A&U July 2017

JULY 2017 • ISSUE 273 • AMERICA’S AIDS MAGAZINE

UNIFYING FORCE

Cecilia Chung Brings People Together in the Fight Against AIDS

ON BOARD

Jeff Sheehy Fights for the Needs of Long-Term Survivors

plus

•Photog Sam Shahid •Sherri Lewis •Ben Banks •Moonlight in Uganda

chris

VAN ETTEN Rises Above Life-Threatening Challenges and Urges Those Living with HIV to Do the Same

YOU MATTER AND SO DOES YOUR HEALTH

That’s why starting and staying on HIV-1 treatment is so important.

WHAT IS DESCOVYÂŽ?

DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years and older. DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

DESCOVY combines 2 medicines into 1 pill taken once a day. Because DESCOVY by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1, it must be used together with other HIV-1 medicines.

DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking DESCOVY. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance QH UGZWCN EQPVCEV YKVJ DQF[ ĆƒWKFU 0GXGT TGWUG QT UJCTG PGGFNGU QT QVJGT KVGOU VJCV JCXG DQF[ ĆƒWKFU QP VJGO

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

What is the most important information I should know about DESCOVY? DESCOVY may cause serious side effects: • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking DESCOVY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking DESCOVY YKVJQWV ƂTUV VCNMKPI VQ [QWT JGCNVJECTG RTQXKFGT CU they will need to monitor your health.

What are the other possible side effects of DESCOVY? Serious side effects of DESCOVY may also include: • Changes in your immune system. Your immune U[UVGO OC[ IGV UVTQPIGT CPF DGIKP VQ ƂIJV KPHGEVKQPU Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking DESCOVY. • Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking DESCOVY if you develop new or worse kidney problems. • Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being

more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. • Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-coloredâ€? urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain. • Bone problems, such as bone pain, softening, or thinning, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones.

The most common side effect of DESCOVY is nausea.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking DESCOVY? • All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. • All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how DESCOVY works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take DESCOVY with all of your other medicines. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

It is not known if DESCOVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking DESCOVY. • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about DESCOVY, including important warnings, on the following page.

Ask your healthcare provider if an HIV-1 treatment that contains DESCOVYÂŽ is right for you.

IMPORTANT FACTS

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KLZ 26/ ]LL MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DESCOVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF DESCOVY

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ABOUT DESCOVY рао +,:*6=@ PZ H WYLZJYPW[PVU TLKPJPUL [OH[ PZ \ZLK [VNL[OLY ^P[O V[OLY /0= TLKPJPULZ [V [YLH[ /0= PU people 12 years of age and older. DESCOVY is UV[ for \ZL [V OLSW YLK\JL [OL YPZR VM NL[[PUN /0= PUMLJ[PVU рао +,:*6=@ KVLZ UV[ J\YL /0= VY (0+: (ZR `V\Y OLHS[OJHYL WYV]PKLY HIV\[ OV^ [V WYL]LU[ WHZZPUN /0= [V V[OLYZ

BEFORE TAKING DESCOVY ;LSS `V\Y OLHS[OJHYL WYV]PKLY PM `V\! рао /H]L VY OHK HU` RPKUL` IVUL VY SP]LY WYVISLTZ PUJS\KPUN OLWH[P[PZ PUMLJ[PVU рао Have any other medical condition. рао (YL WYLNUHU[ VY WSHU [V ILJVTL WYLNUHU[ рао (YL IYLHZ[MLLKPUN U\YZPUN VY WSHU [V IYLHZ[MLLK +V UV[ IYLHZ[MLLK PM `V\ OH]L /0= ILJH\ZL VM [OL YPZR VM WHZZPUN /0= [V `V\Y IHI` ;LSS `V\Y OLHS[OJHYL WYV]PKLY HIV\[ HSS [OL TLKPJPULZ `V\ [HRL! рао 2 LLW H SPZ[ [OH[ PUJS\KLZ HSS WYLZJYPW[PVU HUK V]LY [OL JV\U[LY TLKPJPULZ ]P[HTPUZ HUK OLYIHS Z\WWSLTLU[Z HUK ZOV^ P[ [V `V\Y OLHS[OJHYL WYV]PKLY HUK WOHYTHJPZ[ рао (ZR `V\Y OLHS[OJHYL WYV]PKLY VY WOHYTHJPZ[ HIV\[ TLKPJPULZ [OH[ ZOV\SK UV[ IL [HRLU ^P[O +,:*6=@

GET MORE INFORMATION рао ;OPZ PZ VUS` H IYPLM Z\TTHY` VM PTWVY[HU[ PUMVYTH[PVU HIV\[ +,:*6=@ ;HSR [V `V\Y OLHS[OJHYL WYV]PKLY VY pharmacist to learn more. рао .V [V +,:*6=@ JVT VY JHSS .03,(+ рао 0M `V\ ULLK OLSW WH`PUN MVY `V\Y TLKPJPUL ]PZP[ DESCOVY.com for program information.

/6> ;6 ;(2, +,:*6=@ рао +,:*6=@ PZ H VUL WPSS VUJL H KH` /0= TLKPJPUL [OH[ PZ [HRLU ^P[O V[OLY /0= TLKPJPULZ рао ;HRL +,:*6=@ ^P[O VY ^P[OV\[ MVVK DESCOVY, the DESCOVY Logo, LOVE WHATтАЩS INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. Version date: April 2017 ┬й 2017 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. DVYC0057 05/17

“

We need to throw away the stigma and fear about HIV testing.

It’s time we make HIV testing a part of our health routine.

— Jay Ellis, Actor

”

I’M

DOING IT Testing for HIV

#DoingIt Testing is Fast, Free, and Confidential cdc.gov/DoingIt

c o n t e n t s July 2017

32 Cover U.S. Marine Veteran, Model & Advocate Chris Van Etten Talks to A&U’s Dann Dulin About How His Triumph Over Adversity Connects to Those Living with HIV

Features

Departments

28 Gallery Photog Sam Shahid Traces the Arc of the Rainbow Through Images in a New Book Benefitting ACRIA

6

Frontdesk

9

Mailbox

15

NewsBreak

18

Ruby’s Rap

38 Foundation of Love Activist Cecilia Chung Finds Strength in Diversity as She Advocates for Healthcare Access

viewfinder

42 Positive Force San Francisco Board of Supervisors Member Jeff Sheehy Works to Protect the Needs of the Castro, Including Long-Term Survivors 46 The Moonlight that Fights HIV In Uganda, an HIV Prevention & Care Team Meets Sex Workers Where They Are

cover photo by Sean Black

13

Second Acts

20

For the Long Run

22

Just*in Time

24

Bright Lights, Small City

26

Our Story, Our Time

lifeguide 48

Hep Talk

49

The Whole Perspective

50

Positive Justice

52

The Culture of AIDS

54

Lifelines

56

Survival Guide

Brian had his HIV under control with medication. But smoking with HIV caused him to have serious health problems, including a stroke, a blood clot in his lungs and surgery on an artery in his neck. Smoking makes living with HIV much worse. You can quit.

CALL 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

#CDCTips

HIV alone didn’t cause the clogged artery in my neck.

Smoking with HIV did.

Brian, age 45, California

A&U Frontdesk

the gift of giving

J

ust as I was packing my summer book bag—the usual stash of beach stuff—I realized that I was missing something more important than the latest potboiler mystery (Sue Grafton’s latest letter-of-the-alphabet detective story; Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door): the laptop that I had won in a silent auction at a local AIDS fundraiser.

I think my oversight is easily explained—I wanted to tune out all the bad news coming out of Washington, so why would I pack the one way for the outside world to get to me? Who would blame me? As we went to press, there were less than a dozen senators holding back what might be inevitable: the death notice of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare to millions of Americans who had gotten health insurance for the first time in their lives.

Who can soon forget the twentyfour-hour news coverage of thousands of Americans with preexisting conditions marching on the steps of Congress to protest the imminent course the country has been set on, noving away from health coverage for everyone, to one where even Medicaid is being threatened. An ugly world in which people living with cancer, HIV, leukemia, heart disease and other preexisting conditions would face a future where healthcare safety nets were suddenly being cut away. Unlike most of the G20 (the highly industrialized countries of the world), America is a country where healthcare is not a given right but one where you might have to fight for the right to see a doctor, get your AIDS meds, or even get HIV prevention services. What a world we might be living in if we lose the war against defunding commonsense healthcare.

One American who definitely gives a damn is a new true hero of mine, this month’s cover story, military veteran Chris Van Etten, who survived tragic injuries in Afghanistan and now is very vocal about how individuals, not just lobbyists, can make a difference in the battle for healthcare. In Dann Dulin’s

AMERICA’S AIDS MAGAZINE issue 273 vol. 26 no. 7 July 2017 editorial offices: (518) 426-9010 fax: (518) 436-5354

exclusive interview (beautifully photographed by A&U’s very own Sean Black) with Chris Van Etten, the reader finds out what makes the Afghan war veteran a better than average G.I. Van Etten tells Dann that he’s continuing the fight for all of our healthcare rights right here in the USA. He also can relate to the stigma attached to the millions of Americans who are HIV-positive because of his own otherness being a double paraplegic, an otherness that is the source of his newfound empowerment: “I don’t think my life would have taken this direction had it not been for the fact that I was injured. In a weird way...it was a gift.”

Empowerment is, after all, one of our democracy’s most cherished promises. And yet, as this issue shows, we come to empowerment through different means, but usually with the guiding support of trailblazers. HIV and transgender rights activist Cecilia Chung, as Connie Rose finds out, wants to see everyone reach their full potential, and a key component in that journey is unrestricted access to healthcare and an equal distribution of justice. Jeff Sheehy, interviewed by A&U’s Hank Trout, brings his experiences as an HIV long-term survivor to his position as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I was surprised to learn that Sheehy is the first openly HIV-positive individual to hold the position in San Francisco and surely this fact alone will inspire others to join in the healthcare fight from inside our institutions.

Both advocates give me hope that people in the fight against AIDS are no longer only on the outside, as we mostly were in the eighties. Like Van Etten, they are still striving to make freedom ring. Others are joining in every day.

No, I haven’t given up hope on compassionate healthcare. But I will take a short break, gather my sanity, and dive back in after the Fourth.

DAVID WAGGONER

Editor in Chief & Publisher David Waggoner Managing Editor: Chael Needle Senior Editors: Dann Dulin, Sean Black Editors at Large: Chip Alfred, Hank Trout Special Projects Editor: Lester Strong Literary Editor: Brent Calderwood Arts Editor: Alina Oswald Consulting Editor: Nick Steele Copy Editor: Maureen Hunter Contributing Editors: Sarah Churchill Downes, Reed Massengill, Kelly McQuain, Lesléa Newman, Robert E. Penn Contributing Writers: Tyeshia Alston, Noël Alumit, T.J. Banks, Larry Buhl, Ruby Comer, Diane Goettel, George M. Johnson, John Francis Leonard, Angela Leroux-Lindsey, Dale Reynolds, Connie Rose, David Rosenberg, Corey Saucier, Stevie St. John, Justin B. Terry-Smith, Patricia Nell Warren, Jeannie Wraight, Rob Zukowski Art Director: Timothy J. Haines Contributing Photographers: Jordan Ancel, Davidd Batalon, Mark Bennington, Tom Bianchi, Sean Black, Adam Bouska, Brian Bowen Smith, Tim Courtney, Duane Cramer, Stephen Churchill Downes, Greg Gorman, Francis Hills, Renée Jacobs, Michael Kerner, Tara Lessard, Tom McGovern, Nancy Perry, Annie Tritt National Advertising Director: Harold Burdick, Jr. Sales & Marketing: David L. Bonitatibus Advertising Sales Office: (518) 426-9010 National Advertising Representative: Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863 Subscription Info: (518) 426-9010 Circulation Manager: Robert Schelepanow Bookkeeper: Richard Garcia Board of Directors President: David Waggoner Vice President: Harold Burdick, Jr. Secretary: Richard Garcia Founding Board Members: Mark S. Labrecque, 1961–1992, Christopher Hewitt, 1946–2004, Mark Galbraith, 1962–2011

In Memoriam: Bill Jacobson, 1939–2005 Rhomylly B. Forbes, 1963–2011 • Chris Companik, 1957–2012 Nancy Ellegate, 1959–2015 A&U (ISSN 1074-0872) is published by Art & Understanding, Inc., 25 Monroe St., Suite 205, Albany, NY 122102743, USA. For A&U advertising information please call 518-426-9010; for subscriptions and address changes please call 518-426-9010; for letters to the editor and unsolicited manuscripts write A&U Magazine, 25 Monroe Street, Albany, New York 12210; fax 518-436-5354; or e-mail: mailbox@aumag.org. All unsolicited manuscripts that do not have a S.A.S.E. cannot be returned and will not be acknowledged. ©2017 Art & Understanding, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. A&U may not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher. A&U and the graphic representations thereof are the registered trademarks of Art & Understanding, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Individual Subscription rates: $24.95 (12 issues). Institutional rates: $80.00 (12 issues). For subscriptions outside the USA and possessions, $30.95/Canada, $49.95/ international, payable in advance in U.S. currency. First North American serial rights revert to contributors upon publication. A&U retains the right to anthologize work in further issues, as well as in microform or reprinting on the Internet within the context of each issue. Statements of writers, artists and advertisers are not necessarily those of the publisher. Readers note: subjects and contributors to A&U are both HIV-positive and HIV-negative. In the absence of a specific statement herein concerning the serostatus of any individual mentioned in, or contributing material to, this publication, no inference is made with respect thereto and none should be implied. Letters written to A&U or its contributors are assumed intended for publication. Art & Understanding, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for unsolicited submissions and does not guarantee the return thereof.

PostMaster: Please send address corrections to A&U Magazine, 25 Monroe Street, Suite 205, Albany NY 122102743, USA

Printed in USA • Visit our Web site at www.aumag.org

x o b l i ma Two of Hearts

It’s so nice to have two young women like Jenna Ortega and Jenna Vargas as spokespersons for the fight against AIDS [cover story, “Power and Light,” by Larry Buhl, May 2017. We need more young peo-

and nothing to be ashamed of. It’s not an illness that affects who you are. It’s the personality that matters.” Such profound words from someone so young! I would like to wish both women lots of luck in the future.

