A&U July 2021 by A&U: America's AIDS Magazine

art & understanding for 30 years

Venita Ray

Stephen Hart LáDeia Joyce Poetry by

Robert Carr & Shaun Hill More Life

tony

ENOS

The Singer & Performer Empowers the HIV Community Through Music

JULY 2021 | ISSUE 321

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY®

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

(bik-TAR-vee)

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:  Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section.  Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that may have been hidden in your body. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.  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 BIKTARVY.  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-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.  The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).

 Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Your

healthcare provider will test you for HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months, and may give you HBV medicine.

ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults and children who weigh at least 55 pounds. It can either be used in people who 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. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains:  dofetilide  rifampin  any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY Tell your healthcare provider if you:  Have or have had any kidney or liver problems,

including hepatitis infection.  Have any other health problems.  Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.  Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:  Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-

counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

 BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other.

Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

These are not all the possible side effects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY. 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. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

GET MORE INFORMATION  This is only a brief summary of important information

about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.

 Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5  If you need help paying for your medicine,

visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, KEEP ASPIRING, and LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. Version date: February 2021 © 2021 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0370 04/21

DIMITRI LIVING WITH HIV SINCE 2018 REAL BIKTARVY PATIENT

KEEP ASPIRING.

Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.

BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you. See Dimitri’s story at BIKTARVY.com. Featured patient compensated by Gilead.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the previous page and visit BIKTARVY.com.

Contents COVER STORY

July

2021

FEATURE

Advocate LáDeia Joyce Stands Up for Black Women Living with HIV

GALLERY A&U's Chael Needle Talks to Tony Enos About Bringing Together HIV, Indigenous & Two-Spirit Rights in His Music

FEATURES

34 Heart to Heart Vlogger & Advocate Stephen Hart Is Based in the UK But His Message Reaches the World

DEPARTMENTS 4 Frontdesk 6 Digital Footprints 10 NewsBreak

cover photo by Holly Clark

Alina Oswald Unpacks the Counternarratives in the Exhibit Series, "More Life"

viewfinder 8 12 16 22

For the Long Run Ruby's Rap Art & Understanding Poetry by Robert Carr

lifeguide

38 Under Reported 41 Access to Care 44 The Culture of AIDS 47 Lifelines 48 Poetry by Shaun Hill

Frontdesk From the Editor

Reunited (And it Feels So Good)

umpstarting their engines, individuals, organizations, companies, and schools across the U.S. are lifting the lockdowns and trying to return to face-to-face interactions. Dining, going to the movies, traveling by plane—— options for getting out of the house are slowly increasing. The summer still seems to be a season of caution, but fall looks to be the time when large gatherings will be convening. That means HIV/AIDS conferences will begin to leave cyberspace for brick and mortar venues. For instance, the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) will gather advocates, AIDS workers, and researchers, among others, in Washington, D.C., from October 28-31. “Homecoming”——this year’s theme, “invokes feelings of remembrance, reconnection and celebration. Let’s come together to honor those we lost and strengthen the bonds created that allow us to continue with our goal of ending the epidemics,” states the welcoming message on the conference’s website. This month’s cover story subject, singer and performer Tony Enos, knows first-hand how bonds can be strengthened when he didn’t fully capitalize on an opportunity. He told Managing Editor Chael Needle about an inspiring experience at USCHA: “The vehicle for the POSI+IVE album was really when I was the opening performer at the 2019 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. Here I was in this amazing affirming and safe space for people living with HIV, and I decided to stay closeted about my status. It caused me so much more anxiety and discomfort, but I also wasn’t able to commune with other people living with HIV and share that lived experience and say ‘me too!’ or ‘I’ve been there, it will get better.’” He came out publicly after that and amplified his (singing) voice even more to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. Photographed by Holly Clark in an ensemble that honors his indigenous roots, Enos shared many insights, all of which are threaded with HIV-centric connection and communication. These two aspects of awareness——HIV-centric connection and communication——are

AMERICA’S AIDS MAGAZINE issue 321 vol. 30 no. 7 July 2021 editorial offices: (518) 992-2232 fax: (518) 436-5354 Editor in Chief & Publisher David Waggoner Managing Editor: Chael Needle Senior Editors: Dann Dulin, Hank Trout Editor at Large: Chip Alfred Special Projects Editor: Lester Strong Arts Editor: Alina Oswald Fiction Editor: Raymond Luczak; Nonfiction Editor: Jay Vithalani; Drama Editor: Bruce Ward; Poetry Editor: Philip F. Clark; Copy Editor: Maureen Hunter Contributing Editors: Reed Massengill, Kelly McQuain, Lesléa Newman, Robert E. Penn, Nick Steele Contributing Writers: Ruby Comer, Alacias Enger, Claire Gasamagera, John Francis Leonard, Corey Saucier, Jeannie Wraight

hallmarks of many of the message-makers in this issue. First we have advocates like Positive Women’s Network’s Venita Ray, interviewed by Ruby Comer, and vlogger Stephen Hart, interviewed by John Francis Leonard. Both mulitply the spaces for others to advocate for themselves and their community. Second, we have writers like poets Robert Carr and Shaun Hill, both of whom have created pieces that shoot an arrow into the heart of our community. Arts Editor Alina Oswald reports on art exhibits that try to unearth connections that have been supressed in this month's Gallery. Senior Editor Hank Trout offers another For the Long Run entry that reminds us how to resist the forces that try to disconnect us from our humanity——and each other. With any hope, we will return to face-to-face interactions, not only with a renewed sense of importance about the work of HIV-centric connection and communication, but also a sense of how precious being in each other’s presence can be. I know that, when I or another A&U staffer is at a conference booth, it is a pleasure to meet readers of the magazine and listen to their enthusiasm (and even their criticisms). I look forward to the next gathering when we can reunite. Zoom, phone calls, and texting have their place, but nothing beats a handshake, a hug, a shared laugh.

DAVID WAGGONER

Art Director: Timothy J. Haines Contributing Photographers: Davidd Batalon, Tom Bianchi, Holly Clark, Stephen Churchill Downes, Greg Gorman, Francis Hills, Tom McGovern, Annie Tritt, Tommy Wu National Advertising Director: Harold Burdick, Jr. Sales & Marketing: David L. Bonitatibus Advertising Sales Office: (518) 992-2232 National Advertising Representative: Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863 Subscription Info: (518) 992-2232 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 • Patricia Nell Warren 1936–2019 A&U (ISSN 1074-0872) is published by Art & Understanding, Inc., 25 Monroe St., Suite 205, Albany, NY 12210-2743, USA. For A&U advertising information please call 518-992-2232; for subscriptions and address changes please call 518-992-2232; 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. ©2021 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 12210-2743, USA

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

Digital Digital D ig igi git ita taal Footprints Fo Footprints ootpprint in nts ts

by Alina Oswald

(now) photo

aphy; Noe

JUNE 2021

(1985 Mark S. King and from top left: Clockwise agera (now); lter, Claire Gasam Steve Showa and now); (1990, with Victoria Noe and now)

•

• JUNE 2021

n June 5, 1981, the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report (MMWR) informed us that between October 1980 and May 1981, ﬁve young men, all active homosexuals, were diagnosed with and treated for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) at three different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the young men died. Since PCP in the United States occurs almost exclusively among severely immunosuppressed patients, its occurrence in young, previously healthy gay men was usual. And alarming.

