog as well as in Poz magazine, I do a week-on/week-off regimen with my medication. It’s worked great for me… so I was bummed to see that my week on starts the day I leave town. Taking meds isn’t hard for me, because I take them with a little snack right before bed and then I’m out. Usually at the same time every night. The tour schedule is a little zanier than my usual travels… so my plan is to be on meds as usual this week, and just continue to take them next week as well. Basically I’ll be on for two weeks straight, then resume the usual regimen. This just shifts my week off to begin when I hit the road, which will prevent the rather high likelihood of missing a dose or two due to the erratic schedule ahead.
It’s funny, in jotting down everything (shirts, buttons, messenger bags, cds, etc) I have to prepare for this odyssey, my HIV meds were the last thing to be considered on the list. In a tour that is all about survival, I kind of blocked out one of the key components of my survival: those little, HIV-ass (and sometimes my own) kicking pills of mine. I give ‘em a hard time, but I do love the life they’ve afforded me.
Which will continue on long after those tour dates have ended.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
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Filling Prescriptions
April 25, 2010
The number of pre-orders for my CD and the other fun items has really surprised me- thanks to all who have ordered. It really means a lot to have my very limited expectations far surpassed, and my already very high excitement levels about the tour rising higher still.
It’s completely cheesy, but it’s so cool to think about the two weeks of touring ahead and feel the same butterflies I felt when I was in a van with my best friend, my aunt and my parents on the way to see Depeche Mode in concert for the first time, forcing them all to listen to the cassette tapes over and over again as I clutched my Personal Jesus album, which would soon be signed.
When I think about clutching the steering and driving at 3 am to get to the next city on this upcoming tour, I get that same feeling: just unabashed, boyish joy. I’m making a mix CD of my favorite Depeche Mode songs, which I’ll be torturing my bandmate with on the drives. (Liking the Mode is a requirement to be associated with Synthetic Division.)
Having been an active patient most of my life, I gotta say that filling these pre-orders for the new CD, which has included writing these fake prescriptions, has been fun too. It’s nice to be on the other end of that doctor/patient dynamic, even if the only thing that I am prescribing are a few buttons and perhaps a laugh. Oh- if your doctor ever enters the room wearing a Miami Vice blazer, be very scared. (The items will ship on May 8 unless there’s an unforeseen delay in manufacturing.)
The entire weekend was chock full of awesomeness, including the incredible Masquerade on the Mall Gala for the Whitman-Walker Clinic, of which I’ll be writing more about in a couple of days when all the cool pictures are available. Till then, I hope to fill more prescriptions, and if you live in the Philadelphia area, make sure that Saturday, May 15th (late afternoon, 5-ish) stays open…
Details to come!
Positively Yours,
Dr. Shawn T. Decker
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Pre-Order My New CD- Get A “Prescription”
April 23, 2010
*UPDATE- 5-5-10: The CDs arrived today! Am mailing out first pre-orders at midnight tonight, next batch will go out on Saturday, then I leave for tour on Sunday. Will be taking last few prescription bottles with me, so if you want a personalized Symptom prescription bottle, there are only 7 left!… Wish me luck on the road! -SD
I know I spent a lot of my political capital last week with my big Decker’s Daily push for iced mochas on World Hemophilia Day, but now I have to turn my attention back to music and the upcoming tour in May to support my new CD, A Symptom of Life.
As of May 9, I hit the road to play shows spanning from Providence to Ithaca and back to Brooklyn, before a couple of homecoming shows in Lynchburg and Charlottesville. To get full tour details, make sure you are reading this info on my Poz blog. Before I leave, I’d love nothing more than to pop some of these CDs in the mail for some of you who aren’t able to make it out to see the live shows. For those of you who support this dream come true- which is just simply being here to even do music at all- I wanted do something special, and with Gwenn’s help, I’ve come up with some fun items.
Between now, Friday April 23 and Friday, May 8, I’m taking pre-orders with a few different options, all of which include shipping costs…
Option 1: “The Safety Dance” ($15): a hand-numbered copy of the CD, A Symptom of Life (8 songs). Only 300 are being pressed, and I’m numbering the first 50 25 copies only. Included in this option is a One Condoms/Synthetic Division case that contains two condoms.
Option 2: “Just What the Patient Ordered” ($25): hand-numbered CD, the condom case and a limited edition (only 20 will be made), personalized prescription bottle containing 3 Synthetic Division buttons.
