Recently I spoke with The International AIDS Society as part of their HIV Unmuted podcast series. The episode that I am on focuses on the 1990s, you can learn more about the episode and listen to it by going here. Dr. Ho is featured, and you'll also hear from...
Shawn Decker
Hemophilia: The Neglected of the Neglected Pandemic on VICE
Vice aired a special program called 'HIV: The Neglected Pandemic' to commemorate four decades of HIV/AIDS. Jonathan Van Ness narrated the program, and it was bopping along at a nice pace. But when it got to Ryan White, the boy with hemophilia who did his...
A Bloody Good Time on World Hemophilia Day
This World Hemophilia Day I thought it would be fun to share some whimsical blood-lettings of days past... having four-and-a-half decades of life with hemophilia under my belt, I've certainly seen my fair share of my own plasma. So without further ado,...
Do The Ryan White Thing (1998 Positoid Column, POZ Magazine)
The following is a Positoid column I wrote when I was 22, published in the January 1998 issue of the magazine. I'll catch you on the other side to explain how Ryan had one more surprise in store for me... Lying on my bed last night, scarfing cookies and...
A Telling Moment- Do I Feel TOO Safe?
Picture it: it's eight days after my Johnson & Johnson vaccination. I walk into a coffee shop on St. Patrick's Day. My friend who works there is wearing a festive green hat. Irish folk music plays in the background. As I notice how extra covered up my friend is,...
I’m Vaxx’d. Great! Now What?
On Monday afternoon I got the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. We drove about two hours to get it, because information in Charlottesville (where I live) was slow to come by in terms of when I'd have the opportunity to get vaccinated. It may be because...
Condoms: A Love Story For International Condom Day
You never forget seeing your first condom. I was probably 10. One day at my grandparent's swimming pool, one of the older boys down the street, a rebel who claimed "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as his favorite wrestler, pulled me aside. "Know what this is?" "A balloon?" I...
Rush Limbaugh and His AIDS Update
In 1990, then 40-year old Rush Limbaugh aired a short-lived segment on his radio show called "The AIDS Update." He'd make wisecracks about the epidemic while songs like “Kiss Him Goodbye" and “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” played. He'd later claim...
The POZ/Beatles Connection: An Interview With Sean Strub on the Anniversary of John Lennon’s Passing
Tuesday, December 8 marks forty years since John Lennon's murder at the age of 40. In the frantic moments that immediately followed the tragedy, Sean Strub was among the first people on the scene. He was 22 at the time and five years removed from an HIV diagnosis,...
Is The Additional Tax of Aging With HIV Coming Due?
Growing up in Waynesboro, Virginia, I often saw how the threshold of the age of 40 is met: with dread. Lots of jokes about having one foot in the grave. Uncles and aunts complaining of new aches and pains, bemoaning the fact that they have gotten older... truthfully,...