—Martha Van Gardener Columbus, Ohio My daughter loves Jenna Ortega, so this was a perfect chance for us to have

VITAL VOICES

jenna

ORTEGA

photo by Sean Black

The Actress Champions Empowerment to Protect Against Cyber Bullying & HIV Stigma

ple to address these issues. These kind of people are the only ones who can reach the adolescents; only the young will listen to them. I was at first sad that Jenna Vargas is HIV-positive and being bullied because of it, as she is so young, but I realized that she has found her own voice to stand up for herself. Jenna Ortega says in part: “So many people are embarrassed about HIV even today. I want people to know it’s okay JULY 2017 • A&U

Rob Quinn, what a fascinating story about a man who was at the top, then hit rock bottom and finally came out on top again [“Heart & Soul,” by Chip Alfred, May 2017]. Rob is an inspiration to all of us who have gone through the same things. Yes, many of us have gone through illegal drugs and alcohol before we saw the true path of recovery. Rob said something very meaningful: “Until we put a face to HIV, we’re never going to eliminate stigma.” And it is all about, “Take one step at a time.” Rob, you are a real credit to us long-term survivors.

—Ashford Taylor Washington, D.C.

“So many people are embarrassed about HIV even today. I want people to know it’s okay and nothing to be ashamed of.”—Jenna Ortega

APRIL 2017 • ISSUE 271 • AMERICA’S AIDS MAGAZINE

•TIOMMI J. LUCKETT •STEVE SCHALCHLIN •RICHARD HOFMANN •ROB QUINN •NANCY DUNCAN •JENNA VARGAS

Keep Feeling Fascination

a discussion about HIV. Jenna is truly a role model for youth, especially girls. I am glad that she is working with UNAIDS, as now she will reach many, many youngsters—and adults—with her message. I also liked that the cover story included Jenna Vargas. She is an inspiration. My daughter was impressed with her as well!

—Wynona Riggins Tulsa, Oklahoma

American Woman Yes, it could happen to you, too, and it did happen to Nancy Duncan [“It Could Happen to You, Too,” by Alina Oswald, May 2017].

Nancy became infected by an ex-boyfriend.

What is really sad is that women in those days were not considered to be at risk for HIV and were not diagnosed properly. There is so much that we did not know back in the eighties and early nineties. But thank God Nancy Duncan overcame everything and is now a peer counselor in the HIV field.

—Vera Rubies Sandoval Ponce, Puerto Rico

Send e-mail to: mailbox@aumag.org Send letters to: Mailbox, A&U, 25 Monroe Street, Suite 205, Albany, NY 12210 Or click on “Mailbox” on our Web site’s home page: www.aumag.org Tweet Us @au_magazine Facebook: http://on.fb.me/AUFANPAGE All correspondence requires name, address, and daytime phone number for confirmation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

9

WHAT IS GENVOYAÂŽ?

GENVOYA is a 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years and older who weigh at least 77 pounds. It can either be used in people who are starting HIV-1 treatment and have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements. These include having an undetectable viral load (less than 50 copies/mL) for 6 months or more on their current HIV-1 treatment.

GENVOYA combines 4 medicines into 1 pill taken once a day with food. GENVOYA is a complete HIV-1 treatment and should not be used with other HIV-1 medicines.

GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking GENVOYA. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance QH UGZWCN EQPVCEV YKVJ DQF[ Ćƒ WKFU 0GXGT TGWUG QT UJCTG PGGFNGU QT QVJGT KVGOU VJCV JCXG DQF[ Ćƒ WKFU QP VJGO

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

What is the most important information I should know about GENVOYA?

GENVOYA may cause serious side effects: • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. GENVOYA is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking GENVOYA, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking GENVOYA YKVJQWV Ƃ TUV VCNMKPI VQ [QWT JGCNVJECTG RTQXKFGT CU VJG[ will need to monitor your health.

Who should not take GENVOYA?

Do not take GENVOYA if you take: • Certain prescription medicines for other conditions.

It is important to ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with GENVOYA. Do not start a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider. • The herbal supplement St. John’s wort. • Any other medicines to treat HIV-1 infection.

What are the other possible side effects of GENVOYA?

Serious side effects of GENVOYA may also include: • Changes in your immune system. Your immune U[UVGO OC[ IGV UVTQPIGT CPF DGIKP VQ Ƃ IJV KPHGEVKQPU Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking GENVOYA.

• Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking GENVOYA. • Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. • Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-coloredâ€? urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

The most common side effect of GENVOYA is nausea.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking GENVOYA?

• All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. • All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how GENVOYA works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take GENVOYA with all of your other medicines. • If you take antacids. Take antacids at least 2 hours before or after you take GENVOYA. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if GENVOYA can harm your unborn baby.

Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking GENVOYA. • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about GENVOYA, including important warnings, on the following page.

Ask your healthcare provider if GENVOYA is right for you.

GENVOYA.com

GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

SHOW YOUR Take care of what matters most—you. GENVOYA is a 1-pill, once-a-day complete HIV-1 treatment for people who are either new to treatment or people whose healthcare provider determines they can replace their current HIV-1 medicines with GENVOYA.

IMPORTANT FACTS WHAT IS GENVOYAÂŽ?

GENVOYA is a 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine

( used ) in people 12 years and older who jen-VOY-uh to treat HIV-1

weigh at least 77 pounds. It can either be used in people who are starting HIV-1 treatment and have never taken MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT GENVOYA HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 and side whose healthcare provider GENVOYA maymedicines cause serious effects, including: determines they meet certain requirements.

These include • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. GENVOYA is not having an undetectable viral load (less than 50 copies/mL) approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your for 6 months or more theirif current HBV may suddenly geton worse you stopHIV-1 takingtreatment.

GENVOYA. GENVOYA combines 4 medicines into pill taken once a Do not stop taking GENVOYA without first1talking to your day with food.

GENVOYA a complete HIV-1 treatment healthcare provider, as theyiswill need to check your health regularly fornot several months. and should be used with other HIV-1 medicines.

GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. ABOUT GENVOYA To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking GENVOYA. Ask your • GENVOYA is a prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in healthcare provider if you have questions about how 12 years of age and older HIV-1 who weigh at leastAlways 77 pounds topeople reduce the risk of passing to others. and have never taken HIV-1 medicines before. GENVOYA can practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance also be used to replace current HIV-1 medicines for some QH UGZWCN EQPVCEV YKVJ DQF[ ĆƒWKFU 0GXGT TGWUG QT UJCTG people who have an undetectable viral load (less than 50 PGGFNGU QT QVJGT KVGOU VJCV JCXG DQF[ ĆƒWKFU QP VJGO copies/mL of virus in their blood), and have been on the same HIV-1 medicines for at least 6 months and have never failed IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION HIV-1 treatment, and whose healthcare provider determines that they meetmost certain other requirements.

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Ask your healthcare provider if GENVOYA is right for you. • Take GENVOYA with food.

GENVOYA.com

GENVOYA, the GENVOYA Logo, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, SHOW YOUR POWER, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. Version date: April 2017 Š 2017 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. GENC0141 04/17

by

Turn Up the Radio

Sherri Lewis aids interrupted my dreams—but i’ve

learned to reclaim them

T

he best time in my life was being a signed recording artist. New York City in the early eighties was exactly where I wanted to be. Just twenty-six years old, it was prime time with my boyfriend/ composer Zecca and our band Get Wet. From the first photo shoot to hitting the stage at Max’s Kansas City for our first gig on September 2, 1979, and being discovered by Lou Reed, it was a whirlwind of record companies and recording studios. How could anything go wrong?

In the midst of our good fortune stood the grim reaper. We signed on the dotted line with a dying man, record mogul Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records (Kiss, The Village People, Donna Summer, Cher) on the West Coast. There was no way of knowing he was very ill. We— Sherri Beachfront and Get Wet—were to be the crown jewel of his new label, Boardwalk Entertainment. It was a first-class ride with multi-Grammy winning producer, Phil Ramone (Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett). Together with Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Quincy Jones, we attended the Grammys. The fledgling MTV Network had two Get Wet videos in rotation. We hit top 40 with our original single “Just So Lonely,” and that led to appearances on Merv Griffin, Solid Gold, and American Bandstand. The tension in the studio led to Zecca and me breaking up, both personally and professionally. To fulfill our commitment for a European promotional tour, the label suggested I bring my guitar player. Three weeks later, when I re-

JULY 2017 • A&U

turned my lawyer called to tell me that Boardwalk was going bankrupt and was buying me out of my contract, but I had other offers. With no manager and burnt out from two years of non-stop gigs, I said no and took a year off. Devastated I picked up some gigs but really wasn’t coping until I got clean and sober two years later.

The happiest time in my life was meeting my husband.

He was a blues guitarist and a single parent with a fifteenyear-old son. We hoped to have a family of our own. I was excited about life again and returning to my career. But on April 12, 1987, the music stopped when I was diagnosed with HIV and handed a death sentence. I was relieved when my fiancé tested negative and married me in spite of his friends’ advice.

Like many of us living with HIV/AIDS in the darkest years I became an activist.

Scooped up by a Harvard professor in my twelve-step meeting, I was invited to speak and hired to work on a research grant. For the next several years, I would be counseling, testing addicts, giving results, and attending funerals. I would come home from work crying at the dire circumstances people had and grateful for what I had, a home and a family. For relief I kept singing at benefits. But I missed my special lavender gel on the follow spot and the electricity from performing live.

I had made a commitment to staying healthy until there was effective treatment. Fifteen years later, when that happened, I wanted my career back. I wasn’t done—I was just beginning! AIDS interrupted my career and my dreams. But in August 1999 I moved to Los Angeles, California to reclaim them.

I instantly booked speaking engagements at UCLA, and worked with an HIV women’s organization and a few rehabs. One day my client in a luxury rehab in Malibu mentioned to the nurse that her sober companion sings.

“She does?” she asked with some doubt.

Turning to me she asked, “Could you sing something for me?”

“What do you want me to sing?” I replied.

“Can you sing opera?” she asked.

Thankfully I knew one Italian aria and

sang it in her office.

Her face floored, her jaw dropped open, she said, “If I could sing like that I wouldn’t be a nurse!”

Realizing I had been hiding in the mountains while my dreams were becoming a memory, I shifted gears, out of treatment, headed down the mountain and toward the music.

One night at a party someone called out “Sherri Beachfront!” Surprised, since no one in Los Angeles calls me by that name, I learned it was Peitor Angell, an old acquaintance from New York.

“Are you still singing?” he asked.

“Yes, but not like when I was in New York,” I answered.

“Are you interested in recording? I have songs, tracks ready. Come into my studio we can see if there’s something you like and if they are in your key you can record them.”

“That would be fantastic!” I exclaimed, though feeling apprehensive. The loss of my career had left some serious scar tissue. But I was no longer letting the past interfere with the present.

The miracle of my life has been surviving AIDS. The next chapter is about thriving.

Turn Up the Radio!

Check out Sherri Beachfront’s new single, “Turn Up the Radio,” on iTunes.

A native of New Jersey, Sherri Lewis spent her twenties in New York City as an entertainer. She was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1987 after going for a routine blood test for her marriage license and been an activist living with HIV for thirty years. Sherri is currently living in Los Angeles with her dog Romeo, recording music and writing her memoir.

13

Bringing hearts together since 1998

P zMatch.c m

newsbreak

NNewsBreak EWSBREAK Silence=Death Collective Reunites In 1986, six gay men came together to change the way we look at AIDS activism, and perhaps at activism in general. They are the founding members of Silence=Death Collective—Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston (d. 1990), Charles Kreloff, Christopher Lione, and Jorge Socarras. In 1987, the Silence=Death poster appeared on the streets of New York and, shortly after that, became synonymous with ACT UP and AIDS activism.

This year, the members of Silence=Death Collective (Oliver Johnston represented by his sister, Sally Johnston) reunited for the thirtieth anniversary of the poster. The reunion was celebrated through a series of events at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, in New York City.

On June 5, 2017, the museum announced the inauguration of QUEERPOWER, an annual façade commission, which debuted with a museum-site installation by the Silence=Death Collective. On June 8, the museum hosted its annual Summer Benefit. A couple of days later, on June 10, the city council honored the collective with a proclamation at the public opening of FOUND, an art show curated by Avram Finkelstein, on display at Leslie-Lohman Museum.

Avram Finkelstein is perhaps the best-known member of the Silence=Death Collective. He needs no introduction. Finkelstein is an artist, activist and ACT UP member. His upcoming book is After Silence—A History of AIDS Through Its Images.

The reunion was emotional, as was the award ceremony. Each award was different. For example, Avram Finkelstein’s award encouraged him to “Turn Fear Into Action” while Brian Howard’s encouraged to “Use your power. Vote. Boycott.” On Charles Kreloff’s award is inscribed “Turn Grief Into Action.”

In a quote on the importance and symbolism of the Silence=Death poster, Kreloff says, “We again are facing dangerous times that may very well imperil the lives of the entire LGBTQ community. On the thirtieth anniversary of the Silence=Death poster, the collective feels it’s time to speak up again. Resistance comes in many forms and now more than ever we can’t sit back and think that we’re safe. As with the original poster, a call to awareness and action is necessary now. Be Vigilant. Refuse. Resist.”

—Reporting by Alina Oswald

photo by Alina Oswald

HIV Dot Gov On the thirty-sixth anniversary of the CDC’s first reporting on what eventually would be called AIDS, AIDS.gov, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ portal to its HIV/AIDS informational resources, has changed its name to HIV.gov. True, “HIV” as a search term is used more often online than “AIDS.” However, the change in name seeks, more pointedly, to highlight our progress in the fight that has been ongoing for more than three decades, a fight that has made living with HIV, rather than progressing to an AIDS diagnosis, more achievable today than in the past thanks to early testing and treatment, tailored HIV meds, and an emphasis on self-care and community health. As the agency reports, there are more individuals living with HIV than with AIDS. More work needs yet to be done, however.

“The shift to HIV.gov is proactive and inclusive, and it sends a strong, supportive message to the 1.1 million people across America who are living with HIV,” stated Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, in a prepared release. “The number of annual HIV infections in the U.S. fell 18 percent between 2008 and 2014, but progress has not been the same for all communities. HIV.gov will deliver current science, accurate information and links to effective resources for the people who need them most.”

According to the site’s own statistics reporting, more than 8 million people visited AIDS.gov and its related social media channels. Along with HIV basics, an outline of the federal response, a list of awareness days and related events, and links to news and resources, a page called “Positive Spin” relates the stories of indviduals living with HIV/AIDS or who do not know their serostatus, along the continuum of care. Additionally, the site offers insights into how to utilize digital tools for advocacy and education. It even offers social media training via virtual office hours.The site itself is now more mobile-friendly and connected to an array of social media platforms.

Visit www.HIV.gov and follow its related social media channels.

JULY 2017 • A&U

15

Write Back, Write AIDS! Lambda Literary, the nation’s leading organization advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature, announced the winners of the 29th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) at a ceremony hosted by multi-genre artist Justin Vivian Bond at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The ceremony honored writers in several categories, including LGBT fiction, poetry, nonfiction, romance, erotica, memoir/biography, and more.