What We’ve Lost, What We’ve Gained

be spared. [I joined] ACT UP New York in the

of 1987. Being a member of ACT UP made by HankfallTrout

On July 3, 1981, The New York Times reported, “Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer”——Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS). As with the MMWR report of PCP, all of the KS patients were active homosexual men. The alarm bells clanged more loudly. No one could discern why these cancers and opportunistic infections were occurring——and spreading. Because the disease in the U.S. was first detected in gay men, the disease initially was given names that included the word “gay”——“gay cancer,” “Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease (GRID).” But by mid-1982, scientists realized the disease was also spreading among other populations, including transgender women, hemophiliacs, intravenous drug users, and straight women. By September of that year, the disease was finally named: AIDS, the slightly less stigmatic “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.” The news reports got even more frightening by the day. Largely due to government inaction, scientific misinformation, bigotry and the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, the virus continued to impact communities exponentially across the entire planet, a global pandemic that would kill millions of people and deeply affect tens of millions more. We have contended with HIV/AIDS for forty years and have indeed achieved small victories (like HAART and PrEP), reducing the number of HIV transmissions and AIDS-related deaths over the years. However, we still have neither a vaccine nor a cure for HIV/AIDS. The pandemic continues to wreck lives around the planet. To get a sense of what we’ve lost as a community, as well as how we’ve changed during this forty-year pandemic, A&U approached a handful of HIV/AIDS activists with questions about when they first heardcarved aboutinto HIV/AIDS, when they first realized the pandemic would indelibly our memories. Charles touchvividly themremembers personally,hearing and theamoments——good or bad, painful or inSanchez radio spiring——that stand out injust theirtested memories report that Magic Johnson had pos- from the last forty years. We corresponded with Mark S.(then King,relieved) writer/blogger, My Fabulous Disease; itive for HIV, and how awkward Butch McKay, Director, Positive Living Programs/OASIS Florida; Charles he felt getting his first kiss after his diagnosis. Claire Gasamagera remembers theCharles courageKing, of CEO, Housing Works, New Sanchez, writer/actor, Merce;

me a better, brighter, more compassionate, more defiant person.” Butch McKay: “The last time I held Tivvis in my arms, he asked me to promise to get involved, and almost thirty-five years later I’m still involved. I honor Tivvis with the activists who promulgated The Denver Prineverything I contribute ciples in •1983, and Larry Kramer’s empowering 2021 • JUNE 2021to the fight.” Charles JUNE King: “I came out as a gay man to my mentor, slogan “Turn your grief into rage.” Some of us Reverend Cofield, tendered my resignation, even found romance through our activism. and began my journey to do something about Charles King recalls that “I met Keith Cylar at HIV and AIDS.” ACT UP New York in the summer of 1989. It Over the course of this forty-year panstarted with a public debate and ended up with demic, we’ve experienced great losses as our him seducing me. We were together for fifteen friends and family members succumbed to years before he died and helped to found and AIDS; we’ve dealt with unfathomable grief, lead Housing Works during that time and we’ve struggled through years of confusion fought and won many battles.” and chaos and false cures, and we’ve dealt Along with the major, life-shaping changes with death as a constant in our daily lives for that we’ve undergone, we’ve also been shaped four decades. Steven F. Dansky asserts, “Within in smaller ways by the pandemic. Victoria Noe: wakeful consciousness and in the dominion of “What has stayed with me most——even more dreamscapes, what we’ve experienced over the than the suffering, injustices, and deaths——is four decades since the beginning of the AIDS one way it affects me to this day. For a long pandemic are flashbacks of suffering and loss time, if someone disappeared, if I lost contact through illness and death; disappearance and with someone (I’m talking about gay men in displacement; surviving perpetual heartache particular), I assumed they were dying or dead. whether in silence or in public.” It made me paranoid about losing touch with Some of the seemingly random moments my friends. I even made some of them promise we’ve lived through over the last forty years are they would tell me if they were seriously ill.

York City; Claire Gasamagera, activist, born with HIV; Jay Blotcher, writer/activist, ACT UP; Victoria Noe, author, Fag Hags, Divas, and Moms; Reverend Yolanda Vega, performer and transgender rights/HIV activist; Steven F. Dansky, writer/filmmaker/historian, Gay Liberation Front; and Davina Conner, Positive Women’s Network. * * * As Steven F. Dansky has pointed out, “1981 demarcates a traumatic imprint in our active universe.” Few of us read the June 5, 1981 MMWR or its report of five cases of PCP among healthy young gay men. Thus, we first learned about the “gay cancer” in the July 3, 1981 article, “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals.” “I was helping a friend from college paint his Beacon Hill apartment in the summer of 1981,” said Jay Blotcher. “Among the newspapers scattered across his apartment floor was this page from the Times. I remember reading the paint-spattered article in a disconnected way. I was going into my senior year at Syracuse University and, while I self-identified as a gay man, New York City seemed light years away. I had the classic reaction of denial that this news pertained to me.” Denial, as well as anger, also tainted Mark S. King’s first response to the Times article. “The implications seemed too awful to be true. I felt denial, selfishly hoping that whatever it was, it was only happening to ‘other people,’ and I also felt annoyed that something would dare disrupt the new-found gay sexual liberation that my community was enjoying during that time. I was suspicious of anything that might curb that.” That kind of denial, thinking that this disease was happening only to “other people” also colored Charles King’s response. “I remember reading the first report I saw of this mysterious gay cancer with interest, but little personal concern,” he wrote. “I was in the closet and celibate, both commitments I had made when I became a minister. I had no idea at the time how much the AIDS pandemic would consume my life and shape my world.” Some of our respondents didn’t internalize the news right away. Davina Conner, for instance, wrote that “I had to be about ten or eleven Sanchez (now) photo by Stephen Churchill Downes; Rev. Yolanda photo by Alina Oswawld

Clark Photogr

AIDS at

photo by Holly

Senior Editor Hank Trout plus nine activists equals a wide-ranging (and muchread) reflection of the start of the known AIDS epidemic.

(1987 Davina Conner Charles King from top left: Clockwise r (1990); and by Bill Jay Blotche photos are and now); Activist black and white e, The AIDS (1989). The gay men. of his initiativ affected only , a disease that Bytsura, part nd at articles that followed I didn’t understa a But reading the Project years old, and ‘gay cancer was I only was going on. I came to realize, e gay sex. My anger the that time what on lot a to it feelings weapon to demoniz remember listening things together to outweigh my to put instantly began to act.” TV.” She began Magic of needed I . she learned us of rejection 1995 long some of in 1991 when s, and again in No matter how was Johnson’s diagnosi death of rapper that HIV/AIDS ted wrongly assumed to “other with the AIDS-rela happened only a native to Gasamagera, something that Eazy-E. Claire ly each of us came not know with HIV, did people,” eventual touch Rwandan born about pandemic would us, in s nor anything know that the her serostatu personally touch years. Rev. Yolanda our lives, would aking ways. For HIV/AIDS for many heard about AIDS in first devastating, heartbre n came with remembers, “I s, Tennessee. that realizatio us, Memphi of in many graduate school planning s or death of somemy MA and was the first diagnosi Victoria Noe, that That I was finishing in three months. close to us. For my NYC one of to on moving did move in 1983. “One scared... but I realization came a difficult labor and was 1983. I was had Victoria Noe, Fall of 1983.” closest friends her to have to NYC in the eloquently doctor wanted on to write so delivery. Her the lab at fight who would go She worked in warriors in the a transfusion. knew the about the women “I don’t remember [in St. Louis] and wind said, that hospital safe. She did against AIDS, But by late supply wasn’t it right away. was blood That about ons. it hearing that transfusi enough to realize up getting two 1982, I knew for me.” Calling it affect gay men. when it hit home realizasense couldn’t only had a similar made a lot of Butch McKay diag‘gay cancer’ never friend Tivvis was then tion. “My best to me.” with AIDS. I knew appellation nosed in 1987 metroThe “gay cancer” Butch McKay limited to large of that it was not home and I was hit caught the attentionthe headline at first had It politan cities. losing the gay is also. “Upon seeing that day I was YES! Proof that scared. I knew glance I thought, there was genetic since not a choice, but

