Blog Posts + Articles + Happenings
Betty White Was, Indeed, A Friend
On New Year's Eve, fans of Betty White mourned the loss of their adopted celebrity grandmother, who was just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday. People Magazine released a lush magazine in December, celebrating her birthday early and taking advantage of holiday...
25 Years Ago My Life Changed When I Became a POZ Magazine CoverBoy
Read the issue on POZ.com! We have moments- both grand and grim- that are gamechangers in our bumblefuck journeys through this physical plain. For me, a couple of those moments are wrapped snuggly around "my pet virus", or HIV, as most know it. My HIV diagnosis at age...
50. Ryan White Would Have Turned 50 Years Old Today.
Today would have been Ryan White's 50th birthday. As some of you may know, there are some similarities between his story and my own. However, as time goes by that changes. The biggest difference is no longer in how each of us responded to the earliest days of our...
Goodbye Everybody, I’ve Got to Go: 30 Years Since Freddie Mercury Passed to Spirit
I recently blogged about Magic Johnson's announcement thirty years ago that he had contracted HIV. I was a junior in high school, and by the end of the day I'd heard my first Magic AIDS joke. Shockingly, even though Freddie Mercury passed shortly thereafter, I never...
Thirty Years Since Magic Johnson Disclosed His HIV Status
I was a junior in high school. Coming off a sophomore year that had been defined by some drama where HIV was concerned. I'd really fallen in love, and was experiencing my first dose of sexual activity. I didn't disclose my status, but I thought if we were just having...
Why I Lied To Get a Booster Shot
Last month I went into a Costco and received a booster shot for my Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which I received in March. I travelled about two hours for that first shot in March, because information was trickling in slowly with regard to when the vaccine would be...
Once Silent, Now Paying it Backward for Peter Staley’s NEVER SILENT Memoir
Opening up about HIV at age 20 was the best decision I've ever made in my life. After a decade of keeping my status to myself at all cost, what should have been a tough change came quite naturally. All at once, it suddenly felt harder to not talk about HIV. I...
Pretty Sure I Got COVID This Past Summer…
On July 5th I wrote a blog entry about getting sick. I was careful not to assume it was COVID-19. I even took an at home test that came back negative. Admittedly, I didn't take the second test. You see, the kit comes with two and encourages you take both. Guess I...
Seeing Ads for HIV Meds During the Olympics? That’s a Win for Everyone.
I love the Olympics. Despite a crush on Katarina Witt, I didn't really start watching regularly until I was in my 30s. (I'm 46 for context.) It makes sense, because I've always loved games. Games shaped my childhood, my friends and I would make up all kinds of...
My HIV in the 90s Experience, HIV Unmuted
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...
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,...
Record High CD4 Count Related to COVID-19?
The last five years or so, my average t-cell count has been around 600. In January, before the Covid-19 lockdown, my count was 635. I'm more than thrilled with that because, paired with my consistently undetectable viral load, it's a sign that my...
Anyone Else Missing More Doses of HIV Meds?
Since I started taking HIV medications in 1999, I've been very good at not missing any doses. Even during my extended period of week on/week off (2003-ish to 2013-ish), I was diligent about remembering which day was the start day for another week of pills....
I Have HIV. Video of My HIV Negative Partner Getting Tested for HIV #NHTD
My partner, Gwenn, and I have been together for two decades. During the entirety of our relationship I've been HIV positive, and she's been HIV negative. Last year for National HIV Testing Day, we thought it would be a good idea to show just how easy the...
On Starting My First One-A-Day HIV Regimen
Yesterday I started my first ever once-a-day HIV drug regimen in Biktarvy. This isn't an endorsement, nor are any of the treatment options I've chosen. I just really wanted to discuss this in the context of the long road it took me to get here.Being...
Why I’m Rocking My @theaidsmemorial Shirt At 80s Night
This weekend I'm going to be fronting an 80s coverband called Film On Girls for an 80s Prom Dance Party. It's a ton of fun getting together with some friends and performing songs like "Everything She Wants", "Safety Dance", "Into the Groove" and "Tainted...
World Hemophilia Day
Today is World Hemophilia Day. Being born with this rare bleeding disorder has certainly shaped who I am. I know people like to say their "illness" doesn't define them: I get it. I know where the sentiment comes from because I've shared that feeling as well. But I do...
#POZat25 How POZ Entered My Life At The Right Time
1996 was a pivotal year for me. At age 20, after being diagnosed with HIV for half of my life, I was finally ready to talk about the virus. What had been a difficult thing to think about and a subject I went out of my way to ignore was suddenly fair game. After a...
The #UEqualsU Issue of POZ
Kudos to POZ for shining a spotlight on #UEqualsU in the latest issue of the magazine. A lot of folks still need to learn what that means: that an undetectable viral load for someone who is HIV positive means that, while still living with the virus, they are unable to...
Back to School!
School is back in session, and sexual health should be included among the many things that teenagers and young adults are learning about. But unfortunately, it isn't a priority. The CDC recently reported an increase in Sexually Transmitted Infections, with half...
#DoingItMyWay Through the Ups and Downs
This Summer has been a doozy. I kicked things off in June with some mild depression. Apparently I have Seasonal Summer Depression- my love pointed this out a few years ago. I'm not sure why my spirit starts to sag as Summer kicks in, but it does. Thankfully, by...
HIV Testing While Traveling
I'll never forget this story. Someone was telling me about the low turnout they had for a testing event. When it was over they had no idea what went wrong- they'd promoted the event, which seemingly had the community's interest. Then when the day came, very few...