Among other awards, Lammys in gay fiction, gay memoir/biography, and LGBT nonfiction went to AIDS-related titles by Rabih Alameddine, Cleve Jones, and David France, respectively. Alameddine and Jones were both subjects of recent interview features in A&U. John Francis Leonard, columnist and contributing writer at A&U, interviewed Alameddine on the publication of his novel The Angel of History, awarded the Lammy for Gay Fiction. [A&U, November 2016] In Angel (Atlantic Monthly Press), Alameddine writes of Yemeni-born gay poet Jacob, an emotionally battered survivor of AIDS’ early onslaught. Set over the course of one night in the waiting room of a psych clinic, Jacob revisits the events of his life as a gay Arab man in San Francisco at the height of AIDS. Born in Jordan to parents of Lebanese descent, Alameddine grew up in several Middle Eastern countries before leaving for the UK at the age of seventeen, then emigrating again to America and settling in San Francisco.

AIDS activist, labor organizer, and LGBT icon Cleve Jones, interviewed in A&U’s January 2017 issue, received a 2017 Lammy in the category Gay Memoir/Biography for When We Rise (Hatchette Books). The memoir traces Jones’s incredible life, from a queer boy in Phoenix, Arizona discovering his tribe, to City Hall in San Francisco as legislative aide to Supervisor Harvey Milk, to his work as labor activist with Unite Here and his ongoing AIDS-related advocacy. An eight-hour television docudrama based partially on Jones’s memoir recently aired on the ABC network. “I wrote this book because the LGBT movement saved my life,” Cleve said at the ceremony, “and I’m ready to keep fighting.”

David France received the LGBT Nonfiction Lammy for How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS, his compelling companion book to his award-winning documentary of the same name.

Highlighting the importance of queer literature in these times, Tony Valenzuela, Lambda Literary Executive Director, told attendees, “In a year of great political turmoil, the Lammys are a reminder that our LGBTQ writing community remains at the forefront of resistance to attacks on our communities.”

Learn more at www.LambdaLiterary.org.

—Reporting by Hank Trout

At the amfAR Capitol Hill conference, “Making AIDS History: A Roadmap for Ending the Epidemic,” on June 14, government officials, AIDS researchers, public health officials and representatives from AIDS service organizations gathered to discuss the immediate future of AIDS research, prevention, and a cure in the face of huge budget cuts proposed by the current Administration. The event highlighted the latest advances in HIV prevention, treatment and research, and addressed current challenges and opportunities for ending the global AIDS epidemic.

“A substantial cut in U.S. funding for lifesaving HIV/AIDS Clockwise (from left): Congresswomprograms in the U.S. and around the world would seriously an Nancy Pelosi, amfAR Chairman of jeopardize the significant progress made thus far in the fight the Board Kenneth Cole, and amfAR against the epidemic,” according to Susan J. Blumenthal, MD, CEO Kevin Robert Frost MPA, Conference Chair, Senior Policy and Medical Advisor for amfAR, and former U.S. Assistant Surgeon General. “We are at a tipping point towards reversing the pandemic,” she said. “But progress is fragile, and proposed significant funding reductions of $1.2 billion in the Administration’s FY18 budget for global AIDS programs could have an immediate human impact with tens of thousands more HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.

An 18% proposed cut for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would also be a significant setback for the discovery of a cure and a vaccine, which are essential elements in our roadmap to end AIDS.” Kenneth Cole [A&U, November 2011], amfAR’s Chairman of the Board and UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador, asserted that progress on HIV/AIDS is dependent on three key ingredients—political will, innovation, and human and financial resources—and warned that the loss of one or more of these will inevitably bring progress to a halt. Cole stated that the Administration’s proposed cuts could lead to a twelve percent increase in HIV cases in the U.S., costing $6.8 billion in lifetime healthcare expenses.

Other topics at the conference included the national security implications of AIDS and other epidemics, the economic and health impacts of aging with HIV, and the opioid crisis in the U.S. and its relationship with HIV. The conference ended with remarks from Kevin Robert Frost, Chief Executive Officer of amfAR, who provided an update on amfAR’s Countdown to a Cure initiative. “If we make the right investments, and we’re smart about how we support the science, we will make AIDS history,” said Frost.

AmfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, is one of the world’s leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to AIDS research, prevention, treatment, and advocacy. Since 1985, amfAR has invested more than $480 million in its programs and has awarded more than 3,300 grants to research teams worldwide.

For more information, visit: www.amfar.org.

16

A&U • JULY 2017

photos by Getty Images

Making AIDS History

SOMETIMES, OUR HIGHEST HEIGHTS HAPPEN

LONG BEFORE TAKEOFF. Proud Partner of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

by Ruby Comer

Greg Wilson, Jr.

18

espressos we ordered from the hotel bar. We scan the pedestrians on Calle Calabria.

Ruby Comer: This is an uber-friendly, funky boutique hotel! [Greg nods earnestly.] So, what is your main concern right now with HIV? Greg Wilson, Jr.: The rise in the number of people that we’re still losing to this disease.

I believe it is due to fear and also the lack of education. We’d like to believe that because a lot more education is available and there are campaigns and commercials, that everyone must know about it. But that just is not true.

That is true! If you had to name one thing that you learned during your down days, what would you say?

I learned to fall in love…with me. [I get goosebumps.] I also tell people that I love them. We should not assume that tomorrow will always come. [The guy from the desk inquires if we need anything else. We tell him we are doing “bueno.”] As you know Ruby, my life took a positive turn when I found out that I was HIV-positive.

Yes. I do. In my work, I hear that quite a bit, especially…[He interrupts.]

I embraced my metamorphosis. …and that’s what you called your book,

Metamorphosis of a Heart!

Yes, thank you for bringing it up, Miss Comer! [He gently giggles.] It speaks to the changes one may endure in life. The heart represents emotions that come along with those life changes. Often enough people don’t share their stories of trial, tribulation and triumph. I wanted to share in hopes of inspiring others. There’s power in everybody’s story.

[I shake my head like a bobblehead.]

In my book you will hear me speak about a wide variety of things that are currently impacting our community, such as homelessness, sexual abuse, suicide, A&U • JULY 2017

Ruby illustration by Davidd Batalon; Wilson photos by Leroy Hamilton

A

nd this AIDS memorial was the first ever that was built in Europe?!” I ask Marc, our tour guide from Barcelona Rainbow Tours.

“Yes Ruby. Dedicated in 2003 right here in Montjuïc Parc, the Catalonia section of Barcelona.” (Later I learn that Rainbow Tours is also offered in other major Euro cities, and that they strongly support Barcelona Checkpoint, which provides services for free HIV testing.)

Yes, kids, I am in España! Wandering around the Calles of Barcelona along with my L.A. pal, Greg Wilson. He works with In The Meantime Wellness Center, a multifaceted nonprofit that educates and empowers men and addresses mental health issues, HIV, and addiction, with a focus on the Black community.

Greg’s responsibilities include community activism, leadership development, and health education.

What led Greg, thirty-five, to this position (he calls himself a “community bridge”) was his own journey of living in a transitional program, which was provided by the LA LGBT Center. He was then twenty-three when he learned that he was HIV-positive. After making some life-altering changes, Greg gradually got back on his feet, grateful for The Center’s help. His cathartic experience compelled him to help others in the same crucial predicament.

After our four-hour enthusiastic and enlightening tour around the city, we warmly bid Marc farewell. Greg and I leisurely stroll back to Hotel Axel Two, where we’ve been camping out. “Hetero-friendly” is the moniker for the hotel.

Catchy! The hotel collaborates with Stop SIDA (AIDS in Spanish), a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention of STI’s since 1986. They donate one pound from each guest’s stay.

Sitting at a high intimate round table at the lobby window, Greg and I sip

sexuality, acceptance, forgiveness, faith, being diagnosed with HIV and learning to live with it.

Our experiences aren’t meant to break us, they’re meant to truly set us free.

photo © Marco Pastori/courtesy Hotel Axel Two

You interact a lot with youth. What would you say is the number-one reason young gay men get infected?

Longing to be loved and low self-esteem.

I know how that feels. [He pauses.] Oftentimes, guys may compromise themselves, putting aside their values and/or lowering their standards in order to be wanted. The

compromises may include not advocating for protection during sex and not asking the partner’s status. I believe the emptiness they feel adds to the risk of infection.

Makes perfect sense. What is the best tool to get them to protect themselves?

We need to make sure that most holistic programs and prevention [efforts] are supported in the communities that are most impacted. It is imperative that we assure that all resources and options for protection are accessible and not too hard to access. If it feels too complicated, people would much rather do without.

If people feel judged, they’ll avoid those resources.

We must stop assuming that one size fits all or that everyone will Hotel Axel Two

be in compliance with what is supposed to be the “Right Way.” With education and wellness programs, we have the opportunity to truly address and cater to the needs of our community.

How about some simple advice, hombre?

Ask questions! There’s no reason to be embarrassed about not knowing something.

HIV doesn’t define you. It takes time to learn that …and it isn’t always easy. The person that I contracted HIV from didn’t share his status with me. I could not imagine putting someone in that situation!

I know for some it’s a bit difficult to deal with the stigma and possible rejection of being HIV-positive. It requires strength...but it’s so worth it.

How so, Greg?

The caterpillar thought its life was over, until it became a butterfly. It discovered that life had just begun. [He recites as if his insights were a greeting card.] Ruby, I am out of my cocoon and truly embracing my Metamorphosis. [Greg beams a poised smile.]

Ruby Comer is an independent journalist from the Midwest who is happy to call Hollywood her home away from home. Reach her by e-mail at MsRubyComer@aol.com.

viewfinder

by

The Prodigal Queer

Hank Trout this elder in the tribe returns &

W

hen I first heard last year that my alma mater—West Virginia University, in Morgantown—had opened a new LGBTQ+ Center, I must admit, I was quite skeptical. After all, when I attended WVU in the 1970s—BA 1974; MA 1977—I did not even meet another gay person on campus until my second year in graduate school! Of course things and times change—there are 45,000 students at WVU now, compared to 25,000 when I attended—but the idea of an LGBTQ center in WV was still simply unimaginable to me. Monongalia County, home to Morgantown and WVU, which has long been a progressive “oasis” in the Red Desert of Republican West Virginia, voted fifty-eight percent for the Republican ticket in 2016. The idea of an LGBTQ center in that deeply red environment struck me as foolhardy at best, dangerous at worst.

Besides, I was born and reared in Morgantown in the 1950s, came of age there in the 1960s, was educated there in the 1970s. I remember exactly how repressive and violent the area was to anyone who dared to reach beyond the region’s strictures and expectations. I was called a “conceited faggot” and beaten up for it long before I understood the meaning of either word. Since moving away in 1978, returning to WV only during times of great family trauma (illnesses, funerals), I had relegated Morgantown and all those years I spent there to the best-forgotten-about past.

Thus, it was with no small amount of trepidation that I accepted the WVU LGBTQ+ Center’s invitation to visit for a week this past April in my capacity as a WVU alumnus, as a writer for this magazine, and as a long-term HIV/AIDS survivor. The Prodigal Queer Writer Returns! The possibilities seemed boundless,

exciting!—but daunting. Throughout making plans for lectures, recitals, and writing workshops, I wondered, Will anyone care?! Will anyone want to listen to this old queer talk about being a long-term HIV/AIDS survivor?

To be honest, I had doubts that I could communicate across such an age difference.

For one thing, I hadn’t stood in front of a classroom in forty years, not since I was a teaching assistant while a grad student at WVU. Standing in front of a classroom to deliver a lecture or conduct a writing workshop after that long an absence could be disastrous!

Also, I’ve not had much other opportunity to talk with young queer folks—my “social circle” is filled with other curmudgeons like me; I’m not used to talking with people who are young enough to be my grandchildren! (Now there’s a thought to terrify the masses!) Cleve Jones [A&U, January 2017] recently pointed out that when young queer folks listen to men like him and me talk about the AIDS crisis, the experience for them is very much like Cleve and me listening to our parents or grandparents talk about the Great Depression or World War II—the events of the AIDS crisis are that far removed from young people today. Will anyone care? clouded my anticipation frequently.

I needn’t have worried so much.

If the students I met at the WVU LGBTQ+ Center earlier this month are any indication—and I believe they probably are as typical as any—then, the kids are indeed alright. The students I met are engaged, curious, and eager to learn the history of their Tribe. They were attentive to my stories about marches and rallies and the fights that we queer folks have waged in the last forty years and longer. They asked intelligent, probing questions that sometimes challenged this old

know-it-all geezer!

Most impressive to me, as a long-term survivor, was the level of empathy the students showed when we talked about the AIDS crisis and what it means to have survived the Plague Years. During a Q&A session after we screened Last Men Standing [A&U, May 2016], several students fought back tears as they asked questions about the eight men in the film and about my experiences. They seemed to realize that although they might never fully understand the unspeakable grief that the AIDS Generation has endured, they sincerely want to understand it, to avoid repeating it. They shudder at tales of how we were shunned and stigmatized; they cry tears of pride at how we came together to care for each other, how we fought for each other. And they seem genuinely hungry for the stories we Elders in the Tribe, especially us long-term survivors, can share with them.

“Thank you for helping us to understand how important our narratives are,” one wrote me afterward.

No homecoming was ever so sweet before.

For more information on the WVU LGBTQ+ Center, visit their website at http://lgbtq.wvu.edu/ and/or their Facebook page at www.facebook. com/WVULGBTQCenter/.

Hank Trout, Editor at Large, edited Drummer, Malebox, and Folsom magazines in the early 1980s. A long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS (diagnosed in 1989), he is a thirty-seven-year resident of San Francisco, where he lives with his fiancé Rick. Follow him on Twitter @HankTroutWriter.

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photos by Jacob Klettner, student assistant, WVU LGBTQ+ Center

discovers that the kids are indeed alright

A&U • JULY 2017

Justin B. Terry-Smith, MPH, has been fighting the good fight since 1999. He’s garnered recognition and awards for his work, but he’s more concerned about looking for new ways to transform society for the better than resting on his laurels. He started up in gay rights and HIV activism in 2005, published an HIV-themed children’s book, I Have A Secret (Creative House Press) in 2011, and created his own award-winning video blog called, “Justin’s HIV Journal”: justinshivjournal. blogspot.com. Presently, he is working toward his doctorate in public health. Visit his main Web site at www.justinbsmith.com. He welcomes your questions at justinterrysmith@gmail.com.

