Blog Posts + Articles + Happenings
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...
Going Viral, Bleeding Out My Ass and #DoingItMyWay
I recently spoke to POZ about a tweet that went viral. You can read about it here: https://www.poz.com/article/hiv-tweet-regarding-selfmade-billionaire-kylie-jenner-goes-viral This is the story about the behind behind the story. The nitty-gritty details about the...
#DoingItMyWay Gwenn Gets Tested For HIV (video)
My partner, Gwenn, and I have been together for twenty years. For the entire length of that time, I have been HIV positive and she has been HIV negative. We've educated together about how HIV is and isn't transmitted and we both believe that everyone should know their...
#DoingIt Knowing Your HIV Status is Always in Style
A few weeks ago I played an 80s cover set with my friends at an 80s Prom. It's always fun to sing some of my favorite songs of the decade by artists such as Thompson Twins, The Cars, Dead or Alive, Simple Minds... don't you forget about me? Are you kidding me? Who...
My World Hemophilia Day
World Hemophilia Day is a day that I use as leverage to have friends give me hugs. Or buy me a drink. Pretty much whatever I can squeeze out of my rare bleeding disorder, I go for it. I've got just one shot a year to make it happen. You might be thinking, "Well, what...
Help On Wheels: A Tribute to Barry Haarde
The hemophilia community suffered a great loss this month when Barry Haarde passed to spirit. I invited his blood brother (that's what us hemophiliacs call each other) and fellow cyclist Vaughn Ripley to write a tribute... and what a tribute it is. One...
Your Cure: An HIV Anthem For Everyone
Your Cure (Company) from MerceTheSeries on Vimeo. Last September I had the privilege of going up to Brooklyn to play a cameo role in Merce, Season 2. I remember the first time I heard about Charles and Tyne's web series, they were fundraising for season 1 and they had...
Grieving Las Vegas
The airport was quiet. My partner, Gwenn, and I were leaving Las Vegas on a Monday, always preferable to the chaos of a Sunday departure when everyone is heading back home to the normalcy of their everyday lives. But the stillness of yesterday's trip was different....
Why I Love Charlottesville and Hate Hate
You have probably heard about the recent happenings in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a "Unite the Right" gathering of neo-nazis and white supremacists ended—to the surprise of few—with the intentional murder of an anti-hate, civilian protester. I want to write...
32 Years Ago: A Ryan White Milestone
Jeanne White-Ginder visited her son, Ryan's, grave this week and posted this picture to Facebook. Friday, June 30, 1985 marked 32 years to the day when Ryan was denied admittance into Middle School because of his HIV status. It's a moment that changed his life and his...
#DoingIt National HIV Testing Day
Gwenn and I are proud to be a part of the CDC's Act Against AIDS campaign, "Doing It", which is all about HIV testing. As a sero-diverse (poz/neg) couple, we think it's important for everyone to know their HIV status. We enjoy a healthy relationship and we feel that...
Why I’m #DoingIt For National HIV Testing Day #NHTD
Today is National HIV Testing Day. I'm HIV positive, and my partner, Gwenn, is HIV negative. We both know our status and that's important for our health. A couple of years ago, we made a video to show just how easy testing for HIV can be with our friend, Jason: More...
Annie Lennox on HIV Prevention and Funding Needs
Last month Gwenn and I had the privilege of speaking about HIV education and prevention on Al Jazeera's The Stream, representing sero-discordant couples. Annie Lennox and activists from around the world were on hand to discuss the need for continued funding of HIV...
Donald Trump’s (Fictional) Presidential HIV/AIDS Survey Answers
Imagining a world where Republican candidates answer surveys by HIV/AIDS organizations... here's Donald Trump "discussing" the issues of the day. Enjoy. Positively Yours, Shawn On HIV research An extremely credible source has called my office and...
Happy Blogiversary (20 Years!), Steve Schalchlin!
When I decided to open up about HIV 20 years ago, I went online hoping to find the internet that exists today. My search for HIV websites yielded a handful of results- one of them was Steve Schalchlin's "Living in the Bonus Round". 20 years ago, today, he put up his...