King (now)

mosttweeted

forget my and I can never the beginning, it, it hits me at my own life I think about reaction. When soon and maybe cringes me with love of my life a matter of stomach and the pit of my I felt it was only The stigma that at a later date. ... I felt pain, had of death. terrible.” the fear that I became infected. was the internally was time before I It I felt about myself HIV was also the turning fear. I was lost.” Yolanda deep hurt, and with d Rev. His diagnosis very first that awakene Sanchez. “My the virus. loss of friends point for Charles job in New York City in ility to acquiring to her susceptib died, I realacting mine nal of professio friends n show for But I was AIDS educatio “When several 1988 was in an definitely at risk. about it. it was my age ized that I was naïve. Maybe think friends kids. I was very didn’t want to the sitbut I didn’t have in denial and or just my luck, City in 1993 because to me. me. I left New York lming AIDS around of overwhe was dying city d uation in the probably was diagnose It wasn’t until to Vermont, I of specific After I moved friend first 1992 when a began the process that he with HIV, and disclosed to me that, I HIV meds.” struck healthcare and I knew who was HIV. Even after had person first “The and AIDS my boss still felt like HIV was John Bemus, Blotchsomedown by AIDS Jay was ‘over there,’ Baths,” wrote d to other at the St. Marks of being within weeks how. It happene er. “He was gone was late 1983, people 2003, when people. Until this infected. Since d with to hepatitis. It I was diagnose mystery death friend chalked up his me like a years until another a AIDS, and it hit it was would be several brick in the head.” once For Mark S. King, was infected.” was frozen in For many of us, realization. “I my blew the slow-moving AIDS that we realized year or so, until indeed disbelief for a d. Suddenly, pandemic would West Hollywoo it was ly, our world apart in g twice-removed, touch us personal our ed it wasn’t somethin my roommate and my anger outweigh activism. As Steven F. and I Once my best friend us to dying. led and fears and all of them an indifferent brother-in-law, deaths were put it, “Rage at was chanmyself in 1985, and Dansky rmative society tested positive of my paralysis heterono nt——a out callous political moveme common. I snapped first AIDS agency in Los neled into a daring ts organizing.” Jay for the I went to work be the last job grassroo so I for would it model do something, Angeles. I figured : “I felt I had to for GMHC’s n came Blotcher would ever have.” money in 1985 her realizatio e mind, began raising For Davina Conner, I was diagnosed York. In my desperat I would out that AIDS Walk New others, “the day I found did it impact that if I could help only Not thought I with HIV in 1997. changed my life at ly, it my life drastical

Top: Charles Sanchez (1993 and now)

Steven F. Dansky (now): Photo by Greg Anderson, Silence=Death Portrait #3, Las Vegas, NV, 2017, digital, 12 by 8.988 inches

Bottom: Reverend Yolanda Vega (now)

• JUNE 2021

I didn’t realize why I felt that way until I started writing about AIDS and grief. When I looked at my behavior in the context of those times, it made sense.” The majority of what we remember, is unspeakably painful. “My closest friends died when I was in my mid-twenties,” said Mark S. King. “That changes a person. We faced eternal questions at such a young age. Why are we here? What is life and death? Is there a God, and does it love us? I sat with friends who were dying in my guest room, posing those questions and not getting answers. The stories of what happened to us deserve to be remembered and repeated.” Butch McKay shared a similar sentiment. “My heart has been broken so many times it is beyond repair,” he said. “I use the scars to forge on for those unable to do so, sharing their stories, assisting those that followed them, fighting stigma, and working to change the political will of the country. I have been blessed with a community that defines unconditional love and practices it with every step they take and every breath they breathe. I breathe for those who no longer can, and march for those who led the way. with unimaginable strength, courage, compassion, and love. They are my heroes, and I will continue their journey.” As it did for Mark S. King, and thousands of others, the pain of loss drove Rev. Yolanda into activism as well. “I remember thinking that I didn’t have very long to live. I decided that I would live my life fully out loud and proud for as many years as I have left. That is when I decided to come out as trans femme and live my life as Yolanda. I also became very involved in the HIV/AIDS community and created a fundraising event for People with AIDS in Vermont called ‘Winter Is A Drag Ball.’ I moved back to NYC in 2001 and have been active in the HIV/ AIDS community here with performances and fundraising efforts ever since.” Sometimes, great pain and grief can arouse great strength, resilience, and even a sense of purpose. Rev. Yolanda asserts that “being HIV-positive has had a positive effect on my life. I have learned the importance of self-care and have had the opportunity to help others with their own self-care.” And finally, Mark S. King again: “Please know this: I am not defined by this great tragedy. My life is lovely and fulfilled today. I am happy to tell the story,

JUNE 2021 •

but I won’t judge younger people who have other things on their mind. Every generation has their stuff, their great challenge. Tragedy isn’t a contest. If I can’t use my experience as a tool to have more empathy for other people, then what the hell was it all for?” What indeed? Well, for one thing, the AIDS pandemic turned all of us into individual repositories of sorrowful memories of great pain, loss, death, and grief. The pandemic taught us how to tap into unknown reserves of bravery and resilience, what Steven F. Dansky called “our reemergence from a state of disbelief and despair.” And it turned many of us into storytellers, truth-tellers among all the lies and misinformation, the preservationists of our own history. Steven F. Dansky again: “I believe it’s essential that we place preservation at the center of our collective life, including oral histories, photographs and video, and writing. We must support those organizations that perform this mission. Historical preservation is fundamental because memory can be fragile, subjective, unstable, and contingent on the different credibilities. Memory can be diminished from biomedical factors. Or from heterosexism that compels us to forget, trivialize, mask, negate reality, or view our experience as insignificant. So many of us were lost during the height of the AIDS pandemic——those narratives must be told, recorded, and archived.” As the AIDS pandemic turns forty, those of us who bore the brunt of it from the beginning have become “Elders of the Tribe,” activists, advocates, chroniclers of lives lost and hopes dashed. We gratefully accept our responsibility to share, record, and preserve those stories of living through hell for forty years. Thanks to Bill Bytsura for granting us permission to run the photos of Jay Blotcher and Charles King, both of which are part of the photographer’s The AIDS Activist Project. For more information, visit: https://www.billbytsura.com/ products/the-aids-activist-project. Senior Editor Hank Trout interviewed Sister Roma for the May cover story.

mostloved

APRIL 2020 • ISSUE 306 • AMERICA’S AIDS MAGAZINE

In his column, Art & Understanding, Chael Needle celebrated the intersectionality of Pride through the lens of the diverse AIDS activists, including Billie Cooper, we have featured in the past. Readers loved revisiting their insights.

LOVE ACTION

• Shanti Projects Creates an Archive of Compassion • Cempa Ensures Community Care for Chattanooga

plus

• COVID-19 & HIV • Actor Elliot Fletcher • Poetry by Ben Kline

billie

COOPER

The Long-Term HIV & Cancer Survivor Speaks Truth to Power as She Fights for Her Black, Trans, and HIV Communities

art & understanding for 30 years

Photo by Saul Bromberger & Sandra Hoover Photography

Yonce Jones Poetry by

Harry Hoy

mostshared

Hank Trout on the AIDS Pandemic at 40 Artist

Jerome Caja

A&U’s Bruce Ward shone a spotlight on the three decades-plus commitment to AIDS grantmaking and fundraising by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ Tom Viola. Readers gave the cover story a standing O.

tom

VIOLA

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' Executive Director Never Lets Fundraising Go Dark

JUNE 2021 | ISSUE 320

Photo by Stephen Churchill Downes

@AmericasAIDSMagazine

@au_magazine

@au_americas_aids_magazine • JULY 2021

by Hank Trout

LOSING MY RELIGION

How Many Times Can You Condemn Me to Hell?

just watched the “1980s: Underground” episode of the FX Network’s series Pride. There are innumerable events and moments in that episode that I could write about. But along with the deeply affecting events and monologues in the episode, one event actually brightened my day considerably. One Sunday in December 1989, Pride showed, members of ACT UP protested outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. They were there in response, partially, to Cardinal John O’Connor’s having lobbied hard against AIDS education and condom distribution. Some ACT UP members entered the Cathedral and quietly lay down in the middle aisle between the pews. After a while, Michael Petrelis, an especially confrontational activist, even by ACT UP standards, stood up on one of the pews and began yelling at Cardinal O’Connor, Stop killing us! Stop killing us! At that point, I literally leapt out of my chair, loudly clapping and cheering for him! You’ll forgive me, I hope, that the subsequent shot of Cardinal O’Connor slumped over and rubbing his temples in exasperation kept me clapping and cheering even longer. You see, I lost my religion at the age of nine. My parents were “Easter Christians,” self-proclaimed devout Methodists who attended church

only on Easter Sunday but forced my older sister and me to attend the Riverside Methodist Church every Sunday morning and to stay for Sunday Bible School in the church basement. One Sunday in 1962, the Bible School volunteer teacher, some nondescript hatted church lady, taught us the story of “Jonah and the Whale.” Now, at the time, Methodist doctrine held that every single word in the Bible is unquestionably literal truth, no exceptions. I had gone along with everything they told me before then, but “Jonah and the Whale” knocked me sideways. What?! No! That can’t be true! Even at nine I knew for certain that it was impossible for a man in an open boat to live inside the stomach of a whale for three days and nights, and then emerge intact, alive, and smelling like my aunt’s Evening in Paris cologne. If nothing else, it insulted my budding intelligence. So I voiced my skepticism. The church lady teacher nearly burst into flames as she scolded me and repeatedly told me that I was going to burn in hell for all eternity unless I believed “Jonah and the Whale” to be absolute, literal truth. I chose burning. I figured that story was bogus, too. Suddenly, all of it was. I walked out of Bible School, and I’ve not gone to a Christian service nor believed in any deity since.