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I understand their demands listed above. Having representation of all of the LGBTQ community is very important in the parade. I also think that the leadership that represents us should be strong, competent, knowledgeable, intelligent, and articulate, to name a few requirements. But I do have some questions. Have they themselves come up with a better vetting system than the vetting system that Capital Pride already has in place for its sponsors? Isn’t the last demand of preventing uniformed police officers, including the LGBT Liaison Unit of D.C. Metropolitan Police Department from participating in the parade, is a little farfetched, considering they’re for our protection? There have been incidents when police have protected the LGBTQ community from harm during pride parades and festivals. As far as military, talk about exclusionary—I myself have marched proudly as a member of the military member, a 9/11 disabled veteran, in uniform.

I’m all for raising one’s voice when there are injustices and everyone should have the right to protest. Pride itself once was a protest. The first gay marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago on June 28, 1970, to remember the anniversary of the Stonewall riots and those protests turned into Pride parades.

Online supporters of the group #NoJusticeNoPride compared the protest to such actions as the Stonewall Riots and ACT UP protests. But, no, I will not compare #NoJusticeNoPride to either. Stonewall and ACT UP were clear instances of a group of people fighting against institutions that criminalized us and left us to suffer and die.

Stonewall happened because the community had been constantly harassed, jailed, and beaten by police. ACT UP started because people were dying of AIDS every day when there were little to no fucks given about those who were

dying by the federal government and others. The Pride parade has not become such an institution.

Yes, the parade had corporate sponsors, but it also had community resources.

Rerouting the parade meant there would be little to no attention given to the community resources that are there to help the trans and queer community or any other community for that matter. People who come to watch the parade sometimes learn about resources or organizations they didn’t know about. If I were a Latinx gay man or trans woman and didn’t speak or understand English, I would need to know where to go for resources. In the D.C. area, there are places that can help, like La Clinica del Pueblo, that provides resources to the LGBTQ Latinx community. Also, their mission is to is to create successful life stories among Transgender, Genderqueer and Gender Non-conforming, Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people. So, by protesting, I feel #NoJusticeNoPride may have thwarted the individuals, especially young people, it claims to represent from being informed about the resources they need.

And information about resources is needed. According to statistics from the D.C. Department of Health among the 246 transgender persons diagnosed with HIV, 96.3 percent were linked to care, with fifty percent of them becoming linked to care within three months of diagnosis. Nearly three-quarters (72.8 percent) received any care in 2014, and, out of those, 68 percent were found to have received continuous care in 2014. Of all transgender persons diagnosed, 62.2 percent achieved viral suppression at last lab in 2014.

There are several ways of getting one’s message across, but this form of protest may not be effective. However, I refuse to protest the protestors. Divisiveness among a minority only allows a majority to conquer them. ◊

photo by Don Harris © Don Harris Photographics, LLC. all rights reserved

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t was a typical day at Washington D.C.’s Pride parade, the sun was out, people were smiling, cheering and…..protesting? When I’m in the parade you can usually catch a glimpse of me in the leather contingent on my motorcycle. I live about forty minutes outside of the D.C. area, a little bit of a schlep for some. If you are in the Pride parade, in any Pride parade, you can expect some delays, but during this year’s Capital Pride, there were several.

A major delay was caused by #NoJusticeNoPride, which, according to its Facebook event page, is “a collective of organizers and activists from across the District of Columbia. We exist to end the LGBT movement’s collusion with systems of oppression that further marginalize queer and trans individuals.” They were protesting Capital Pride for several reasons. Their demands were to honor the legacy that trans women of color played in the history of Pride by adding more transgender women of color in leadership positions; more stringently vet which corporations serve as sponsors of Capital Pride; and prevent uniformed police officers, including the LGBT Liaison Unit of D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and military personnel from participating in the parade. They were chanting “We shut shit down” and “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.”

At first I was a little puzzled by it all, maybe because I don’t necessarily identify as trans or queer, maybe because I, myself, even though gay and black, understand that how I was raised makes me privileged—I’m not sure.

The parade was delayed for about ninety more minutes than expected, which cost the city of Washington, D.C., a pretty penny. Also, the parade was rerouted three times in order to bypass protestors who had chained themselves together in order to interrupt the flow of the parade.

A&U • JULY 2017

BOSTON TO NEW YORK September 8 – 10, 2017 brakingaidsride.org 866-858-6877 JULY 2017 • A&U

Benefiting

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A Letter to Myself at 18 hear me now—make yourself heard

I’m forty-eight when I’m writing this and I want to let you know a few things. Not a total rundown of everything that happens—your future should, and will, hold so many surprises. What I’d like to impart are a few things about something that has informed your life since adolescence and is just beginning to affect it greatly now. I’m talking about AIDS and the crisis you are living through and that will continue to shape you.

First of all, obviously, you will make it. You’re fatalistic predictions of your own demise from this disease will not come to fruition. It seems dark now, but there will be light for you and your peers.

That’s not to say that there won’t be loss ahead. You will lose many friends and lovers to this disease. Continue to be there for those friends, hold them dear and don’t forget them. Learn from this loss; you, unlike so many before you, have choices to make. Continue to make the right choices, and save yourself a lot of pain and trouble to come.

The most important thing I can tell you looking back is to love yourself enough. Love yourself enough to protect yourself. In the heat of the moment, many moments, and under the influence of drugs and alcohol—cool it on that, by the way—you will forget danger.

Pleasure will be too important, but it will never be as important as your health and your life. There won’t be a cure for this disease, but there will be great advances in treatment as well as prevention. You will be able to live a normal life span, but don’t let this make you careless. There will still be many co-morbid complications that can arise from being HIV-positive as well as a logistical nightmare in securing the medical treatment and medications necessary to keep you alive. Even with treatment making an HIV person

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healthy and subsequently not infectious, there will still be great stigma arising from the fact someone is positive. This stigma will be from society at large as well as, sadly, from your own community. Fear of the disease will not dissipate in many, even with effective treatment and prevention all but guaranteed for those who seek it.

You are now witnessing, and will continue to witness, a great and ultimately effective political movement in the face of AIDS. This movement will eventually help bring about the advent of medications to combat the disease. You will feel already burdened by helping your friends that are dying and witnessing their ultimate demise. As I said already, there will be more. Don’t let this burden keep you from standing up for what is so badly needed and making your voice heard. Your voice will be as needed as much as any other. You will witness a revolution—don’t stand on the sidelines and later regret what you did not do.

Make yourself heard.

As always, politics and public opinion will have its own ebb and flow. There will be a two-term president who will make the causes of you and your community his own. You will feel that the negligent and abhorrent years of the Reagan ad-

ministration are something well behind you, but take heed. A new administration will follow and you will see your civil rights and all the incredible progress on the HIV/AIDS front come under threat.

Once more, the religious right will be pandered to and once again their most cherished cause, thwarting the rights of those they hate in the name of God will bring women, gays, and all minorities under attack once more. Again, the budgets for research as well as assistance to those in need regarding this disease will be threatened. You must remain vigilant and not be afraid to make your voice heard.

What it all boils down to in the end is loving yourself. Loving yourself enough to know in your heart that you can avoid contracting HIV yourself, but still fight for those who do. The disease is not inevitable, not a foregone conclusion. But the fight is.

—With love, John John Francis Leonard is an advocate and writer, as well as a voracious reader of literature, which helps to feed his love of the English language. He has been living with HIV for thirteen years and he is currently at work on his first novel, Fools Rush In. Follow him on Twitter @JohnFrancisleo2.

A&U • JULY 2017

illustration by Timothy J. Haines

John—

Please join us for the

30th Provincetown Swim for Life 2017

Image: Eddie Ritter’s dory, photo by Allan MacKinnon, design by Andrea Pluhar

A 1.4 mile swim & kayak across magnificent Provincetown Harbor

Saturday, September 9 Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla

$4M+ raised since 1988 for AIDS, Women’s Health & the Community Weekend events include: Celebration of Life Concert, Mermaid Brunch, Awards Ceremony and Entertainment

Swim4Life.org Provincetown Community Compact, PO Box 819, Provincetown MA, 02657 thecompact@comcast.net

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The Side Effects

don’t accept what can be changed

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we took an investment in ourselves and stopped living with the side effects.

This transferred over into how I now choose to live in all other aspects of my life. I learned from this that most of what I wasn’t achieving was due to me and not some outside force that was stopping me from being great. I decided that I would try to take on some new opportunities because of it. I had been doing journalism for a while, but kept most of the stories I wanted to tell in my head, not sure if they were worthy of reading. Rather than letting fear be a “side effect,” I challenged myself and began to write everything. I allowed myself to be vulnerable and accept opportunities I would have never dreamed of doing. This new-found strength allowed me to work media for the Tony Awards, a dream I never thought I would see this soon in my life.

The side effects can also be bad friendships and relationships as well. Sometimes the fear of being alone makes us keep people and things around that we should have let go of a long time ago. So, I started to purge in that area as well, letting go of all the “situationships” I had involved myself in and taking time to really just work on me and the things that I could actually control. We assume a lot of times that the

“side effects” come with the package, when realistically there may be other options that we have just been too afraid to venture into. Toxic friendships and relationships I learned were just as toxic as my medicine.

I also learned that just as I was able to change my medication that I could change the people in my life who were no good for me and my existence moving forward.

They had become “side effects” of bad decision making and loneliness, and there was truly no need for me to keep them around past their expiration date.

The fear of change let me accept the “side effects” as something that was normal. I began to assume that I was supposed to live a life in shame and be unhappy because of choices I had made prior. Something I assumed was my own karma, was actually the realization of how stubborn I could be and how taking a full investment in my own life and happiness could be life changing. Most importantly I learned that the “side effects” are just that, and should never take a main seat in your life.

George M. Johnson is a black queer journalist and activist. He has written for Ebony, TheGrio, JET, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Black Youth Project, and several HIV publications. Follow him on Twitter @iamgmjohnson.

illustration by Timothy J. Haines

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t’s been about four years since I started taking HIV medications and I absolutely hated it. I remember when I first started taking the meds and how terrible it made me feel, but I was tough so I figured that I would just deal with it. I just always assumed that it was going to have to be a part of my life as almost a punishment for contracting the virus so I learned to live with the side effects. However, four years later, I’ve come to find out that sometimes the side effects are more of a choice than something that you actually have to succumb to, in HIV and in life.

So, the first medication that I had the pleasure of dealing with worked wonders for me, bringing my viral load down to an undetectable status in less than thirty days and I am forever grateful for that. However, the side effects of the drug were horrible. For more than three years I had to deal with night sweats, vivid dreams, and the stomach problems that would leave me unable to leave the house some days. Again, I hated it. I learned how to live life with having to deal with these problems, always making sure I was somewhere I could get to a bathroom if necessary or get home when it got to be too much to deal with. Then one day about two months ago, I finally told my doctor about all I had been dealing with for three years and she looked at me puzzled. She first fussed me out for not speaking sooner. Then she said, “let’s change your meds,” to which I agreed and began the process.

Over the next few weeks I would be tested to see if I could take the new drug, and, as I could, I then started my new medication. In days, my entire life changed. The problems with the bathroom, the night sweats, the vivid dreams all went away. I was for the first time in almost four years able to live my life how it once was, something I never imagined.

The bigger thing I learned from this was that sometimes, we make choices to live in misery when we could be just fine if

A&U • JULY 2017

And the Band Was Photographer Sam Shahid promotes pride & positivity in a new book benefitting HIV/AIDS service organization ACRIA

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by Michael Schreiber

am Shahid has spun a spectacular career out of his passion for photography, but not as a photographer himself. As a maverick and influential creative director, over the past three decades Shahid has helmed now-iconic advertising campaigns for such brands as Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, and Abercrombie & Fitch, often in collaboration with photographer Bruce Weber. Yet behind the scenes, Shahid has privately pursued his own photography since 1969, documenting friends and strangers joyfully engaged in living gay lives. In an effort to benefit the HIV/AIDS service organization ACRIA, Sam Shahid’s photographs have been collected in the new book, And the Band Was Playing a Gay Tune. The book is a stunning and radiant visual survey of post-Stonewall gay life.

Unlike Weber’s sensual cinematic photos that powerfully serve to sell fashion and fantasies, Shahid’s photos are pure electrifying street theater, focused not on idealized bodies and staging but on the full spectrum of everyday gay lives being proudly lived out loud. His subjects are gay men and women unconstrained, their pride in themselves and their collective identity joyfully bared, both literally and figuratively, for all to see. These are figures charged with light and life, casting off the specter of intolerance and fear to boldly embrace and, indeed, proudly advertise just who and what they are.

While the book is poignantly dedicated to Shahid’s boyfriend and two friends who died of AIDS (all three appear in photos in the book), this is not a book about loss, but rather a celebration of love and life, of people walking or marching or dancing to the beat of their own gay (i.e., happy) tune. As Hy Abady writes in his foreword to the book, “‘I Will Survive,’ Gloria Gaynor, that time, that tune, that we played over and over before so very many people did not. Survive. Yet, through it all, always a celebration a parade that we are out there and alive. No. We are ALIVE!” Fittingly, And the Band Was Playing a Gay Tune has come out just in time for this year’s Pride celebrations.

A&U contributor Michael Schreiber spoke with Sam Shahid about the evolution of his project.

Michael Schreiber: Tell me about the genesis of these photos, and the friends and other people they depict?

Sam Shahid: When I first came to New York back in 1969, I got a camera as I wanted to photograph and document what I was seeing. It was all so new to me and so exciting. And then you meet people—you start acquiring friends—and they knew I loved photography. So three of them would call me and say, “come over this weekend. Bring your camera.” In those days, it wasn’t digital, it was all film. And I would go over and they would dress up and play-act. It was so much fun. We would scream and laugh. It was so campy, it was great. There was such a freedom there: they were comfortable doing it. So I took those pictures, and then we would have a party. We’d all get stoned and show them in a big slideshow with music playing, a disco song or something like that, and we would scream and laugh, and it was all just for us, a whole bunch of us. It was all a lot of fun. And then the gay parade started happening in New York, and I would go to that with friends, and I would take a few photographs here and there. I thought, God, this is really great. People feel so free. New York City, 1977

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A&U • JULY 2017

A&U Gallery

Playing a Gay Tune

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And it was all after Stonewall. I remember archives and I thought, you know, God, look moving to New York in September 1969, at these photographs, what can I do with and Stonewall happened in June, so I came them? I want them to live on, you know. But at the beginning of all that, the freedom and they didn’t work in the book I was doing. the breakthrough. And then all of these phoAnd then one of my best friends invited tographs started collecting, but I didn’t think me to Carnival Week in Provincetown two anything about it. I summers ago, and I thought, this is Top: New York City, 2012 just did it for myself, just fabulous. People were expressnot for a book. I never ing themselves, and there was a lot Bottom: New York City, 1977 planned on that. I of pride in all of it. And so I started wasn’t sure where it was going, if it was going anywhere.

What was the impetus to publish these photos now?