Option 3: “Bag Me, Baby” ($50): hand-numbered CD, the condom case, the prescription bottle/buttons and a Synthetic Division messenger bag containing an embroidered rendering of the cover art (by Barton Benes) of A Symptom of Life.
To order any of these options, PayPal the amount, your name and shipping address to: shawn@mypetvirus.com Unfortunately I am not set up to take orders any other way at this time, and I apologize for that!
Positively Yours,
Shawn Decker
President & CEO of Synthetic Division, Inc.
a for-losses venture L
seriously, I’m losing my ass on this, please buy something.
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Whitman-Walker Clinic’s Gala is Friday
April 21, 2010
The Whitman-Walker Clinic’s 17th Annual Spring Gala is this Friday in DC, and it’s called the Masquerade on the Mall. Tickets and more information are available here.
At the event Poz magazine and Miss America, Caressa Cameron are being honored with super-positoid extraordinaire Jack Mackenroth hosting the event… if you can swing it, you should bring to the Masquerade!
I’m pretty excited about Friday night. Gwenn and I will be joining the festivities, helping to raise some money for one of the most positoid-friendly facilities in the world. And yes, that’s me behind the devil mask- I plan to get my money’s worth out of it by spooking friends, using it for playing cards and for a Halloween and Thanksgiving costumes.
So, if you can, come out and support the fabulous Whitman-Walker Clinic, who are doing their best to stem the tide in Washington D.C., an area that needs all the help it can get in treating people with HIV and preventing new infections. If you can help out and you don’t, well… you may be getting a visit in the middle of the night from…
Positively Yours,
El Diablood
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The Need For Hospital Visitation Rights
April 20, 2010
Poz recently posted an article online, Obama Extends Hospital Visitation Rights to Same-Sex Couples, that is worth checking out. It’s about how the prez is extending a helping hand to a community that is not yet able to legally wed, which can cause problems in the current system should one partner fall ill.
This issue came to my awareness right after I disclosed my status at age 20, a time when I started reading Poz magazine religiously, which replaced my longtime magazine of choice, Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Back then I was a huge fan of The Real World, particularly the infamous season that introduced us all to Pedro Zamora- whom we watched fall in love with fellow positoid, Sean Sasser.
Before I spoke out about being positive, I had yet to meet an openly gay, young couple. Pedro and Sean were my first gay friends- and I desperately wanted to be their pal, having connected to them through the TV screen like any fawning TV addict. But their relationship really resonated; I hoped that I would find an accepting partner just as they had. That I could be as open about my status as each of them had been with the other.
Pedro and Sean gave me hope.
A couple of years after Pedro passed, I opened up about my status and my life changed forever. I always wondered what happened to Sean Sasser, and Poz magazine delivered the answer in my mailbox with a cover story on Sasser’s life post-Pedro. He was smiling on the cover, he looked healthy- I was thrilled. I kicked back in my bedroom at my parents house, and was horrified to read what Sean went through as Pedro got sick after the the Real World had finished filming their season.
Sean wasn’t allowed to see Pedro. The family closed rank and kept him out. And they could. The commitment ceremony that was so genuine it made me tear up had as much legal weight as a Bachelor passing of the rose. In the eyes of the law, there was nothing Sean could do to see his partner, who was too ill to vocalize his desire to see his loving partner.
It tore me up to read that… to realize that the same scenario had happened to unfortunate couples many times over.
I’m so thankful that Obama is confronting this issue. Sure, getting shut out during end-of-life matters can happen to straight, unmarried couples as well, but this safeguard really is long overdue and much needed for a community that has too often been bullied. No one should have to stare down death without the ability- the right- to look into a loved ones eyes one last time, just because of a toxic combination of ignorance and legal loopholes.
Thanks to the president for offering up an antidote.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Last year when MTV’s biopic, Pedro, came out I blogged about having the privilege of meeting Sean Sasser just as I was dipping my toes into HIV education.
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life in photos
I am frightened by ceilings. A terrible phobia to have.
Today's assortment of treats: tea for Gwenn, a mocha for me and a cookie to share.
My buddy Sharanya preparing my mocha with just an extra dash of love.
Hanging on wall in our guest bedroom. Couldn't agree more!
Speaking About Sexual Health
Since 2000, Shawn and Gwenn have been speaking about sexual health together, sharing their personal story and empowering others to be safe. If you are interested in having them speak at your event, fill out the Contact Us form.
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