So when our community was suffering and dying in the 1980s, and other delusional religious “leaders” condemned me, my friends, my community, all of us to hell because of a virus, I just remembered sitting in Bible School, remembered how I felt betrayed and lied to for years, and remembered why I had kicked religion out of my life decades ago. I remembered that those religionists who would condemn us to hell——again!——are full of baloney. Those religious “leaders” were, as Michael said, killing us. I was outraged. I had learned not to be afraid of them. I learned to laugh at them. I know there are readers out there, gay and straight, who are devoutly religious and who might be appalled by my (some have said) rabid atheism. To them I say, I’m not here to recruit you. I know you take comfort in your belief. I simply do not share it. In fact, I treasure my atheism. It has given me a shield against those who shun or condemn us because someone convinced them that their chosen deity commanded them to do so. The longer I’ve been the object of their manufactured outrage, the easier it has become for me to ignore them, to dismiss them. Their condemnation means absolutely zero to me. They might as well wish spontaneous combustion on me. (They really need to work on their threats.) But when they start to pass laws that harm us based on who we are or our serostatus (e.g., thirty-seven states still have laws that criminalize HIV, vastly out of line with current accepted scientific, medical fact), I hone that shield into a sword. Or to be more precise, in my case these days, a pen, or a keyboard. I miss those days of action in the streets, those days of righteous anger in the face of blatant religious bigotry, and I wish we had taken to the streets more often in the last couple decades. But at least I get to say, now, a belated “Hurray Michael Petrelis!” Hank Trout, Senior Editor, edited Drummer, Malebox, and Folsom magazines in the early 1980s. A long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS (diagnosed in 1989), he is a forty-year resident of San Francisco, where he lives with his husband Rick. • JULY 2021

illustration by Timothy J. Haines

FOR THE LONG RUN

Without health justice, we cannot end the HIV epidemic. Show your support at sfaf.org/shop

NewsBreak

IAS selects montreal for aids 2022

n May 25, 2021, the International AIDS Society (IAS) announced that the 24th International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2022, will occur in Montreal, Canada, and virtually from July 29 to August 2, 2022 with pre-conference meetings set to begin on July 27, 2022. Registration for AIDS 2022 will begin in November 2021. The biannual International AIDS Conference, first convened in 1985, is the world’s largest gathering regarding HIV/AIDS. It provides scientists,

aids garden chicago breaks ground

n June 2, 2021, the Honorable Mayor Lori Lightfoot, other Chicago area civic leaders, and members of Chicago’s LGBTQ community broke ground on the long-awaited AIDS Garden Chicago, the city’s first public park to memorialize the early days of Chicago’s HIV epidemic, and to honor those who continue to fight against the disease today. The “park with purpose" expects to open in Fall 2021. The 2.5-acre AIDS Garden Chicago is located on Lake Michigan lakefront at the original location of the historic Belmont Rocks, where the local gay community gathered between the 1960s and 1990s, just south of Belmont Avenue. The Garden’s first phase was completed in late 2019 with the installation of its anchor piece, the stunning thirty-foot Keith Haring sculpture, Self-Portrait. Once completed, the Garden will include

advocates, and human rights activists to exchange information to strengthen programs and policies to ensure that evidence-based responses to the pandemic. Canada has hosted the International AIDS Conference in 1989 (when advocacy took center stage for the first time), 1996 (the first reports of an effective triple combination of ART), and 2006 (focused on accountability). Vancouver also hosted the IAS-convened 2015 Conference on HIV Science. Canada’s Minister of Health, the Honorable Patty Hajdu, said in the IAS press release, “We know that there is still a long way to go in the fight against HIV and AIDS. In 2022, Canada will proudly host AIDS 2022 so that we can further our commitments to ending the HIV and AIDS global epidemic. We remain committed to our 95-9595 targets, moving towards reconciliation with

Indigenous peoples, and to reducing stigma and discrimination. By bringing together domestic and international partners, we can redouble our collective efforts to improve the health of all our citizens and finish the fight against HIV and AIDS.” The co-chairs for the event are Adeeba Kamarulzaman, IAS President, and Jean-Pierre Routy, of McGill University. To ensure that people from low- and middle-income countries have access to the conference, the IAS will support in-person attendance and virtual participation through a scholarship program. This will include the provision of Internet data and devices to help bridge the digital divide for people in resource-limited settings. To sign up for emails regarding the IAS conference, please log on to https://www. aids2022.org/.

areas designed for reflection, education, honor, and pride. Visitors will be able to wander through a variety of garden spaces providing a sensory experience of nature, most notably a Gingko Reflection Grove. The Chicago Parks Foundation, the non-profit public-private partner of Chicago’s Park District, will soon launch the AIDS Garden Story Archive, a digital quilt of personal shared experiences to be posted on the AIDS Garden Chicago website. The ceremony, conducted in front of the Haring sculpture, included a spoken word performance by Chicago-born Black Queer playwright, poet, and activist Osiris Khepera. Many people wore brightly colored hard hats reflecting the LGBTQ community's iconic rainbow flag.

For more information about AIDS Garden Chicago, please log on t: www. chicagoparkdistrict.com. • JULY 2021

in memoriam: Felicia Elizondo

elicia “Flames” Elizondo, a trans woman, activist, and long-term HIV/AIDS survivor, died in hospice care on Saturday, May 15, at the age of seventy-four. A long-time activist in the San Francisco LGBTQ community, Felicia was born in San Antonio, Texas, on July 23, 1946. A Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, she settled in San Francisco in the early 1990s. She soon began performing at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, a drag bar in the city’s Tenderloin district, and became a staple of the shows there. Along with her drag musical group, the Tenderloin Queen’s Revue, she performed at Pride and at the holidays at venues that serve older LGBTQ people, like Stepping Stone Adult Day Health Care, to reach seniors unable to attend Pride events on their own or with no family at Thanksgiving or the December holidays. She volunteered for the Friendly Visitor program at Openhouse, a San Francisco agency that provides services to LGBTQ seniors; she also briefly

served on the San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services Commission after being appointed to the advisory body in 2019 by Mayor London Breed and on the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force. She was also one of the organizers of the annual San Francisco Trans March during Pride Weekend. Over the years, she also sewed some eighty panels for the AIDS Memorial Quilt and helped raise funds for various LGBTQ-centered nonprofits, including Project Open Hand, Shanti Project, and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. Although she sometimes claimed to have been at the Compton’s Cafeteria riots in the Tenderloin in 1966, she just as often recanted that story. (Her military records indicate that she was in the Navy from 1965 through 1967.) “I have compassion for her desire to have the significance of her actual lived history honored and remembered. I think she was understandably hungry

for recognition of her strength, resilience, survival, and fierceness,” her long-time friend Susan Stryker, a trans woman and historian, told the Bay Area Reporter. “I don’t begrudge her in the least that yearning for presence, the need to feel seen.” Like many trans women who faced workplace discrimination, Felicia resorted to sex work in the Tenderloin to support herself. “I acknowledge Felicia was part of the generation before me and did what she needed to do to survive and cultivate love and build other family connections,” Tina Valentin Aguirre, manager of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and board chair of the GLBT Historical Society, told the B.A.R. “I’m a diva, I’m a bitch, I’m an icon, I’m a legend, and I’m your history,” Felicia was fond of saying. Friends of Ms. Elizondo are planning a celebration of her life, but no details were available at press time.