As years went by, my boyfriend Larry died of AIDS—he’s in there, too; he’s one of the people I dedicate the book to, and these other two friends of mine and my sister. Anyway, all this happened all these years and I was photographing and photographing whatever. And then I did a book called Don’t Mind Me, and I went through my

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photographing different things, and then I said to my art director, John MacConnell, “Something’s happening here.

I’ve got my friends from the ’70s, and I’ve got photographs from the ’80s, documenting this and that.” But I just didn’t focus on it as being gay, you know. I didn’t think about it, I lived it. Anyway, John said, “You know, there is something here; I don’t know what it is yet. I’ve got to find a title. A title is going to make it work for me.” So we went to Dictionary. com, and I said, “Type in the word ‘gay.’” And there it was: it said this is how the word is used: “The band was playing a gay tune.” And I said, “My God, that’s it! We’ve got the book! I’ve got the story now.”

But we put the word and in front of it: And the Band Was Playing a Gay Tune. So that’s how it all came about. So then I called ACRIA—Stewart Shining is a real good friend of mine, and he’s president of it—and I said, “You know, I’d like to do this book on the condition that you guys will accept proceeds from it.”

Why did you choose that particular organization?

ACRIA is very important to me because when Larry was living—and my other friends at the time—they were smuggling drugs in here to try to find a cure. AZT was one of their big success stories, and I remember there was a thing called Compound Q that was supposed to be the cure from China. It was cucumber powder. And it was ACRIA that Larry went to. He had to go be interviewed to see if he fit the profile. They selected ten guys in New York, ten in San Francisco, and ten in L.A. to test this new powder. And everyone thought that that was going to be the cure. It was not, but ACRIA put their necks out there, along with doctors— it was all underground—to administer these drugs to them, and so I’ve always been very close to them because of all of that. That A&U • JULY 2017

they stuck their necks out there. Listen, they put their lives on the line. So I thought, I don’t want the money from this book, but I want to be able to take something from this particular subject and donate it to a cause like ACRIA. You launched a Kickstarter campaign to get this book published. Its tremendous success speaks to there being great interest in and support for this project.

Kickstarter comes in because I thought, if I do the book myself, to do a thousand copies will cost a fortune, and I’d have to sell the book for $100, but I want the book to be $65. We need a bigger audience for it.

So we decided, let’s try Kickstarter, and we got the money. And so now, every time I sell the book, the $65, all of it goes to ACRIA, because the book is already paid for. The turnout was great. There were a lot of people who supported it and gave money for it, so I was really happy about that. What’s interesting in the book: there’s frontal nudity too, because they all posed for me nude. I just loved that they were so free to do this and felt good about it and comfortable. So the book is about pride, and being whatever you want to be and who you want to be.

And that absolutely radiates from its pages.

It’s a celebratory book.

The book tells a story from the very beginning to the end. You’ll feel it. You’ll see it. When you see the [photograph of] a newspaper about Stonewall I saw in a window on Christopher Street years ago, and it said, “Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad,” and when you turn the page,

JULY 2017 • A&U

able is the timelessness of so many of these images: they feel so contemporary, in spite of the fact that some of these photos were taken thirty, forty years ago.

Yes. And it never changes, interestingly enough. In the ’70s, when I was photographing friends and all of it, whatever it was, it’s the same thing right now. The same costumes, the same joy, the same fantasies, the same role playing—it’s all exactly the same. It never changes. When you look through the book, you’ll see all these young kids in the parade with all their stuff, and it’s just fantastic to see all walks of life there. It’s great. Everyone is happy, and people who are watching are happy.

Top: Washington, D.C., 1987; bottom: Provincetown, MA, 2015 you see a kid stepping out onto the street with his hands up in the air with pride, and it’s just fantastic. I love it. And so the whole book is that. And the end too: make sure you look at the last picture before the back cover, because it tells you everything. It tells you how I feel about it. It’s a good feeling.

Placed in this celebratory context, a photo of the 1987 AIDS March on Washington reads less as a somber statement or a vitriolic moment of protest, and more as a statement of pride and the power of collective action.

Right. My boyfriend is in that photograph and two of his best friends— they were lovers—and all three died. But what was really great was that here we were now able to go out and say, “Hey, world, look at us.” And that was the pride. We weren’t ashamed anymore. We didn’t have to hide anymore. Even though death was at the doorstep, the fact is that we were all there ready to say, “Here we are.” And we stood together. I have a little of that in there; you’ll see it. But I didn’t want it to be all about the march and that kind of thing. I wanted it to be just what it is. And its [message is] so simple: I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m happy.

Your photos are jubilant depictions of various aspects of gay life from the 1970s through today. What I find so remark-

After spending the time you have recently to curate these photos of past parades and other views of gay life, I can imagine this year’s Pride celebrations might have added or a different resonance for you?

It’s always the same. It’s a good same.

It’s not forced or made up; it’s real. It’s from the heart. The same message [of pride] is there. It never changes.

Sam Shahid’s And the Band Was Playing a Gay Tune is available from Antinous Press: www.antinouspress. com/current/and-the-band-was-playing-a-gay-tune.

Michael Schreiber is a teacher and writer based in Chicago. His first book, One-Man Show: The Life and Art of Bernard Perlin, was named a 2017 Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association, and is a Lambda Literary Award finalist. He and husband Jason Loper are the creators of the popular blog This American House, which chronicles their adventures restoring their Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Iowa. Michael is currently at work on a book about artist Don Bachardy.

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A Warrior’s

Gift

Marine War Veteran Corporal Chris Van Etten Survives a Tragic Situation In Afghanistan and Now Serves As An Inspiration for Everyone Who Feels Less-Than

by Dann Dulin

Photographed Exclusively for A&U by Sean Black

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his story about Chris Van Etten, the Jockey model for the “Show ’Em What’s Underneath” campaign, almost didn’t happen.

Our interview had been set for nearly two months. I intended to drive to see Chris at his new home in Temecula, California, having recently moved there from San Diego. He had intended to drive to me in Los Angeles—about a two-hour jaunt. Fortunately, on the day of our meeting, I awoke to find an email from the veteran.

Chris apologized that he had to cancel. “My prosthetic keeps giving me issues,” he explained. “Details are a little personal but it’s come to the point where I’m not able to keep it on for very long.” And he ended the email with “...but I can’t comfortably make it up there.” What?! I didn’t quite understand at first. Then I realized that he was planning on driving up to L.A.!

Had Chris’s leg not been bothering him, both of us would have been passing one another on the I-15 freeway, ending up at each other’s place, knocking on the door, and getting no answer!

Fate interceded.

Living in a large apartment complex not far from the highway, I’m greeted by a “Hello” welcome mat at the front door.

A petite lone Eucalyptus crenulata tree stands to the side of the

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entrance, and just beyond, cars whiz by on the freeway. Samantha, his fiancé, opens the eight-paneled wooden door and Chris is close at hand. We settle into the cozy living room, while the series The Office is frozen on their television, which they were viewing on Netflix prior to my arrival. Directly beside him, lying on the sandalwood-colored leather sofa is Harley, his military dog who served with him in Afghanistan.

The twenty-six year old Illinois native comes from a military family. His mother and father, who met in the Air Force, are both retired. At eighteen, Van Etten (pronounced ET-ten, with accent on first syllable) enlisted in July 2009. He took the standard medical exams and submitted a blood specimen. This was the first time he was tested for HIV. He wasn’t worried because “wearing protection was always a prerequisite.” Though Chris is in a committed relationship, he still gets tested yearly.

After passing the exam, Chris was sent off to boot camp and then assigned to 1st Battalion 7th Marines Charlie Company, better known as “Suicide Charley.” Deployed to Afghanistan in June 2012, he was conducting dismounted patrol with his unit one night when his squad-mate and best friend stepped on an IED (improvised explosive device). Chris and his buddies rushed to his aid. As they were lifting his body, Chris stepped on another IED. He lost both legs. His friend died.

“TJ [Baune] was an exemplar to all of us,” he says. “Hands down one of the best people and Marines that I’ve ever met.”

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Chris’s already low register deepens and there’s a hint of moisture in his eyes.

Chris spent a year in intensive rehabilitation, though he was walking with prosthetics within a couple of months.

It was demanding and stressful, but he learned how to walk again. It was a greater challenge to overcome the mental anguish. Battered by depression, insomnia, and anxiety, Chris also had to wean himself off painkillers.

Van Etten was saved by the gym.

“I had low points during rehab, but when I got out, that’s when I really hit my lowest, trying to figure out, ‘What now?!’”

It took time. What got him through this period were his workouts. It was therapy and the gym that became his friends.

Reentering civilian life he concluded,

where it rubs into his leg. He leaves it off for the duration of our talk. Chris is affable, straightforward, and genuine, and looks like he just walked in after cutting wood for the fire.

As he speaks, I gaze at Chris—and swoon. Not for the obvious reason, that Chris Van Etten has striking looks and a gripping presence, but due to his daunting courage, old-soul wisdom, life-changing inspiration, and unyielding drive to care for others. The soldier has a unique combination of George Bailey vulnerability with Matthew Bourne strength.

Van Etten’s charitable work began in high school, when he participated in an AIDS Walk. He’s currently active with the Semper Fi Fund (an all-around support organization for Vets and their families),

Now married, Chris and Samantha pose for their engagement photos

“It would be pitiful of me to try and sit here and pretend like my life sucks when there’s people out there that are missing more limbs; people out there who don’t have a husband or a son or a brother.”

Pressing further, Chris reveals, “What got me through, and I know it sounds corny, but every day I told myself that it will get better. Every day I would look at myself in the mirror, force myself to smile and tell myself in the mirror that it was going to get better. Whether you believe it or not, telling yourself supports that thought,” he urges, boasting, “and it did get better.” His success can be boiled down to plain ol’ grit and willpower. Chris refused to be a victim.

Nestled back into the sofa, Chris wears his favorite get-up, T-shirt and shorts. His black shirt sports a logo “Straight Legless Clothing” and his shorts are khaki. He takes off his prosthetic and explains

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Joshua Chamberlain Society (a long-term multifaceted support grassroots charity for veterans), and Homes For Our Troops (privately funded nonprofit that builds mortgage-free homes for Vets). “These three organizations have gone way out of their way to help me,” he attests in a somber manner, “and I try to go out of my way to help them give back a little of what they gave me.”

Chris initially learned about the AIDS epidemic in middle school. He was in seventh grade health class. The school arranged to have an HIV-positive speaker come in and talk to the students. “He talked about what HIV does to your body and all the pills you have to take to keep yourself from dying,” clarifies Chris, in his measured cadence diction. “It made such an impact on me by seeing firsthand a person who had the disease.”

Samantha takes note and in a disap-

pointed tone, says, “I never had a keynote speaker.” (She nods towards Chris to make sure she’s not interrupting. Chris replies, “No, it’s fine.”) She quickly whisks her long blonde tresses away from her face. “I think when you have someone who is living this disease, people listen more and respond more. That would have made a huge difference in my school and community.”

“Hands down, listening to him really made a huge impression on me about the epidemic,” agrees Chris unwavering.

“He made me understand that this is the risk one takes by not having protected sex. This got through to me much more than watching it on PowerPoint or by a teacher’s slideshow. This man was a living example of the disease,” he says.

“That’s powerful.”

Samantha, his fiancé, affirms. “You see that this person is just a human being. It’s not like, you get AIDS and you become a monster. You’re still a person and you’re living your life.” She peers over at Chris. “After all these years you remember this speaker?” They both snicker in agreement since Chris usually has a “horrible memory.” Sam playfully scoffs, “You don’t remember anything!” Chris concurs, “I can’t tell you what my teachers looked like, but I can describe that guy.”

When Chris became sexually active, he remembered the speaker back in middle school and took precautions. “AIDS is not something you should live in fear of, but it’s something people should take into consideration whenever they’re having sex,” he says. Even after a cure is found, protection is still going to matter, due to pregnancy and STDs. Is one night with someone that you don’t want to spend the rest of your life with worth a lifetime of battling an illness? Sex should be taken seriously.”

We discuss the high infection rates of his generation. “Sex should not be made out to be this scary monster,” the lacrosse player, marathoner, and skier insists. “That puts high schoolers off. These kids should be informed about STDs and taught how to protect themselves. People will be more receptive to this than to abstain from sex.” In November 2016, Time magazine reported that STDs reached record highs, as reported by federal data: “Cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis all rose from 2014 to 2015, for a second year in a row.”

Harley pushes her hind paws into Chris’s thighs. She seems to be dreaming. The yellow Labrador and golden retriever mix does not leave his side during our time together.

Chris goes on. “I remember when I was A&U • JULY 2017

younger, there was such stigma surrounding the epidemic. Even while I was still in my negative youthful head, I realized that judging people was not the way to go,” he says cocksure. “But attitudes have changed. It’s really nice to see how accepting people have become in the last decade. We’re all different but we… are…all… human.”

“It’s human nature to fear what we don’t know,” Chris says. “You don’t have to understand how somebody else lives, unless the way they live is physically harming you. You don’t have to put your nose in other people’s business. Let people live the life they want to live!”

Sam jumps in, “I feel like in our [Millennial] generation we were taught about HIV and then we moved on. It was explained as an STD and that was all.” Chris reflects, “It was taught with empathy. In the beginning, AIDS was made to look more like a monster where as now it’s made to look more like an obstacle where we need to help people overcome it.”

Chris believes that social media has helped alleviate some of the stigma through greater awareness about alternative lifestyles, and by dissemination of rapid information about the epidemic and other STDs. Van Etten has also encountered social stigma. He tends to center more on the positive aspects of his life. “When I realize people are talking about me I hope it’s more curiosity than anything else. I tell everyone, ‘Don’t be afraid to come up and ask me.’ That’s the only way a person is going to learn,” he says.

“When they do, I try and show them that it’s not something I’m uncomfortable with. One way to get rid of a stigma is to get educated.”

Chris likes to refer to himself as “handi-capable.”

“When people look at me, I want them to always think of something inspiring and positive. I don’t want them to think, ‘Here’s this guy who went through all that and he’s let the anger and misery take over.’”

Chris has done a lot of soul searching over the last few years. “I was an angry person when I was growing up,” he offers. “I wasn’t the type of person who would lash out. I just stop caring. I’d shut down. After I was injured, I realized how delicate life was and I almost left this world being an angry person. I didn’t want that to happen.” He props his leg up on the prosthetic, resting it atop. “I don’t think my life would have taken this direction had it not been for the fact that I was injured.

In a weird way...it was a gift.” This writer has heard this all too often of people who have been infected with HIV. Chris acquired his insight and courage from his parents, especially his mother.

“My parents are the big reason why I am who I am,” he expresses wholeheartedly, JULY 2017 • A&U

petting Harley.

