HIV Education: Speakers, Author, and Humorist » Shawn’s Favorite Things

For You Fellow Rasslin Fans

Shawn Decker — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:49:40 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows my love of pro wrestling. I paid homage to it in my memoir, My Pet Virus, by dedicating a chapter of the book to Ric Flair. Followers of this blog may remember my final Positoid column for Poz Magazine, which was about my interview with Ric in which we uncomfortably wrested around the topic of HIV.

Wrestling holds a special place in my heart. It’s just so over the top. Part of how I’ve decided to educate about HIV has definitely been influenced by the shenanigans that seeped into my soul as a newly diagnosed kid obsessing over my favorite grapplers and wrestling in the frontyard with friends over championship titles made out of cardboard. How has it influenced me? Well, I see HIV as an opponent of sorts- the way I beat this opponent in the ring is by not allowing it to silence me, or lull me into a false sense of security. Sure, it’s won a few battles over the years, but I’m definitely winning the war. I could die tomorrow and still claim victory.

So, when the humorists over at the wrestling opinion website, Podswoggle, invited me to write a column for them about tomorrow’s Royal Rumble- my favorite wrestling event of the year- I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Check it out here.

Hope everyone out there is having a good match against whatever ails ya.

Positively Yours,
Shawn

Labtest Contest Results and Winner

Shawn Decker — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:07:50 +0000

Drum roll please… my labs are in, and my t-cell count when the blood was drawn last week was 590 (30%), with a less than 48 copy detectable viral load. Which, for those of you who don’t understand HIV lab talk, are very good numbers.

So I’m doing alright! But enough about me. Who guessed the closest? Who is the new champion? (Sorry Justin Starkenburg, you’ve been dethroned.) Well, it is none other than the wonderful Bob Geise, who registered a guess of 595 and missed the actual count by a gaggle of 5 t-cells. Impressive work for a competitor in the contest who has tried to win this title before. I caught up with Bob earlier on Facebook to get his reaction to the victory and how it came to be.

“I actually did use a formula to figure it out. I wish I could remember
it. It had something to do with averaging your numbers and then
averaging the amount of change from test to test. Somehow I figured for
outliers and made an educated guess.”

Impressive stuff!

If you recognize Bob on this blog, it may be from last year when I posted one of his poems about Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas. Bob writes extensively on his Eloquent With Rage Facebook page, I strongly encourage everyone to Like this page because Bob has a big heart, an open mind and an incredibly deft grasp of the English language. A literary triple threat!

And now he is the Labtest Contest Champion of my T-Cells.

So a big congratulations to Bob, who has opted for the signed copy of My Pet Virus because he lent his to someone and never got it back. Perhaps that act of treachery inspired the demented formula that led to this rousing victory? Thanks to everyone who participated in the Contest. Per standard protocol, I cannot honor your request for a recount… just come back in June and try again!

Positively Yours,
Shawn

Ryan White Would Have Turned 40 Today

Shawn Decker — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:18:47 +0000

Ryan White, the AIDS educator who rose to prominence after his public battle to attend public school in the 1980′s, passed to spirit at age 18 in 1990, years before treatments were successful. Had he lived, he would have turned 40 years old today.

We all owe this ageless icon a big thanks for all the awareness he raised in his short time with us. Ryan, you are not forgotten. (Here’s my Poz article, “Remember Ryan White”, from Sept 2010.)

Positively Yours,
Shawn

Locals: Orzo HIV/AIDS Benefit Dinner on Monday

Shawn Decker — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:02:41 +0000

I’ve been back from my Synthetic Division road trip for a bit now, and bid farewell to Josh last weekend as he flew back to California. So great to spend two full weeks with one of my best friends on this mortal journey we’re all undertaking. I’d write more about our adventures if I weren’t editing together a video of our adventures right now, so look for that on here soon…

In the meantime, a wonderful restaurant, Orzo, here in my hometown (Charlottesville, VA) is doing a benefit dinner for the local clinic where positoids like me get their care. The full information on the event is below (contact Pam Bickley via email PAB2U@hscmail.mcc.virginia.edu to reserve a spot)- there are 30 tickets left, so don’t hesitate if you’re in the area, enjoy great food and want to help the cause.

Positively Yours,
Shawn
__________________

Monday, Sept. 12, 2011

Orzo Restaurant 416 W. Main St. Charlottesville

Orzo Restaurant is hosting a benefit for the UVA Ryan White Program (HIV Clinic). The benefit dinner and silent auction will raise money for the HIV Family Camp at Camp Holiday Trails and to purchase gas cards for UVA Ryan White patients.