“There are no words to express the sadness of Marco’s loss. He was a passionate advocate who spoke truth to power in defense of his community, a vast and diverse group of people connected by struggle,” said Lambda Legal Western Regional Director, Shedrick Davis. “We can honor Marco’s memory by continuing to fight like hell for the most vulnerable among us, but also by doing our part to make the world kinder, more inclusive, and more fun.” At the 2017 meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board in Geneva, Switzerland, Castro-Bojorquez told the assembled crowd, “I am here to return to y’all this burden

that has been placed on my shoulders because of my struggles with mental health and HIV. I am here to demand a clear distinction between stigma and discrimination, and the devastating effects of the many intersections that people living with HIV and struggling with mental health experience on a daily basis. I am here to create powerful solidarity among all of us, to address mental health as a global issue, and secure access to care to everyone and not only a sector of our society.” —Reporting by Hank Trout

in memoriam: Marco Castro-Bojorquez

ilmmaker and long-time activist for the civil rights of the marginalized, Marco Castro-Bojorquez died in New York City on June 3, 2021. As a filmmaker, Castro-Bojorquez told the stories of the marginalized communities in our society, including immigrant LGBTQ+, particularly transgender women of color, people living with HIV, communities of people of color, youth and young adults, women, sex workers, the disabled, those struggling with mental health issues, and injection drug users. His films Tres Gotas de Agua and El Canto del Colibrí spotlighted the seldom told stories of family relationships in Latinx and immigrant communities. Through his association with the Latino Commission on AIDS and Lambda Legal, Castro-Bojorquez became an internationally known activist who fought for the rights of those living with HIV, the LGBTQ+ community, and immigrants. Guillermo Chacón, President of the Latino Commission on AIDS and founder of the Hispanic Health Network, said in a press release, “We will miss Marco, his thoughtfulness, kindness, empathy, compassion, engagement, passion and commitment for the community. He was able to bring his love for art, his vision and his desire for social justice together in a beautiful. We will miss you Marco dearly!”

JULY 2021 •

by Ruby Comer

Venita Ray

Dealing with the trauma, Venita soldiered onward. Through various sources the spirited lady reunited with that part of herself that yearned to live. She reached out and acquired a sturdy support system that “mothered me, inspired me, kicked me in the ass telling me I could when I didn’t even believe it.” Venita even hired a personal trainer who whipped her into physical and mental shape! She was practicing yoga, weight training, healthy eating, and meditation. Soon her lab numbers shot up. The mystified doctor addressed it: “Whatever you’re doing, Venita, keep doing it!” She knew all too well what blasted those T-cells upwards. Venita had reclaimed her power! At one point, she even marshalled her inner strength and trekked up Tan-

Ruby illustration by Davidd Batalon; photo courtesy PWN

e build power, change culture, and transform systems.” Landing on this bold quote one evening, while searching for a nifty pecan pie recipe on the Internet, halted me dead in my own tracks. It’s from the Positive Women’s Network (PWN), which, as described on its website, is a “a national membership body of women living with HIV and our allies that exists to strengthen the strategic power of all women living with HIV in the United States.” It’s the only organization of its kind. I wanted to know more. The next day I reach out to the praiseworthy organization’s co-executive director, Venita Ray. Right at its genesis in the eighties, the AIDS epidemic smacked Venita when it was still called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency). She was twenty-eight then and living in San Diego, raising Monique, her teenage daughter (that’s not easy!), and had sobered up through AA meetings. One of her close friends, who happened to be gay, was diagnosed with the disease. This stirred her to hit the streets doing outreach, encountering women who were at risk for HIV from a partner injecting drugs. From 1990–1992 Venita performed this work, and along the way she lost several friends to the virus. Raised in Oakland, California, until the age of twelve, her family moved south to San Diego. As a teen, she became pregnant and chose to defer her high school education to focus on parenting. However, substance use challenged her. Wanting to enhance herself and her child, when Monique turned six Venita refused welfare, surviving on low-wage clerical jobs. Yearning to be more evolved, she sobered up which freed her to make a wise decision——return to school. In 1987 when Monique was a teen, Venita earned her GED while working full-time. With diploma in hand she headed to San Diego City College, a liberal arts school, and received an associate degree. Revved in hot pursuit of achievement, in 1993 Venita obtained a BA in Public Administration from San Diego State University (SDSU). The very next year this determined woman surged onward, moved to Washington D.C., and started law school at American University. In 1997, the graduate received her degree. In 1999 she landed a position at the Office of the District Attorney for the District of Columbia in the D.C. Office of Planning, where she focused on neighborhood planning, land use, zoning, and economic development. As the attorney states, she was living the American dream——a dream life, a dream job, and had her dream home. In 2003, Venita was diagnosed with HIV. The situation emotionally crippled her. Bereft, overwhelmed, it was an overpowering weight. In 2007, in the midst of a dark depression she decided to leave her beloved Washington, D.C., and moved to Houston, Texas, to be near her sister and her daughter, Monique, who’s a lawyer like her mom. Thinking death might be imminent, Venita yearned to be with her loved ones.

• JULY 2021

zania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro! While there, she visited a children’s orphanage for children who had lost their parents to AIDS-related causes. Venita credits Tyson, a captivating kid, for inspiring her. (Link to vid of Tyson, and others, listed at end.) Unable to stay in touch with Tyson due to a language barrier, Venita hears that the teenager is doing just fine! After much work, Venita landed on the other side of the rainbow. She returned to work in a consulting firm, and also served on the Ryan White Planning Councils, Commissioner for Houston Historical and Archaeological Commission (HAHC), and various other roles as well. In 2014, she joined Legacy Community Health as Public Policy Manager, where she monitored HIV-related health policy and managed an advocacy training program for people living with HIV. In 2018 she hitched up with PWN. With undeniable resilience, courage, and chutzpah, Venita is an inspiration. The woman turned adversity into prosperity and along the way made it easier for others to tackle their HIV diagnosis. Such power, such strength——the woman crushed it! With her magazine-cover glow, charismatic personality, and her Mary J. Blige countenance, Venita presses on speaking and training locally and nationally about issues that impact the HIV community. In 2016, Houston was inundated with a citywide campaign to end HIV——orchestrated by Ms. Ray. On the intimate side, Venita is proud of her two grandsons, who call her Grandma Venita. She hails Good Times as her favorite television show growing up, Cooley High and The Last Samurai as movies she could watch over and over, and a couple of her favorite divas are Cicely Tyson (who sadly passed earlier this year), Sanaa Lathan, and the dynamic versatile Angela Bassett.

photo by Johnnie Ray Kornegay III

Ruby Comer: So, Good Times was your fave TV show, huh?! Venita Ray: I wanted to be a cross between Michael and Thelma. How fun. That marvelous [creator] Norman Lear, my gosh…and Esther Rolle, John Amos, and Jimmie Walker. Pow! What a supreme ensemble. Take us back to when you first received the results of the HIV test. My world went black on 4/2/2003 at 11:30 a.m. EST. I thought I was so open-minded and already knew it did not have to be a death sentence, even though I had already seen people die. I had lived a pretty tough life and thought the hard times were behind me, Ruby. So getting a call from my doctor after a physical asking me to come in and talk about one of my lab tests immediately sent up alarms because I had not had a test in some time. JULY 2021 •