Chris’s mother had Stage Three breast cancer when he was in high school. It was aggressive, but localized, and the doctors caught it before it could spread. The chemo treatments ate away at her body. “It was miserable,” he recounts, “but she came out of it a stronger person. I could tell that she had a new found view on life. She was always an amazing person, but after that, she was really this absolutely amazing positive person. Starting a conversation with someone, she could make that person be her best friend in five minutes.”

Chris had a role model to help him through his tumultuous times after the injury.

Indeed, his mother pitched in and aided him all through his rehabilitation. She relocated to San Diego, leaving Chris’s father and his two

brothers, Clint and Cameron, who were both in school back in Illinois. “My brothers were fairly young. They were entering a significant time in their lives when she chose to come out…,” he points out in a humble timbre.

His mother was very much a part of his recovery. “Going through what I did, I tried to use her constant drive too,” interjects Chris, Sam shaking her head in accord. “My dad is a tough guy and he can intimidate others, but hands down he’s one of my best friends.”

Chris and his mom are currently writing a book. Sam is eager to reveal the premise. “It’s a cool concept. It’s about what he’s going through and what she’s going through at the same time.” Chris sums up, “One chapter is my story on a certain subject and the next chapter will

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be about her experience.” I ask about the title, but he doesn’t want to jinx the book by revealing too much.

Harley snuggles closer to Chris, laying her head on his leg.

Observing the interaction between Chris and Harley, one can easily see their titanic bond. Later, when asked to name his favorite moment of all time, he answers, “When I got Harley back.” And that was not a simple task.

“It’s not easy to acquire the dog you served with in the military,” according to Vietnam Vet, Ed Reeves, who recently published his captivating story about this subject, My Search for my Vietnam Scout Dog Prince. It usually takes a year and a half of red tape to get the dog you served with, but in Chris’s case, it took five months to get Harley, due in part to Van Etten’s family friends. Ed Reeves was not that fortunate. Harley is Chris’s pride and joy.

Samantha, of course, is another form of bliss. In 2014, Chris and Sam met in his hometown’s Gold’s Gym following Chris’s rehab. (At one point, I ask Chris to show me pictures of his family. When I look at his mother, interestingly enough, I find that there’s a definite similarity in looks between Sam and Chris’s mom.) Sam is a trainer and noticed Chris first. She spotted him doing pull-ups then asked a friend who worked at the desk who this guy was. The friend said, “Oh, that’s Chris Van Etten, I went to high school with him.” Samantha commented to her, “He’s going to be my boyfriend one day.” In a few months, sure enough! Sam messaged Chris first saying, “I think we should hang out.” They did, and the couple tied the knot on April Fool’s Day 2017, in Oceanside, California.

They are currently having a house built through Homes For Our Troops. The property will not just be wheelchair-accessible, it’s a home designed for a wheelchair.

“It’s exciting,” gushes Chris with relish. The house should be ready later this year.

Their passion is to open a gym, which will offer programs for those who are overcoming a

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physical injury or disability, whether it’s those across. Their message is about who have had major surgery or paraplegics showing strength and perseveror amputees. They can get back into the gym ance through all odds,” Chris and workout safely with trained instructors. specifies, his face austere. “The The first one will open main idea of in Temecula. “It’s not the campaign “I liked what they so much about building is there’s a part were trying to get a business, but a good of everyone gym that people are that the public across. Their meshappy with. We have doesn’t see, and the whole design con- sage is about showing to show what’s cept but not the name strength and perse- underneath, yet,” remarks Chris. what’s great verance through all about you. I Do I hear Inner Power Gym or The Warrior’s wanted to help odds....”

Gym? Van Etten promote that currently attends college, taking business idea. Everyday people doing not classes online. so everyday things, trying to Chris is also passionate about motivational better the world speaking, for which Jockey has afforded him in one way or a platform. On the 4th of July last year, proanother.”’ moting the Jockey campaign, he appeared on Jockey liked Today’s “Kathie Lee and Hoda,” then city-byChris’s story, too. city appeared on their local news or morning They asked if he show. Chris plans on continuing speaking would be interaround the country once he receives his ested in joining business degree. the campaign.

“I’m much better speaking to a group of He told them, people than I am one-on-one,” he confesses “Hell, yes! I’d modestly. Early on, his nervousness was love to a part of marginally noticeable, but otherwise the this. It’s aweMarine is cool, calm, and collected. His some.” He pausdemeanor is disarming and engaging. “I es, tousles his like public speaking and it’s a great way to hair, and parts share my story. I learned that with my injury, his Mick Jagger lips into a tender smile. and what happened to me, that I would like “It’s been a crazy rollercoaster ride—and to inspire others to be appreciative of their I’ve loved every second of it!” he rhapsodizlife.” Having a rich smooth voice, when this es. “So many people have been responsive charismatic Vet speaks, one listens. in a positive light and everybody I’ve spoken Chris knows there will be more Vets who with has been motivated by the message.” will go through similar ordeals. “They will get The campaign was launched June 2016. out of the service and say, ‘What now?!’ I always Chris is currently featured in celebrated tell them to find something that they can dive photographer Michael Stokes’ extraordinary into, something to put all their passion into and high-powered trendsetting coffee table book, all their concentration into so they’re not sitting Always Loyal (published 2015). The book around letting their [negative] thoughts get showcases wounded war vets in nearly naked the better of them. They’re working toward... glory in intimate poses, celebrating their lost something.” He changes position and leans limbs. (The photographer donated $10,000 in. “I direct this to anyone who is faced with from the sale of his book to the Semper Fi powerful challenges, such as HIV...,” he blurts Fund.) Stokes was the first person Chris ever with gusto, repeating that working out was his shot with, back in 2013. focus, which saved his life.

Chris cares about others and he cares From the gym, Chris springboarded into about this country. His whole family celemodeling. A woman saw him one day while brates freedom. The day before I met them, he was working out and was so inspired that Chris and Sam drove to San Diego to send she posted it to her Facebook page, “I was so off his nineteen-year-old brother, Cameron, to awed by this amputee working out at the gym boot camp. today….” Chris saw it, which generated the Queried about being a humanitarian, idea for him of a better way to reach peoChris responds. “It should be everyone’s ple—through ads. In 2013 he posed for some responsibility to try and better this world. “small-time” gigs. It was a friend who told Society is so sucked up on the negatives that Chris that Jockey was looking for models. we tend to overlook the positives. It should be “I liked what they were trying to get everyone’s goal to help each other. Do someJULY 2017 • A&U

Van Etten posed for photographer Michael Stokes (above) as well as for Jockey (left). thing everyday that gives back, no matter how big or small it is.”

This may sound a bit “Oprah,” but Chris is steadfast. He rises, excusing himself.

Samantha and I look over toward Harley.

He chomps on a Chewbacca stuffed toy. She says, “Oh, you’ll think this is cool.” She comes over to Harley, lifts up her ear, and displays Harley’s Marine Corp serial number that’s tattooed on her ear. “Everything in the military is numbered, and that’s Harley’s,” Sam explains with a soft, jolly lilt.

Chris returns. He carries a large unwrapped package. It’s the Always Loyal book, which he bestows upon me as a gift. Van Etten sits back down, looks off momentarily, and gently sighs, “Unfortunately, many of my buddies have died, just like many people have died from AIDS and other tragic illnesses.

We’re all going to go some…time. Not all of us can be lucky enough to live a full life,” utters Chris, anchored in gratitude, “but as long as I’m here, I’m going to celebrate every day of my life.” His baby blues sparkle.

Watch the touching Show ’Em What’s Underneath, Show ‘Em Your Jockey video at http://bit.ly/2spLEer. Dann Dulin interviewed singer/songwriter Siedah Garrett for the February cover story.

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foundation of

LOVE

ACTIVIST CECILIA CHUNG FIGHTS FOR HEALTHCARE & JUSTICE FOR ALL

by Connie Rose

Photographed Exclusively for A&U by Sean Black “I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for my religion—I have shuddered at it—I shudder no more—I could be martyred for my religion—Love is my religion—I could die for that.”

—John Keats

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hen I first began researching Cecilia for this article I found this quote on her “About Me” page on Facebook, and, with a quote like that, it was no surprise to me that justice, liberation, healthcare and basic medical treatment for all humans around the world are just a few of the goals Cecilia C. Chung would like to ensure her work and activism helps further. Internationally known as a civil rights leader, she is a pioneer in several groundbreaking ways.

She is the first Asian transgender woman to be elected to lead the board of directors of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration as well as becoming the first transgender woman living openly with HIV to chair the San Francisco Human Rights Association. She was recently portrayed as a character in the epic ABC miniseries When We Rise, written and created by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Currently, she serves as senior strategist of the Transgender Law Center, as well as a member of the San Francisco Health Commission.

She’s so busy changing the world and saving lives that understandably it took us a while to connect and I was so excited when she called me while I was walking in the Las Vegas Women’s Day parade earlier this year. What an inspiration to me to be walking with all those women while talking to one of our modern-day civil rights leaders. I asked Cecilia if she uses any daily affirmations or reminders and she said, “What we need to ask ourselves daily is, what kind of world are we leaving for future generations? What we need to remind ourselves daily is that the whole fight is not

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only marriage equality and we are not single-issue humans. We must make an effort to understand and appreciate our differences to work together to overcome any obstacles and to keep an open dialogue.”

While humble about her advocacy work in the transgender and the HIV community, Chung has been a passionate and vocal voice for almost three decades now.

Immigrating with her parents from Hong Kong to Los Angeles in 1984, early on she suffered years of severe depression, homelessness, as well as sexual and physical violence in the beginning of her transition, which put her in danger and great risk as did her lack of adequate medical care which forced her to buy hormones on the black market. These events created multiple high-risk situations and it was during this time that Cecilia said she thinks is when she acquired HIV. “It was my desire to survive as a transwoman, an immigrant, a person of color living with HIV, that pushed me into my advocacy work—I was fighting for my life.” It was in 1998 while visiting Bangkok when Chung finally had full gender reassignment surgery and was able to put that dark period behind her.

While talking with Cecilia about the changes that need to be made for us to see continued progress, she said, “We must break down arbitrary borders around the world not only for immigration but also the borders and labels we put on people, the assumptions we make about other humans, how they live and what they believe.”

When the discussion of religion came up, Cecilia only has one statement she wishes she could make to the small group within faith-based communities who think transgender or LGBTQ persons do not deserve the same rights as they do and she only wishes that they would practice what they preach, or, in her own words “Do no harm.” She also thinks that “laws that govern all A&U • JULY 2017

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people should not be guided by religious beliefs that are only meant to apply to those who follow that specific religion. I would like people to focus instead on making life better for all people now by using basic common sense and not looking the other way any longer when they witness injustice around them.”

For instance, Cecilia noted that “we need to be critical of the treatment of transgender people who are incarcerated and transgender people who are trapped in the criminal justice system. Those people should have resources provided to them, not taken away.” Chung mentions

and or state-owned prisons around the globe.

Chung hopes that, if we collectively continue opening healthy dialogue with the general public about all of these topics, we can expand as many human minds to see that the world is not black and white and it is our responsibility to our children’s children to ensure that this world continues to improve and move forward, and that it never regresses. She says that to do this we must learn to love one another as humans first. As she

Cecilia Chung shares a moment with Keila Moreno at a recent Positively Trans workshop. hormone medication and mental health care, as two examples. Problems can be compounded as many are subjected to physical and sexual abuse.

Inmate rights are such a hot button issue that support for reform has growing momentum, especially within the transgender and HIV community.

She continues: “They are serving time for charges against them, but they did not sign away their human rights and basic needs. And the cruel and unusual punishment they received is not part of their sentence.” While a person is incarcerated and serving time for crimes they’ve been found guilty of they should not also face even further punishment and abuse from those controlling the activities, policies, procedures, and interactions between inmates and staff at mostly all privately run

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mentioned earlier, no borders, no labels—Cecilia wishes for us to love the human in each other first.

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method that rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

The foundation of love Chung has cultivated is evident in her long history of successful campaigns to further overall healthcare and wellbeing of people, ranging from the transgender community, the HIV/AIDS community, LGBTQ, cisgender, women, the disabled and to all people.

What started out as a desire to survive so she could have happiness in her life has turned into a lifelong fight for human rights for all people.

In 2014 Cecilia became the first recipient of San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Cleve Jones Award for excellence in the fight against HIV/AIDS and her hope is that her accomplishments will empower more strong, powerful, trans-voices, becoming visible as leaders in this fight for fair and just human rights for all people, using our differences to achieve the unimaginable.

But the work is not over, especially in today’s climate, where GOP politicians in North Carolina and Texas, for example, are attacking and stigmatizing the A&U • JULY 2017

transgender community by restricting access to public accommodations. Chung says the focus is unjust, and bemoans the fact that the mainstream media has directed the public’s attention away from what matters most. If mainstream media would devote more of their attention on creating unity by showing our similarities instead of focusing on our differences and irrelevant topics, like bathroom rights over healthcare, she notes, we may begin to see change. For example, if the mainstream news would start covering how many transwomen were and still JULY 2017 • A&U

are in some areas dying from lack of breast cancer screenings and other basic healthcare needs when one might be in between a gender reassignment surgery instead of where that one person may be choosing to use the restroom, we may start seeing the general population begin to understand what is really going on.

That’s not what is most important to her though. Chung says, “I am where I am today because someone believed in me and gave me the opportunity to serve my community, and what I do today is to pay it forward and create opportunities for

other trans and gender non-conforming people of color and those who choose not to define by any of the categories. And there is always more that I can learn.”

For more on Cecilia Chung, follow her on Twitter @cecilia_c_chung.

Connie Rose, a long term survivor since 1996, lives in Las Vegas with her daughter, grandson and best fur buddy, Sugar Bear. She is the founder of Livingapozlife on WordPress, trying to change the world one blog at a time.

You can follow her on Twitter @Cricketlv and other social media sites.

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positive force Jeff Sheehy , the First Openly HIV-Positive Member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, Fights for Long-Term Survivors, Treatment Access & Affordable Healthcare for All

by Hank Trout

Photographed Exclusively for A&U by Michael Kerner

W

hen Mayor Edwin Lee swore him in as the newest member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on January 8, 2017, as the new representative of District 8 (which includes the Castro gayborhood), Jeff Sheehy made history as the first openly HIV-positive member of the Board which governs the City and County of San Francisco.

“Jeff Sheehy has spent his entire life fighting for his community and for what he believes is right, and I know that as Supervisor, Jeff will be a proven fighter for the residents of his district, and for our entire City,” said the mayor. The District 8 position on the Board opened when former supervisor Scott Weiner won election to the California State Senate last November.