The event will commence at 5:30 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres and wine reception.

At 6:30 p.m., guests will be seated for a three-course, Italian-themed dinner.

Tickets are $40/adult and $20/child (gratuity and tax included). Orzo will donate half of the money raised from ticket sales to the Ryan White Clinic. Tickets will be available at the door; cash and checks will be accepted. If you would like to support the benefit but will be unable to join us, the requested donation is $40.

Three-Course Dinner Menu

n Orzo’s Caesar: Hearts of Romaine, Parmigiano Reggiano, and Garlic Croutons

n Traditional Lasagna Al Forno (vegetarian lasagna available upon request)

n Italian Citrus Cake: Orange Juice and Cointreau Reduction, Fresh Whipped Cream

For more information or to purchase tickets please contact Pam Bickley at 434.982.1688 or pab2u@virginia.edu.

Kid Meets First Gay Couple. Then Plays Ping Pong.

Shawn Decker — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:43:12 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, New York state legalized gay marriage… here’s my belated congratulations to humanity! It’s so twisted, but whenever I hear good news like that I never get too excited, because I feel like the system is set up so that it could be struck down at anytime. The Supreme Court could Rickroll us all during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, singing Rick Astley’s famous tune, while adding a verse about how they’ve just made gay marriage illegal on a federal level.

Part of me wants to spend the next ten years in a garage inventing a time machine, so I can slip into it only to emerge to live out my final years in a society that isn’t caught up on things like gay marriage. Or maybe, just maybe, that future is closer than I can even allow myself to imagine. Here’s a video I saw on Huffington Post. Not sure how old it is, but it’s incredibly awesome and says so much about human nature, and why kids’ instincts on an emotional level can often times make more sense than adults.

Positively Yours,
Shawn

Happy Godfather’s Day

Shawn Decker — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:50:54 +0000

I’m a proud Godfather to a 2-and-three-quarters year old. Her name is Evie. Her mom, Lauren, is one of my best friends. On the day that Evie was born, I drove at a moderate-to-brisk-pace in front of Lauren and Gwenn with my hazard lights on as we all headed to the hospital. Later, as Evie learned to walk, I was the typical hemophiliac in the room: “Be careful, Evie! Watch out for that table!”

It’s been a tremendous joy to be a trusted male in her life. She calls me “my Shawn”. I call her “my little buddy”, and about fifty other nicknames, some of which stick while others float off into the cosmos. One of my proudest moments was teaching her the high-five, which she now uses with expert precision. So when Lauren asked if I’d be interested in joining Evie for a Father’s Day Weekend picnic at her school last Friday, I jumped at the chance to have some watermelon slices and bagels at 9 am with my little buddy.

It was a great morning.

As our friendship continues, I’ll do my best to teach her all the lessons I’ve learned along the way, while making sure that she doesn’t experience every possible bump and bruise out there. Sure, she has the proper amount of clotting factor, but that doesn’t mean she has to put it to use. :O)

Positively,

Evie’s Shawn

Coolest Thing Ever Written About Us (by Charlotte Martin)

Shawn Decker — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:48:46 +0000

So Gwenn and I have been out as a sero-diverse couple for over a decade now. Safer sex with a smile and trying to enlighten people that positoids, people with HIV, can have a healthy relationship is at the top of our list of goals. As a result of being out there, we’ve had more than a few articles written about us.

On the best side of things, our message is understood, and shared beyond what our capabilities to reach people are, such as when Poz profiled us back when My Pet Virus was published, or when CNN.com did a story for World AIDS Day a few years back. The worst case was a British tabloid that chose the tag line: “SLEEPING WITH MY HUSBAND COULD KILL ME!” When they published that fictitious quote from Gwenn, I could have killed them.

Anyway, as everyone knows I love nothing more than a tall, cool iced mocha. I really enjoy my coffee shop dates with Gwenn. We’ve gotten quite friendly with a lot of the baristas in town, some of whom know a lot about our work and others who know very little. So I was really touched when Charlotte, a cool barista at Shenandoah Joe, wrote about us on her Tumblr page, A Heart Like Mine.

I’m posting this because lately I’ve felt so burnt out on AIDS. I receive so much encouragement about the work that Gwenn and I do, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that 24 years of being diagnosed with HIV- and spending the last 15 years talking and writing about it- is wearing on me. I do the best I can to stay motivated and mocha’d. Big thanks to Charlotte for handling both sides of that.