July 2017, New York City: The first meeting of the HIV Racial Justice Now Coalition that PWN cofounded Wow, yes, yes how distressing. My life crashed. I did not want to live with one more…ANYTHING! Now add to that a woman living with HIV was too much! I blamed myself for not doing better. No matter what anyone says, we are all open until it is you. I was off work for a month before I could even show up. I eventually sold my house, quit my job, and moved to Houston. I did not want to live with HIV! Oh, Venita, I’m so sorry. Then you turned things around. In 2007, I made the decision to either kill myself or find a way to move on. So began the slow process of recreating myself. I no longer practice law. In 2011, I went public. I spent a lot of tears over those years. I can’t even imagine, Venita. I’m elated you landed on your feet and are now a role model for others. A wholehearted congrats! During this time did you ever seek out psychotherapy? Yes, I tried it three times. The first time was in the first couple of months and I went a few times, but I just wasn’t ready. I did not see how talking was going to help. I just wanted the HIV diagnosis to go away. I did not want to accept living with HIV. The second time was probably in 2008. Again, I did not want to accept my status. I went to one appointment and the therapist told me that I was going to have to find value in the new path that was in front of me. I didn’t want to hear that and did not go back. Finally, in 2009, I was ready and found the perfect therapist. I set specific goals because I was

finally ready to accept my status and have relief from the pain. I had done some prior work on myself so this proved to be the final step in the process in seeking professional help. What a relief for you, Venita. I went for a little over a year then the therapist told me that I had accomplished my goals. I could continue coming but she felt that my path was to just continue the spiritual journey I had begun with yoga, study, and meditation. She helped me do so much to reconnect with my best friend, stop feeling ashamed, and let go of the past. It was life-changing! Such a moving journey you’ve had, Venita. What has living with HIV taught you over the past eighteen years? Each day is a gift. I think I knew it before, but really know it now. I am going to always be a little ghetto girl; I’m not trying to fully assimilate. It takes courage to face it everyday. It is not always easy. I get to decide what I’m going to do with it. My motto is: No excuses! Venita’s healing resources:www.facebook.com/Venitas-Kilimanjaro-Project-167375276650449; www. youtube.com/watch?v=mIrTMpNBgug; www.youtube. com/watch?v=ilh3NtZuMOg; www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XSSoGhv4vvQ&t=3s; www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ilh3NtZuMOg. 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.

THE

LIFECHANGING CAMP EXPERIENCE FOR KIDS WHO NEED IT MOST

Summer camps for youth impacted by HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+ young people, and children experiencing homelessness Providing a safe community for those in need is more important than ever before. Give the gift of camp today to ensure camp is here for young people facing stigma and isolation.

www.oneheartland.org

ART & UNDERSTANDING by Chael Needle

OUR ODYSSEYS

One Editor's Take on AIDS Advocacy n the eighth grade, our social studies class had for one day a substitute teacher, Mr. Nwabeke. He may have been a last-minute replacement because, instead of continuing on with the week’s lesson plan, he chose to teach us something about himself. He shared with us his “odyssey,” as he called it——early life in Nigeria, college education in Europe, his move to the United States, his trials and triumphs. He impressed me for at least two reasons. He possessed the confidence to teach about himself, when students hardly learned anything biographical about their teachers, and he possessed the creativity to teach outside of the box. I think, as well, that he impressed me because I had not heard anyone talk about their life as one big sweep, a vista typically reserved for those mini-series I loved at the time, The Winds of War or Shogun or Bare Essence. My working life at A&U might not rise to the definition of an odyssey, but I do like the idea of looking back to see what I’ve learned along the way. And what I’ve learned is that advocacy itself is an odyssey, with many wayfarers in the ebb and flow. This month is a good time to look back, as the professional social media site LinkedIn is reminding me that I am celebrating a work anniversary at A&U. Twenty-one years! If you want to get technical about it, I have been with A&U longer because I first started to help edit and write the magazine when I was an intern. In the English doctoral program at the University at Albany, SUNY, I needed to complete an internship for my degree requirements. I met with David Waggoner, founder, publisher and editor in chief of A&U, and he agreed to take me on board for the required hours. I was eager to work for an HIV/AIDS publication, because the proposal that earned me a position in the doctoral program detailed how I would look at representations of “plague” in Western literature leading up to HIV/AIDS, and how those representations informed present-day stigma. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I discovered that journalism could tell the stories of people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in a highly accessible and immediate way. Academic research is fine, but it is hard to make an impact as an emerging scholar (unless you are a star, which I wasn’t) and my dissertation on literature and “plagues” and stigma would only ever engage a limited discourse community. As an editor, I can be of service to people living with HIV/AIDS directly. Hands down this is why I do what I do. If I can help improve the lives of people with HIV/AIDS, then I am motivated. People often suggest other magazines for which I could work. Go work for Martha Stewart, they say. But, no, as much as I love that Connecticut fantasist, it wouldn’t be the same. A&U is a non-profit and its primary mission is to represent the lived realities

of people living with HIV/AIDS and provide a forum for their ideas, issues, and needs. Better I learn how to fix brussel sprouts six ways or transform a Halloween pumpkin into an autumnal chandelier on my own time than miss this opportunity to be of service. I have realized over the years that service needs to be steadfast. My dissertation may have been a one-off, but A&U is monthly and I have an opportunity to keep the fires burning around the clock. This seems right to me. I don’t think I am suffering from tunnel vision, but sometimes I think, “Why isn’t everyone in the world trying to do their part to meet the needs of people who are living with HIV/ AIDS?” It’s mind-boggling actually, especially when you see how HIV/ AIDS has been impacting Eastern Europe or sub-Saharan Africa or the South in the U.S. Steadfastness, I still believe, will come to fruit. When I have taught and built lessons around HIV/AIDS, the students in my classes often repeat misinformation about the virus and it seems like it is 1983 again. Some talk about the dangers of sharing utensils with someone living with HIV. Some do not even know about the better health outcomes afforded by HIV meds. I have become frustrated that the facts about HIV/AIDS are not ubiquitous. The work is not done. And that is why I am pleased to have witnessed a new generation of advocates come of age and established advocates again put their shoulders to the wheel. When I started at A&U, AIDS advocacy seemed to belong to service organizations and institutions. I interviewed representatives from Funders Concerned About AIDS, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Bailey House——all committed and doing solid work but always through the framework of an institution. And sometimes AIDS awareness——at least for the wider public——needed the celebrity with the resounding voice, like Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret Cho, or Janet Jackson, all of whom have graced our cover. There were individual advocates, but they did not command the national stage as advocates like Maria Mejia and Mark S. King do today. I don’t have any evidence that there was a lull in advocacy by those directly affected, but it does seem like

viewfinder there was a post-HAART slow-down. Maybe it was a time when people were trying to rebuild their health and focus on the difficulties and triumphs of living; and when people suddenly had a new lease on life and now had to recalculate the next five years, the next ten years, and so on. Maybe it was a time when they were traumatized by the deaths of their friends, lovers and colleagues; and when stigma made it hard for people living with HIV/ AIDS to speak from their experiences. However, something wonderful happened between 2000 and now. Maybe the Internet and social media allowed advocates a greater platform. Maybe people had stabilized their health as much as possible and could do the work of advocacy with more ease. Maybe long-term survivors grew tired of the isolation they were experiencing and wanted more community, at least, more social interaction. Maybe younger folks living with HIV were not so heavily burdened with the stigma of the first generation and could more easily step into the spotlight. Whatever the reason for the boom, we have sought to make sure positive advocates have yet another platform in A&U to represent the community. Contributing writers like Hank Trout, John Francis Leonard, Corey Saucier, Claire Gasamagera, Jeannie Wraight, Philip F. Clark, Jay Vithalani, and Bruce Ward, among others, have strengthened and amplified the cause, as have cover story interview subjects living with HIV/AIDS like Tony Enos, Tom Viola, Deirdre Johnson, Thomas ButtenschØn, Eric Rhein, Karl Schmid, Raif Derrazi, Joe Average, Billie Cooper, Ken Jones (RIP), and Charles Sanchez (from the past couple of years alone). Like Mr. Nwabeke, all of them possess the confidence to teach about themselves and all of them possess the confidence to teach outside of the box. I ended up completing my dissertation and earning a PhD, but by the end I had migrated to the subfield of Composition & Rhetoric, inspired by its emphasis on helping others write and helping to create better learning environments. And while I did not become an academic, I use this knowledge every day at A&U and all I can hope is that the world and theodyssey shared by AIDS advocates are better for it. Chael Needle is Managing Editor of A&U. Follow him on Twitter @ChaelNeedle. • JULY 2021

ALI NA O S WALD Photography

portrait - editorial - creative - promotional - event

photo editing & retouching photo education portfolio review

alinaoswald.com

ENTERPRISING

ADVOCATE Memphis Advocate LáDeia Joyce Uses Her Corporate Marketing Skills to Change the Lives of Black Women Living with and at Risk of HIV by Chip Alfred

• JULY 2021

studio photos by Antoine Lever (Instagram @aleksworks); Makeup by Nikki Chanel (Instagram @the_facegyrl); Stylist: Kimberly Newsome (Instagram @k.newsomestyle

“I’m disrupting the myths, the

stereotypes and the stigma that people associate with Black women who have been diagnosed.”