A native of Waco, Texas, Jeff moved to San Francisco after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988. Since his arrival, he has dedicated his life to community service. A longtime activist and crusader for LGBTQ equality, Jeff was a member of ACT UP/San Francisco, served as president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, and worked as Mayor Gavin Newsom’s adviser on HIV/AIDS and as a victim advocate in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. Beginning in 2000, Jeff was Director of Communications at the UCSF AIDS Research Institute.

Sheehy is also a founding member of the Steering Committee of San Francisco’s Getting to Zero Consortium, whose goal is to make the City the first to achieve the UNAIDS goals of zero new

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infections, zero HIV deaths, and zero HIV stigma.

In recognition of his HIV/AIDS advocacy, Jeff has received the Human Rights Campaign’s Leadership Award, the Caped Crusader Award from Equality California, the Tomas Fabregas AIDS Hero Award, and the UCSF Chancellor’s Award for Public Service. He lives in the Glen Park section of San Francisco his husband, Bill Berry, and their daughter, Michelle.

We sat down to talk in Jeff’s new City Hall office.

Hank Trout: When did you test HIV-positive?

Jeff Sheehy: In 1997, almost exactly twenty years ago. I was President of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club by then.

This seat you’re holding now has been held by some very prominent folks—Mark Leno, Harry Britt, and of course Harvey Milk. Do you find that history daunting or inspiring or…?

I find it inspiring, not daunting at all. I mean, I have made significant contributions myself over time, beginning with securing the equal benefits ordinance, and I think my HIV work has been pretty good.

It certainly has been! You’re the first HIV-positive supervisor that San Francisco has had. Do you think being HIV-positive might influence your positions and decisions here on the Board?

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Well, it certainly gives me a different frame of reference. For instance, I was in ACT UP. So I bring a very vigorous approach to dealing with people who cheered when AIDS first hit, and there are still people around who have never really shaken that attitude that somehow this is God’s will and that people who have HIV are getting what they “deserve.” And [being positive] gives me a tremendous sense of solidarity with people who have HIV not just in San Francisco, not just in the United States, but with people who have HIV all over the world. As you know, the HIV/AIDS community responded on a global level.

I am particularly interested in what happens to the long-term survivor community, which is my community. These are people who—really, until recently, with the work of folks like Tez Anderson at Let’s Kick A.S.S. and the great supplement that Erin Allday wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle called “Last Men Standing—a lot of people had forgotten.

We’ve just started to get organized. Sixty percent of the people in San Francisco who are living with HIV are over the age of fifty.

So that also affects me because it’s not just people with HIV who are getting older and facing new challenges. We have a large community of LGBT people who are, frankly, HIV-negative long-term survivors, y’know? There are all kinds of long-term survivors, but all of us suffered.

We wouldn’t have made it through the epidemic without our lesbian sisters, right?

What specific kinds of things can the City do to address issues facing long-term survivors?

For one, the Golden Compass Program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital is a great start, especially for people with HIV. It’s not just treating someone’s HIV; you have to look comprehensively at all the healthcare issues for us—as long-term survivors, we have bone issues, cardiovascular issues, metabolic issues… neurological issues….dental issues, vision services. And of course there is also the social isolation, which I think is dramatic among a lot of folks in our community. And I don’t think it’s just long-term survivors, by the way, that isolation is directly linked to the loss we have all suffered. People have had difficulty sustaining circles of friends and chosen family, no matter how you choose to define “family,” which has always been fluid for us.

Housing, for instance, is obviously another big need. I think we need to look at JULY 2017 • A&U

models for senior housing. One of the programs that I’m trying to enhance that has been developed is a “small site” program.

This is a program whereby the City buys these small buildings, four, six, eight-unit buildings. A non-profit then runs those buildings, the rents are stabilized at below-market rates, the rent controls remain in force, and no one is evicted. And then if a resident should leave, there are vacancy controls in place so that the rent doesn’t jump up to market rates, it stays permanently affordable. It maintains affordable housing in the neighborhood.

I know you’ve done a lot of work with the

Getting to Zero Consortium.

Yes, I was one of the founders of Getting to Zero. We started working on that in 2013. It started at a Town Hall on World AIDS Day. A couple years earlier Ward 86 [the AIDS Ward at ZSFGH] had become the first provider to treat newly diagnosed HIV-positive patients on diagnosis. The longer you go without treating the HIV, the more damage the untreated virus does to the organ systems in your body. That’s when Ward 86 started saying that, based on their clinical experience, even though they didn’t have the hard evidence, they couldn’t justify withholding medications. So they started treating everybody on diagnosis. [Ward 86 continues its policy of treatment on diagnosis.] It’s really one of the key planks of Getting to Zero. Improving PrEP access has been another, but most important is getting people into treatment immediately after diagnosis. And the whole effort has been buttressed by the Affordable Care Act.

Because you could get insurance through the Medicaid expansion—and Medi-Cal covers the full cost of PrEP. So the cost was no barrier to getting PrEP. So that’s the framework—that’s how Getting to Zero started.

What kinds of things can you, as a politician here in one city, do to combat the cuts to Medicaid and the ACA that we expect from the Trump-Pence administration?

There are three separate challenges. One is sanctuary city status and the threats to defund us in some way because of that. And of course we’re committed to sustaining our sanctuary city status and taking care of and protecting our immigrant brothers

and sisters, and we’re not backing down on that—there’s no one in city government who is suggesting otherwise. The second threat is, as you mentioned, the destruction of the Affordable Care Act and the Medicaid expansion. The third threat is the Trump budget. We’ve already seen the first pass. So we’re preparing. I’m on the Budget Committee, which will be looking specifically to fill the gaps that are caused by what happens in Washington. We may have to look at new sources of revenue. But we can’t lose our healthcare safety net. It really is a daunting threat. But it’s a challenge we have to rise to the occasion for.

I’m sure you will.

For more information about photographer Michael Kerner, log on to: www.kernercreative.com.

Hank Trout is an Editor at Large at A&U. Follow him on Twitter @HankTroutWriter.

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The Moonlight that Fights HIV An Innovative Program in Uganda Provides Education, Prevention & Care to Sex Workers

by Frank Balamaze

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n any given night, you can find volunteers and staff from SHES (Social, Health and Environmental Sustainability) on the streets of Kampala, Uganda, performing nighttime outreach under the moonlight, in an attempt to bring some light to the darkness. SHES conducts outreach to local sex workers and their clients, targeting individuals at high risk for contracting HIV and STIs, both highly prevalent in Uganda.

HIV in Uganda As we knows, HIV and AIDS has been a threat to public health affecting people of all races, nationalities, sexual preferences, and income and educational levels. More than half of the world population living with HIV is found in Africa, particularly the sub-Saharan region where Uganda is located, accounting for over sixty-nine percent of all HIV cases.

In the eighties and early nineties, Uganda was among the most highly affected countries with thirty percent of its population living with the virus.

With death rates soaring, the Ugandan government embarked on a campaign, spearheaded by the President, to fight and respond to the epidemic. Through prevention messages, open group discussions, massive condom use, fidelity

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and abstinence-based messages, Uganda saw the rate of new HIV infections drop from thirty to fifteen percent in 1991.

This earned Uganda early recognition as an African success story in the fight against HIV. However, through subsequent complacency, high risk behaviors like having multiple partners, lack of condom use and involvement in sex work, the statistics have recently changed, with the highest prevalence among adults (ages fifteen to forty-nine) and with sex workers accounting for about thirty-five percent, which prompted HIV workers to develop strategies to address the rising prevalence rates among this population.

Hence the moonlight activity was born.

The moon lights the path As the sun goes to sleep, darkness covers the night and all that is left for lighting is the moon. In Uganda, electricity is a luxury that most cannot afford. The moon lights the path, allowing people to conduct their business of the night as well as see and escape danger that may lurk in the darkness. When it comes to HIV/AIDS, the moonlight outreach does precisely the same.

“Since it comes in the night and sometimes doesn’t stay for long, we use the opportunity of the light to carry

out moonlight HIV and AIDS-related activities,” states Ofwono Opondo, executive director of SHES. SHES services include HIV testing, STI screening and treatment, condom distribution and enrollment.

Since clinics and facilities are closed during the night, moonlight outreach takes place on the streets, targeting people that work till late but focusing mainly on commercial sex workers easily found on the streets at that time. The moonlight brings services closer to the brothels where they work.

Before conducting outreach, community mobilizers identify the leaders of the sex workers and inform them of the activities and their importance. Together they mobilize sex workers to come and receive services.

On-the-spot services During the moonlight outreach, there is a public-address system and a projector screen used to display prevention messages on the importance of testing, safer sex negotiation, STIs, and the signs and symptoms of HIV. These are aimed at helping the ones on site as well as those that may find it hard to come for services but are watching from the streets. This type of education also encourages them to keep an eye out for A&U • JULY 2017

“During moonlight outreach, people who test HIV-positive are enrolled then and there....”

tell-tale changes that may occur on their bodies indicating infection.

On the moonlight site, there are doctors, counselors, peer educators, and data collection tools, all enabling on-the-spot enrollment that provides for immediate service delivery and information gathering for follow-up.

During moonlight outreach, people who test HIV-positive are enrolled then and there and started on a PCP prophylaxis. They’re referred to the health center where they are later enrolled into the ART program. Those who test positive for STIs are given on-the-spot treatment and referred to the health center for ongoing treatment.

JULY 2017 • A&U

Through moonlight outreach it was discovered that most of the sex workers have permanent partners, who in many cases, are unaware of the kind of work their partners do and what their HIV status is. Through the support program they are encouraged to come together for the next clinic appointment.

It has also been observed that some people prefer being offered these services at night compared to during the day at the health facility. Given the nature of their work, most sex workers sleep during the day and rarely get time to visit the facilities to acquire services.

Two thousand people have been reached through moonlight outreach within the last

nine months and the number of clients enrolled onto ART has greatly increased due to on-the-spot enrollment. Moonlight outreach is a concept that organizations and health facilities around the world working with individuals at high risk for HIV and other STIs should incorporate in their fight against HIV and AIDS. For more information about and to contact SHES, visit www.shesorganization-com.webs. com; e-mail shesorganization@yahoo.com; or phone:+256773189845/+256703449447.

Frank Balamaze is the founder of TRWUganda, a youth activist, and an HIV prevention coordinator with SHES organization.

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by

Changing the Conversation

Larry Buhl a new storytelling campaign puts a

human face on hep b

Maureen, one of the #justB contributors, and her adopted daughter

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the virus, especially in AAPI communities.

Telling Stories The #justB story bank features eighteen (for now) three-minute videos where people from across the U.S. share their experiences with hepatitis B—having the virus, knowing someone with it, or treating it—in their own voices.

Cohen says the aim of #justB is to save lives through storytelling. “We want to put a human face on hepatitis B and liver cancer to motivate people to get tested, vaccinated and treated.” The campaign also supports the Foundation’s advocacy efforts to increase federal funding for improved access to care and more research to find a cure.

In his video, former ABC 7 News (San Francisco) anchor Alan Wang talks about how doctors fail to test people for hepatitis B, even when family members have died from liver cancer.

“I think about the millions of other people who could lose the joy I have because they simply don’t know they have the virus and how lucky I am that my early treatment gave my liver a chance to regenerate itself,” he explains in his story. After his diagnosis, he encouraged family members to be tested and his mother and siblings were also found to be chronically infected with the virus.

Maureen, in her story, explains that the two girls they adopted from China were born with hepatitis B. “I’ve always been open with the girls about their status,” Maureen says. “But now they’re fourteen and sixteen and ready to start dating, and they sure don’t want to talk to me about what that means for relationships, for potential partners, about what the risks, however small, might be. They don’t want to talk to their pediatrician either.”

Phase one, which launched in May to coincide with Hepatitis Awareness Month, focuses on the U.S. Phase two will cover hepatitis B stories throughout the world, and will be up and running as soon as the grant money comes in, Cohen says.

Cohen tells A&U she’s looking for more stories with great geographic and language

Alan Wang and his family diversity. And she plans to expand into stories involving coinfection with hepatitis D. If hep B is talked about in hushed tones, hep D isn’t spoken of much at all. The hep D virus can only propagate in the presence of B and up to eight percent of those with B also have hep D. B and D coinfection has the highest fatality rate of all hepatitis infections, at twenty percent.

Measuring success Cohen tells A&U that the #justB campaign will have qualitative and quantitative benchmarks of success.

“Qualitatively, we will be getting input from our network of providers, who after a month are already saying they’ve seen a change in the conversation [around hepatitis B]. They’ll also be collecting metrics through social media to determine how the conversation has changed.”

Quantitatively, those partners will be keeping track of any uptick in testing for hepatitis B due to the campaign.

Still, qualitative measurements of any outreach campaign are difficult to achieve due to lack of active surveillance of the virus in the U.S. Hep B reporting is not mandatory as it is with hep C. The #justB digital stories are available on the Hepatitis B Foundation website at www.hepb.org/justb, and were produced in partnership with StoryCenter.

Major donors were Arbutus Biopharma, Dynavax Technologies and Gilead Sciences.

Larry Buhl is a radio news reporter, screenwriter, and novelist living in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter @LarryBuhl.

A&U • JUNE 2017

photos courtesy of #justB

H

ealthcare professionals agree that stigma around hepatitis is the biggest obstacle to getting tested.

“And not coincidentally, the people who are most at risk for contracting hepatitis B in the U.S. are part of communities that are least likely to talk about it,” Chari Cohen, Director of Public Health at the Hepatitis B Foundation, tells A&U. She’s referring to Asian and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) surveillance data from 2014 show that AAPIs have by far the highest hepatitis B virus (HBV) incidence in the U.S. Though they make up less than five percent of the U.S. population, AAPIs account for more than forty percent of chronically infected Americans.

AAPIs are eight to thirteen times more likely to develop liver cancer and are more likely to die from hep B-related causes compared with all other groups.

An estimated two million Americans suffer from chronic hepatitis B, and up to seventy-five percent of these individuals do not know they are infected, according to the Foundation. Worldwide, more than 240 million people live with chronic hepatitis B. Chari says the Foundation’s new #justB storytelling campaign should go a long way toward changing the conversation around

Think Positive

learning emotional skills may confer better hiv health outcomes

illustration by Timothy J. Haines

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ot long ago I was seeking out new and interesting options for continuing education to add to my existing practice. In my travels, I discovered something called Positive Psychology.

My interest was piqued. I had never heard of this practice before. When I did a search for the term I came across nearly 7 million results. Of course, you will find varied definitions of what Positive Psychology is, but in summary, it is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living. It focuses on psychological science and practice to look not only at the problems we face or supposed weaknesses, but to be equally concerned with our strengths and on building those strengths. When we seek out conventional, traditional therapy, it tends to be to address specific problems in life. In that situation, the focus of our sessions is often fixing what may be “broken,” for lack of a better term.