Positively Yours,
Shawn
———-

Shawn and Gwenn
blog post by Charlotte Martin

I know this great couple who have been on the list of my top favorite customers at SJ for my entire employment there (a very long time). They are the ones who keep me sane a little bit. They have all the qualities of FCM (Favorite Customer Material): they don’t take themselves seriously, they get coffee to stay, they dress uniquely, they are smiley, they give a shit (constant theme of people I like), they make good jokes, they understand, and they aren’t like everyone else.

Shawn and Gwenn are great. I really like them even though I don’t know them that well. Shawn is slightly goth, has hipster glasses, great graphic t-shirts, and a disarming smile. Gwenn is very much a woman. She always looks fashionable without belonging to one sort of genre of clothing. They’re married and Shawn is HIV postive. They travel around the country on a regular basis raising awareness about their relationship, safe sex, and the realities of the controversial illnesses that are HIV and AIDS. Shawn has also written a book which I recently read called My Pet Virus. The book pretty much changed my life a little bit.

In his book, Shawn talks about what it was like growing up with a disease that he acquired from tainted blood products. Growing up during a time when ignorance about HIV/AIDS was more widespread and deathly than the disease itself, Shawn found himself getting kicked out of school for being HIV positive. Consequently, he became very secretive about his condition during his grade school years. Upon graduating high school, he decided to come clean about his secret on the world wide web by creating a website called My Pet Virus.

What I love about Shawn’s life is that the best thing he ever did was come clean. His life helps other people. When he and Gwenn go to high schools and colleges to talk about these issues, people become knowledgeable, less ignorant, less afraid of these things: sex, STDs, and AIDS. It is necessary and vital that people be educated about this. AIDS is a huge epidemic that a great deal of the world faces. There are still people who point the finger and force shame on those who don’t deserve it. Shawn’s hilarious and forgiving perspective about his condition brings great things to people and schools in the US.

I also love that Shawn and Gwenn’s life is not normal in any way. They aren’t your normal run-of-the-mill couple who went to college, got engaged, had a nice American wedding, and lived happily ever after with their 9-5 jobs, picket fence, and kids. Shawn didn’t go to college. He blogged and wrote music instead. Gwenn was the one who proposed. Their wedding was far from “normal,” their job is more of a travel log, full of late nights, and iced mochas. As for their picket fence and kids? To quote Gwenn’s words: “I have no maternal instincts.”

I LOVE THIS COUPLE.

I love that they don’t hide. I love that a potential secret that could have made them fearful and quiet, instead has made them live life to the fullest, enjoy their coffee to stay, talk loudly and proudly about sex and HIV, and be the confident, kind, and quirky people they are.

I wanna be like them.

-C

Happy Birthday to Gwenn

Shawn Decker — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:37:59 +0000

The love of my life. Thanks for making this journey worthwhile. I love you with all of my positoid heart!

Positively Yours,
Shawn

Synthetic Division “Out of Time” Music Video

Shawn Decker — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:06:44 +0000

Here it is, my band’s first ever music video, featuring stop motion and Playmobil toys- including a hospital! Funny thing is, the inspiration for this song came in part from a hospital visit in late 2009… so the creator Dirk Roth’s concept really fits the song and release perfectly.

I hope you enjoy the video and share it with friends!

Positively Yours,
Shawn

Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
Website: ShawnandGwenn.com Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!

SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.

Meet Dirk Roth, Watch His Cool Video

Shawn Decker — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:39:22 +0000

I love music videos. The only time I see them is when TiVo picks up 120 Minutes on VH1 Classic, which I highly recommend watching if you haven’t seen it. They show the best. I know, I know, you can YouTube videos anytime… but 120 Minutes really sorts out the quality stuff, and there’s always a Depeche Mode video on the 2 hour program.

A video you won’t see on VH1 Classic is one that I came across when a friend of mine, Mike Johnson of the band Ego Likeness, shared it on Facebook. It’s a video for the band Joy Division, created using Playmobil toys and stop-motion. The creator, Dirk Roth, basically took a live TV performance and recreated it, making something even better than the original.

Compare the two… the real band:

Now check out Dirk’s version…

Pretty awesome, huh? What’s equally awesome is that Dirk agreed to make a music video for Synthetic Division last month… and it debuts soon! More information in a couple of days- stay tuned.

Positively Yours,
Shawn