JULY 2021 •

harming and charismatic, LáDeia Joyce is also a woman who refuses to be ignored. She is incredibly ambitious and driven, dedicated to her work and passionate about educating and advocating for Black women living with HIV. A self-described “doer and disruptor,” Joyce says, “I’m disrupting the myths, the stereotypes and the stigma that people associate with Black women who have been diagnosed.” Just how is she doing that? “I’m disrupting all that by doing, by showing up, by sharing my story, by being transparent.” A&U takes a closer look at the journey of a Fortune 500 marketing consultant/entrepreneur who has added to her résumé HIV advocate and influencer, national TV spokesperson, public speaker, and nonprofit innovator. You can rest assured that this woman of many talents isn’t nearly done expanding her CV and reinventing herself. Born and raised in Memphis, Joyce, forty-one, has strong family ties and a deep connection to her faith. Tims were tough in the ’80s in Memphis. At one point, both her parents lost their jobs, but LáDeia figured out how to earn her own money from an early age. “In high school and junior high, I was the kid selling candy out of her locker between classes,” she tells A&U. “I knew then I was always going to either have some type of business or additional stream of income.” After graduating from the University of Memphis on a full-ride scholarship, Joyce relocated to Atlanta and later to Brooklyn, where she forged a successful career in experiential and event marketing, working for major brands, including FedEX and Verizon and earned her MBA along the way. In 2015, after her dad was involved in a nearly fatal accident, Joyce made the decision to move back home to help her parents out. Then the following year, things took a dramatic turn in Joyce’s life. She was driving her mom out to dinner after spending the day together. It was

• JULY 2021

studio photo by Antoine Lever (Instagram @aleksworks); outdoor photo by Ariel Aleks Antonío(Instagram @Aleksworks); Makeup by Nikki Chanel (Instagram @the_facegyrl); Stylist: Kimberly Newsome (Instagram @k.newsomestyle

just before rush hour on one of the busiest streets in Memphis and her phone rang. The call was from a nurse practitioner she had seen the week before. She immediately popped in her earbuds. The NP said to her, “Your test results have come back. You are indeed HIV-positive.” The last thing she said was, “You can come pick up your test results tomorrow from the front desk.” Joyce knew that was not how that phone call was supposed to go. “Everything else was a blur for the rest of the day. I just had to keep myself composed. I had my mother with me and that’s not how I wanted her to find out.” Once Joyce got home, her first thought was, “Who marries somebody who’s HIV-positive?” But she wasn’t afraid she was going to die. “I told myself, ‘This can’t be what takes me out. Every time you wake up and you have breath, and blood flowing through your body, that means you still have purpose to fulfill. God, I can’t go out like this.” Finding an HIV specialist and the right therapist were her first two priorities. “My therapist was the first one to tell me that being diagnosed with HIV was a traumatic experience and it needed to be addressed as trauma,” she says. “That gave me a different perspective as far as creating boundaries, coping mechanisms, and taking a look at my life in its totality.” Looking back, Joyce had to relive thirteen years of trauma she endured as a child. “I was molested by an older cousin from the time I was three until I was sixteen. I didn’t say anything to my parents about it until I turned twenty-three. I look at pictures of myself then and I don’t even recognize that girl. I dimmed my light. I didn’t want anyone to notice me.” Once she found the strength to open up about the abuse publicly, she says that moxie helped her become the outspoken HIV advocate she is today. “I didn’t like what that silence did to me. I damn sure wasn’t going to allow this diagnosis and even the shame and stigma that surrounds it to take my voice again.” As Joyce delved into HIV advocacy work while maintaining her corporate career, she often had to keep the two worlds apart. “I compartmentalized my job because that was work, and because I was working for a Fortune 500 company at the time. Stigma, stereotypes, myths, all that is still very much alive and well, especially in the South. I didn’t need any lines to be crossed. I enjoy my job and my salary. But I do understand the necessity for me to be present, showing up how I do as someone who was diagnosed with HIV in the HIV sector, especially in Memphis.” Joyce has been able, however, to take advantage of some of these corporate connections to initiate conversations that otherwise might never happen. “I make it a point to sometimes insert myself in spaces that would not necessarily think about talking about HIV. I’m strategic in partnerships and talking to different companies to understand that, ‘Hey, your consumer base is this number of Black women. This is why you need to be concerned about HIV because it’s impacting your largest audience.’” “When I started to peel back the layers in Memphis,” Joyce says, “I realized that in Memphis, 93% of all women who are diagnosed with HIV are Black women. If these were white women with the flu, it would be a whole movement. There would be campaigns and messaging to get the word out that white women, you’re getting the flu. Thirteen out of fourteen women who are diagnosed with the flu in Memphis are white women, we’ve got to do something!” Joyce started organizing advocacy events on her own, partnering with organizations like MAC Cosmetics, and Memphis-based nonprofits including Choice and SisterReach. But the funding for most of these events was coming out of Joyce’s pocket. “It was important for me to do that because no one in Memphis was making the noise that was necessary to inform Black women about their vulnerability to HIV,” she says. So, she came up with her next big idea. In 2017, the independent film 90 Days was touring the country. The JULY 2021 •

film, which features the story of a Black woman’s disclosure of her HIV status to her would-be fiancé and how it impacts their lives, was planning to skip Memphis. Joyce rolled up her sleeves, found a venue, a caterer, and a DJ, and turned a screening into a festive party, culminating with a panel discussion. The first question the moderator asked the panel was how they related to any of the characters in the movie. Joyce responded, “I relate to the character in the movie because I too am a Black woman, a Black professional woman who has been diagnosed with HIV.” Once she said it, she started to cry. “That was the first time I had said it out loud in public in front of people.” That event, now known as Joyce’s “Moment of Transparency,” sparked a frenzy of activity. “My inbox and my phone were flooded all weekend with support,” Joyce recalls. “A lot of people, not just women, in the metro Memphis area identified with me.” She realized there were many stories like hers not being told, and she was determined to give those stories a platform. Joyce continued to do more speaking engagements and advocacy events in Memphis, and then she received a call about something on a much larger scale. She was approached about her participation in a Patient Ambassador program. In 2019, she was selected to join a small group of individuals living with HIV to be featured as spokespersons for the HIV medication Dovato in national TV commercials and online advertising. For Joyce, this nationwide exposure meant validation that her voice was being heard. “It validated me being as assertive, and as in your face as I had been in the city of Memphis. You could almost take the same issue and replicate it in different cities because that’s how Black women were being ignored or not being raised up when it came to them knowing their vulnerability for contracting HIV.” To continue to do her advocacy work and reach a wider audience, Joyce knew she needed her own nonprofit, which ultimately came together as The Positive Experience. “We understand that being diagnosed is an experience and not just a moment in one’s life, and we want to ensure that the experience is a uniquely positive one,” she explains. The Positive Experience (TPE) builds community partnerships and coalitions that create marketing campaigns, events, and conferences that focus on HIV education, awareness, and prevention. The organization’s goals are to reduce stigma, increase knowledge and support, and to normalize HIV through narrative. Beyond its counseling and support group initiatives, TPE has developed a series of innovative programs designed to celebrate and empower Black women living with HIV, including “It’s Your Seroversary,” “Positive and Still Pretty,” and “Hot Sex Tool Kit.” As for LáDeia Joyce’s legacy, she wants to go down in history as “a girl from South Memphis who grew up and made an impact, who shifted narratives even outside the realm of HIV, who showed people from all walks of life how to show up and show out in this world. I would like to be remembered as a woman who emboldened other people, particularly Black women who live with HIV to do the same; and that we chose to be victors rather than victims, and we chose to live our lives through a lens of transformation and triumph.” For more information about LáDeia Joyce and The Positive Experience, visit: https:// positivelydeia.com, follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/positively_deia or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/positivelyDeia. Chip Alfred is A&U’s Editor at Large, a public speaker, and a media and public relations consultant based in Philadelphia. Follow Chip on Twitter @ChipAlfred.