What I find most interesting about Positive Psychology is that it seeks to build upon the best things in our lives in addition to repairing the worst.

Now, I have written many times before about the clear and undeniable negative effects of stress and anxiety from a physiological point of view. I have discussed the negative impact of stress hormones on the body.

We have also covered the positive effects of combating stress and how the body can return to a normal and healing state of being when we achieve stress management. There are numerous ways to combat stress. One, in particular, that we may want to consider is learning the skills that could produce positive emotions; hence, Positive Psychology.

A recent Northwestern Medicine study looked at the impact of teaching skills for positive emotions on people living with HIV/AIDS. The paper was published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

According to the study, conducted in San Francisco with participants recently diagnosed with HIV, being taught and coached to practice skills to help assist them with experiencing positive emotions, resulted in the participants showing less HIV in their blood and a decrease in the use of antidepressants.

This is believed to be the first test of a positive emotion intervention in people newly diagnosed with HIV. Based on the study re-

JULY 2017 • A&U

sults, the intervention is said to be promising for people in the initial stages of adjustment to any serious chronic illness.

Being newly diagnosed with HIV can be a very difficult experience, but the lead author of the paper, Judith Moskowitz, PhD, a professor of medical social sciences and director of research at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said that coaching people to feel happy, calm and satisfied— what they call “positive affect”—appears to influence important health outcomes.

The study was conducted pertaining to a variety of different illnesses. The HIV-specific study had eighty, primarily male participants.

The participants were taught a set of eight skills over five weekly sessions to help them experience more positive emotions. Another seventy-nine participants were in the control group. It was reported that fifteen months after the interventions, ninety-one percent of the intervention group had a suppressed viral load compared to seventy-six percent of the control group. Obviously, there is a potential benefit in a reduced viral load to the infected individual, but in addition, a reduced viral load may help decrease transmission of the virus to others.

The question is, how do you teach positivity? What skills can be used to produce positive emotions? According to the study, some of the skills that were taught were recognizing a positive event each day, savoring that positive event and logging it in a journal or

telling someone about it. Starting a daily gratitude journal was another skill, one, in fact, that I do, not daily, but regularly. Other skills included listing a personal strength each day and noting how you used this strength recently and setting an attainable goal each day and noting your progress. Certainly, recognizing your progress is important.

Still more skills included reporting a relatively minor stressor each day, then listing ways in which the event can be positively reappraised. It was also noted that understanding small acts of kindness can have a big impact on positive emotion, as can practicing a small act of kindness each day. The study also noted the practice of mindfulness with a daily ten minute breathing exercise, and we have talked about breath work in previous columns.

Being “happy” or in a positive state of mind may seem simplistic, but I would venture to say that many of us chase happiness.

Perhaps learning some helpful skills is the key for a shorter chase.

After a lengthy career in the arts and LGBT activism, Robert Zukowski pursued his goal of a career in complementary and alternative healthcare. He is a New York State licensed Massage Therapist, a Certified Medical Massage Therapist and is certified by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. In addition to his hands-on work, he is a writer and lecturer in the field of therapeutic massage therapy.

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by

First Steps

Chip Alfred with a low prevalence of hiv and some

high-profile prosecutions, idaho moves toward decriminalizating hiv

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he was honored to be asked to join the effort early on. “I hope that Idahoans can learn that people with HIV are not just gay men but people from all walks of life, and that people who are HIV-positive can feel safe in Idaho,” he tells A&U. “Ultimately, we would like to decriminalize living with HIV in Idaho,” Lish, fifty-five, asserts. For now, the objective is to modernize what he calls Idaho’s “horrifically bad” laws to reflect current scientific knowledge of HIV transmission. Acknowledging that drafting legislation may take more than a year, he says the coalition will focus on addressing the harsh penalties in some of Idaho’s HIV-specific codes, including the “Transfer of body fluid which may contain the HIV virus” statute, an automatic felony (maximum fifteen-year sentence and/or $5,000 fine). The bodily fluids referenced are semen, blood, saliva, vaginal secretion, breast milk, and urine. He emphasizes that new laws need to go further than just eliminating saliva and urine from the list, both of which are not widely recognized as HIV transmission routes. The same automatic felony guidelines and penalties apply to HIV nondisclosure. The law states that it is a felony “for an HIV positive person to act with the intent to transfer or attempt to transfer bodily fluids through any genital-to-genital, mouth-to-genital, or

genital-anal contact. Though intent to transfer HIV is an element of the crime, simply knowing one’s HIV status and failing to disclose that status is enough for prosecution. Actual transmission is not required.”

Kevin Lish says the coalition’s overarching goal is to enact legislation that places all of this in the public health realm. “We need laws that encourage people to be tested, know their status, and have honest conversations with potential partners so that we can start curbing the number of new cases in Idaho.” Flashing back to the early days of the epidemic and his own diagnosis, he recalls, “I’ll never forget what my doctor said when he gave me my first prescription.

It was, ‘Gosh, I hope these work.’ Now we have a tool box of options [Treatment as Prevention, PEP, PrEP] that we can use to move forward on our path to an AIDS-free generation.” He would like to see more people like him stand up and speak out. “Those of us living with the disease deserve a seat at the table to help write laws that affect us.

I hope this gives people living with HIV the opportunity to join this initiative at their own pace and find their voice.”

For more information, visit www.seroproject.com or www.hivlawandpolicy.org.

A&U welcomes your HIV criminalization story ideas or suggestions. Please contact Chip Alfred, Editor at Large, at chip.alfred@gmail.com.

A&U • JULY 2017

illustration by Timothy J. Haines

I

t’s a state with one of the fewest HIV cases in the country. In 2013, according to the CDC, fewer than thirty individuals were diagnosed with HIV in Idaho, ranking it forty-fifth among the fifty states in the number of new HIV diagnoses that year. With only about thirty documented criminalization prosecutions since the laws were enacted in 1988, Idaho has doled out some of the nation’s harshest penalties for low or norisk behavior. Kerry Thomas, the state’s most high-profile defendant, is the first person ever prosecuted under Idaho’s nondisclosure laws. After a 1999 conviction and a fifteen-year sentence for not disclosing his status, Thomas pleaded guilty to two charges of exposing women to HIV in 2009. A judge berated him for giving his sexual partners “a potential death sentence” and slapped him with a thirty-year sentence.

The movement to reform Idaho’s draconian HIV statutes began in 2016 at an HIV criminalization discussion in Boise presented by the Idaho Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS (IACHA).

Presenter Sean Strub, executive director of the SERO Project, met Kevin Lish, a board member of All Under One Roof LGBT Advocates of Southern Idaho in Pocatello. “I am embarrassed to say that after living with the disease for nearly twenty years, I had no idea that this was a problem anywhere, let alone in Idaho,” admits Lish. After attending the HIV is Not a Crime II conference later that year, he took the lead on building the infrastructure to begin the process of reforming Idaho’s laws.

The first steps involve building a broad, diverse statewide coalition. A steering committee of community leaders and advocates has been meeting via video conferencing to develop strategies around community educational forums, messaging, and planning an Idaho-specific video to create awareness of how HIV criminalization is affecting Idahoans. On the committee there is one high-profile member uniquely positioned to introduce legislation. Idaho’s only openly gay legislator, State Representative John McCrostie, (D-District 16), which includes Boise, says

A

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E R U T CUL S THE

D I A OF

BOOKS

Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America

by Nathaniel Frank The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

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athaniel Frank’s thoroughly researched Awakening: How Gays and Lesbians Brought Marriage Equality to America is as definitive a history of the fight for marriage equality as we are likely to get. While other recent histories of marriage equality have focused on one or another recent case—the Windsor DOMA case, for instance—Frank begins his history in the 1950s with the foundations laid by early pioneers of the LGBTQ movement.

Harry Hay and the Mattachine Society, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin and the Daughters of Bilitis, early LGBTQ rights groups, get special attention. The internal debates regarding the movement’s essential identity—were we to be assimilationist joiners or deconstructionist rebuilders of society?—divided LGBT groups and activists from the very beginning through to the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision.

Along the way to marriage equality, we learn more about the legal and societal arguments both for and against; from days that now seem somehow “quaint” (pie-facing Anita Bryant, for instance) through the hardcore protest actions of ACT UP to the lengthy, detailed lawsuits both to secure and to deny marriage equality, Awakening provides an excellent charting of the strategies and philosophies that led to securing our right to marry.

Of particular note to A&U’s readers is the third chapter, “We Are Criminals in the Eyes of the Law,” in which Frank discusses the effect of the AIDS crisis on the battle for marriage equality. He attributes a change in

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many straight people’s perceptions of LGBTQ folks to their seeing how badly we were often treated—denied access to lovers’ hospital bedsides; stripped of inheritance rights; denied spousal health insurance benefits; denied Social Security and other pension benefits—all of which “exposed the insidious unfairness of denying equal treatment to same-sex relationships.” Once thought of as “just a piece of paper,” marriage became an invaluable tool for LGBTQ folks to take care of themselves and each other. He notes, “...the acute medical and legal needs of those afflicted with AIDS were inspiring thousands of new foot soldiers…to join the push for relationship recognition.” For many of us, marriage equality could mean the difference between a partner’s living or dying.

One word of caution to the casual reader: This is not a galloping run-through read; it is rather dry and slow-going in places, but that is understandable considering the gravity and the complexity of the subject matter. Awakening is every bit as meticulously researched, sourced, and presented as any Supreme Court presentation could be. For that, it will prove to be an invaluable addition to LGBTQ histories.

—Hank Trout

The Sea Is Quiet Tonight

by Michael H. Ward Querelle Press

S

o many lives and loves were lost to time in the earlier days of the plague, that our artists and writers who document this time are as important as ever. As a friend of mine who’s a writer himself so often puts it, “It’s important that we document our history because if they do, they’ll get it wrong!” (“They” being those not close to the plague themselves.) Michael H. Ward, in The Sea is Quiet Tonight, writes of an incredible and

complex man that he loved dearly and, in doing so, his memory will always be alive and his life recorded for posterity. He does so in spare, but elegant, prose. With this prose, he gets to the heart of a loving, but never perfect, relationship and a vibrant and vital man.

Ward meets Mark, a former schoolteacher who dreams of being a sailor, on the sands of Fire Island in the early fall of 1981. He writes evocatively: “A series of warm early September days followed, full of buttery sunlight, lolling on the beach, and endless walking.”

In a vacation community of casual sexual encounters and hedonistic fun, the two men connected on a deeper level. Ward continues, “Everything we said, everything we did, seemed funny and charming and special.”

But there are dark clouds on the horizon.

Ward lives in Boston, where the first reports of a new disease killing gay men seem to be endemic of the cities of New York and San Francisco. This exceptional memoir’s dénouement seems a foregone conclusion at this point, but Ward has so much more to share with us first. Ward beautifully renders a portrait of his lover Mark in health as well as his eventual illness. Both the man and his relationship are a study in contrasts; things aren’t often simple between the two, but they remain together through the rough as well as the smooth. The author remembers that many relationships of the time broke apart from an AIDS diagnosis, but it only serves to strengthen theirs even as it tests it.

Ultimately this memoir is more of a portrait of a life and love rather than one of a death.

The author bears witness to a unique man whose life was cut far too short and in turn, allows the reader the same opportunity.

It is a clear, concise snapshot of an incredible man and an extraordinary relationship both gone before their time. However, through this remarkable piece of writing, they live on forever.

—John Francis Leonard Hank Trout writes the For the Long Run column for A&U. John Francis Leonard writes the Bright Lights, Small City column for A&U. A&U • JULY 2017

WELCOME TO MONTREAL EVERY OCTOBER!

CANADIAN THANKSGIVING AND COLUMBUS DAY WEEKEND

B B CM .O RG

A Calendar of Events

D

uring its summer iteration, lasting from July 30 through August 3, Las Vegas Market, the nation’s fastest growing gift and home décor market and the leading furniture marketplace in the western U.S., will host its annual Up on the Roof fundraiser. Proceeds go to Gift For Life and its beneficiary DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS). Now in its seventh year, the event has raised about $70,000 to support HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, education, and advocacy. More than 300 industry representatives will be treated to entertainment courtesy of singer/songwriter Chadwick Johnson, dancing, hors d’oeuvres, and cocktails, and a Las Vegas-themed silent auction, featuring items such as tickets to see celebrity magicians Penn & Teller, hotel giveaways,

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dinners, spa packages, show tickets and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Founded in 1992, Gift For Life has raised more than $5 million, thanks to its network of gift-industry professionals, to help in the fight against AIDS. Since 2008, Gift For Life has chosen DIFFA as its sole beneficiary.

Date: July 31; time: 6–8 p.m.; location: WorldView Ballroom, 16th Floor, Building B, 475 S. Grand Central Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada; tickets: $25, or $100 for five.

To purchase tickets, log on to https://upontheroof.splashthat. com/, or visit specially-designated kiosks on site in the Grand Plaza, C10 and in the Pavilions during Las Vegas Market. For more information, visit www.lasvegasmarket.com.

A&U • JULY 2017

JULY 2017 • A&U

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Survival Guide

[a portrait by sean black]

“Do not let your Trials keep you from your Triumphs.

Always keep your focus on your Goals and achieve your Dreams! HIV does not define who I am; the virus is only a small part of who I am. HIV has not stopped me from achieving my goals to get married and have a family, graduate from college (three times), buy a house, and have a career.”

Ben Banks

Ben Banks, thirty-eight, was diagnosed with Stage 5 Bilateral Wilms’ Tumor (a kidney cancer) that spread to both his lungs at the age of two. A blood transfusion saved his life from cancer; however, he contracted HIV from the blood used. Ben has not let these speed bumps knock him off the Path of Life. He is an Ambassador for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and a Community Committee Member for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Panel on Pediatric Antiretroviral Therapy and Management Guidelines to ensure all children are given the chance to live a long, healthy life and create a generation free from HIV. Ben lives a very active life with his wife and daughter, who are both HIV-negative.

Sean Black is a Senior Editor of A&U. 56

A&U • JULY 2017

TREATMENT LOWERS THE AMOUNT OF HIV IN YOUR BODY. AND HELPS LOWER THE CHANCE OF PASSING HIV ON.

There is no cure for HIV, but treatment can help protect your health and the people you care about. Talk to a healthcare provider and visit HelpStopTheVirus.com © 2016 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. UNBC3046 04/16

The greatest distance I’ve come isn’t in miles.

Let’s Grow Old Together See what life with HIV looks like from diagnosis through grandkids with a little help from Walgreens. Explore Nancy’s HIV journey at Walgreens.com/LetsGrowOldTogether. ©2017 Walgreen Co. All rights reserved.

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