Outliving the Reagans
Today I went to the dentist for a routine teeth cleaning. I wasn't psyched about it, mainly because of the bleeding that can occur afterwards. Minor stuff, it's just that I prefer the taste of my daily iced mocha without a splash of plasma. I filled out my...
Q&A About “Doing It” with CDC
As many of you know, we are a part of Doing It - CDC's new national HIV testing campaign. There was a lot more that went into creating the campaign than you might think, like finding real people (like us!) who are passionate about testing and want to share their story...
Charlie Sheen Bit Me: An HIV Love Story #ValentinesDay
"Charlie bit me... and that really hurt!" The infamous "Charlie bit me" YouTube video has been viewed over 800 million times since it was posted in 2007. It's a pretty adorable video, featuring two brothers and a trust exercise gone horribly wrong. But recently, the...
PSA: Don’t Be Like Bill Maher. He’s Stupid.
Check out fellow blogger Trenton Straube's recent post, "This is Bill. Bill Has HIV... Be Like Bill", which, combined with Bill Maher's stupidity, helped to inspire this blog post.
PSA: If You’re Offended By The #BlackLivesMatter POZ Cover Then You’re Stupid
I noticed some blowback on POZ's Facebook page after the recent issue went up, which features the cover story "Black Lives Matter". Here's a sampling of what was written in the Comments section on Facebook: "How about all lives matter, why does it have to be racist...
#MartinShkreli: From Checkmate to Inmate?
Santa Poz has bestowed a wondrous gift upon us this holiday season. This week Martin Shkreli was arrested on charges of fraud unrelated to the Daraprim price hike that delivered Martin into our public consciousness with all the warmth of a fart in a crowded elevator...
Magnetic (Serodiscordant) Couples on TV
As someone who is HIV positive and in a relationship with someone who is HIV negative, I was excited to hear that a serodiscordant (“magnetic”) couple was going to be included in season 4 of Shuga, the fictional series based on real world experiences with HIV. Femi is...
#DoingIt for #HIV Testing
Gwenn and I are proud to take part in the CDC's Act Against AIDS campaign, "Doing It". This is all about HIV testing- to have a healthy relationship, each partner should know their HIV status. The only wrong result when it comes to an HIV status is a "?". So get...
The Secret Sex Lives of Emojis- EXPOSED!
This World AIDS Day, MTV Staying Alive has exposed the secret sex lives of emojis in this shocking video: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. Well, it's no secret that emojis have been repurposed for sexting. But now, you don't need to do that anymore. To get some sweet...
Before I Die
Before I die... before I die I want to experience something I never have: life without hemophilia. I had a decade without HIV, and I'd like to enjoy as many years as possible on the tail end of this journey without it as well. As I stood in front of this wall in...
Shaking the Disease: An Unlikely Tribute to Depeche Mode
This month's issue of POZ Magazine is all about long-term survivors. And this year marks a special occasion in my own long-term journey as a positoid... 25 years ago, I met my favorite band, Depeche Mode, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Back in 1990, the...
Enter the… Blood Mirror!
It's Halloween season- and that means that a lot of fake blood is being used for cheap scares. But what shouldn't be scary? Blood donations from the gay community.And that's exactly why the art exhibit, Blood Mirror, was created. Using nine blood donations from gay,...
Back to the Future Day
So today is the day- the infamous day of the future highlighted in Back to the Future. October 21, 2015. I saw the movie in the theater, and just rewatched the film last month. It still holds water! Now, we don't have flying cars as predicted by the franchise, but...
A Month of Superheroes: Charles Sanchez and Team Merce
This week saw the big finale of the 8 episode original HIV comedic web series, Merce. I was so intrigued when I first heard about Merce last year, via an Indiegogo campaign - could a comedic story centered around a guy living in NYC work? I believed. I donated. I...
Judd Winick: The Hero Who Crashed The Real World
I've written extensively about how much The Real World San Francisco influenced me- you know, the season of MTV's reality show that featured Pedro Zamora and his life with HIV. I wasn't talking about HIV openly when that aired in 1994. I loved seeing Pedro meet new...