POETRY

Buried Memories Ass cold granite on the garden wall, son of pandemic, I contemplate losses. The depth of graves. Practiced at dropping wet oak coffins, sealing silenced pits, I shovel, bury bags of gold.

I pulled the teeth myself.

Over this offering, I plant three hundred crocus bulbs, my wedding ring, a chain that holds her locket. Mom warned: Never deal in glitter. Her locket holds a clipping, my first haircut. Now I’m bottled, blonde, crocused, white and yellow. Lost lovers, damselflies. Just inches down, I drop pearly bulbs in soil, plant an X, a spot, so someday, I’ll know where to dig. —Robert Carr Robert Carr is the author of Amaranth, published in 2016 by Indolent Books, and The Unbuttoned Eye, a full-length 2019 collection from 3: A Taos Press. Among other publications his poetry appears in the American Journal of Poetry, Crab Orchard, Massachusetts Review, Rattle, and Shenandoah. Robert recently retired from a career as Deputy Director for the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Additional information can be found at robertcarr.org.

• JULY 2021

NTERnarrative COUNTER COU “More Life,” a Series of Art Exhibits, Feature Marginalized Stories About HIV/AIDS by Alina Oswald

“We won’t die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come. Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one. And I bless you: More Life. The Great Work Begins.” —Tony Kushner, Angels in America

his summer, at its New York and London locations, the David Zwirner Gallery is hosting a series of shows highlighting artists/creatives whose work has fallen through the cracks, less popular artists yet artists with their own stories to share, stories that add to the already complex, multi-layered fabric/ history of HIV/AIDS. Their work forms counternarratives to the dominant ways of understanding the pandemic, which was first reported by the CDC forty years ago. The selected artists’ work featured in a series of focused solo shows helps expand the conversation around HIV/AIDS-related art making, and also helps people take a more comprehensive look at the work of each of these artists. “The idea of HIV and AIDS counternarratives is a subject that is personally interesting to me as a queer person and as a politically active person understanding the activism that has come before my time,” Alec Smyth, Associate Director at David Zwirner Gallery in New York City, tells me when we connect via Zoom. “One of our goals with this exhibition is to broaden and expand the way that the AIDS crisis has been told through art history,” Smyth comments. There is a small group of artists that are consistently thought about and included in exhibitions, in essays and books about the AIDS crisis. But like with any historical event, there are so many other stories. And so, “More Life” platforms some of these other stories that we haven’t heard as much about. Smyth, David Zwirner, Senior Director Robert Goff, and Director Thor Shannon are part of the team behind the gallery’s latest series of exhibitions. Inspired by a quote from Tony Kushner’s play, Angels in America, “More Life” highlights a selection of artists who made work that we’re less familiar with, and whose lives were cut short by HIV/AIDS-related complications during approximately the first twenty years of the epidemic. The forty-year timeline is relevant, in that it does provide the kind of distance necessary to look back on the early decades of HIV and AIDS, better understand what it was about, and perhaps see things anew. “You know, for my generation of queer people and for younger generations of queer people, also politically active people, I think it’s especially important to understand the political movements and the artists and artistic movements that came before, so I think that’s kind of what’s driving the show.” “More Life” takes on HIV/AIDS counternarratives in several shows. Four

shows open on June 24 in New York City——three of them at the 19th Street gallery location, and one at the 69th Street location. Four other shows open in September——three of them in New York City and one in London. “More Life" also refers to the words that come before that line from Angels in America, “’We won’t die secret deaths anymore,’ [which] is an introduction into the show,” Smyth comments. Truth is that a lot of people did die secret deaths during that time. Because of the homophobia and prejudice, their deaths were not accurately reported. “One of the intentions of the show is to talk about these artists who lost their lives to the early years of HIV and AIDS, as an act of rebellion against that kind of prejudice. The show also relates to ‘more life’ by giving more life to these artists, thus allowing younger generations to engage with them and continue to be in dialogue with them through their artwork. And that’s a really beautiful thing.” One of the shows opening on June 24 at the 19th Street gallery location focuses on the Silence = Death collective. A limited edition of a fine-art print based on the original, pre-ACT-UP Silence = Death poster is also available through the gallery, with proceeds going to Visual AIDS. Accompanying the show is a series of conversations with Gregg Bordowitz, Ted Kerr, Sarah Schulman, and Avram Finkelstein, founding member of the Silence = Death collective. It includes material never before exhibited, as well as several photographs, including images by Donna Binder, such as Federal Plaza, Manhattan, June 30, 1987. Binder is one of the women involved in ACT UP, activists who were also using their cameras to capture those moments. “I think it’s important to recognize that they were responsible for a lot of the visual material that came out [during] that time, and that they were there documenting the movement,” Smyth says. Without ACT UP we would not have the HIV and AIDS treatments available today. And so, it’s important to acknowledge the huge accomplishments made by this group of artists and activists who came together and organized around this cause and achieved so much. “More Life” also features work by artists whose lives were cut short by HIV/AIDS, and whose work only now comes into focus for many of us. These artists were part of communities of artists decimated by the early years of the pandemic, and so many incredible people were lost in that time. Curators of their solo shows were close friends of the featured artists, which, in turn, gives these shows a personal touch. Each show has and tells a special story. Curated by Ryan McGinley, a selection of Mark Morrisroe’s (1959–1989) photographs is shown at the 69th Street gallery location. Born and raised in • JULY 2021

a&ugallery

Women of ACT-UP demonstrate at NIH, 1990 Photo: Donna Binder © Donna Binder

Derek Jarman, May 1992. Photo: Howard Sooley © Howard Sooley

JULY 2021 •

Boston, Massachusetts, Morrisroe left home when he was a teenager and became involved in the punk scene in Boston. He was part of a group of photographers known as the Boston School, which includes Nan Goldin and David Armstrong. Morrisroe moved to New York City in the early eighties and was well-known in New York City’s East Village. He passed away from AIDS-related complications at the age of thirty, in Jersey City, New Jersey. His body of work has long been influential to younger photographers. A few paintings by British artist Derek Jarman [A&U, April 1994] are also on display at the 19th Street gallery location. Also shown is a video work that he made at the end of his life. While going blind, he could only see the color blue. Hence, the name of his video, Blue, released only months before his death. Jesse Murray was an artist who grew up in the South and moved to New York City. He was a larger-than-life kind of figure. Later in life, he decided to go to Yale to get his MFA. That’s where he met Lisa Yuskavage. The two became close friends, and also important critics of each other’s work. He was an early advocate for her work, and she talks about him as being really influential of her work. (She also has an exhibition of her own work at David Zwirner’s gallery, in New York City.) Yuskavage co-curated Murray’s show featured at the 19th Street gallery location in September. Their friendship gives his show a personal feel, as if revealing an intergenerational dialogue between the two artists. A similar mood is also evoked in a Frank Moore (1953–2002) show, curated by Hilton Als, on display this September, in New York City.

Silence = Death Project, AIDSGATE, 1987 Courtesy the Artist

Mark Morrisroe, Sweet Raspberry/ Spanish Madonna, 1986 © Estate of Mark Morrisroe (Ringier Collection)

• JULY 2021

a&ugallery

The “More Life” series of exhibitions is a first of its kind for the gallery, showing work that speaks to the counternarratives surrounding HIV/AIDS. It serves as an inspiration for other art venues, curators, writers and people working in the industry to take up the mantle and continue showing this kind of work. “As pandemic crises resolve within cultural spaces, they inevitably downshift into a crisis of remembering,” Avram Finkelstein says. “And so the curatorial team at David Zwirner makes a perfect case for the necessity for probative diligence: cultural memory is malleable, and deeper inspection always reveals hidden narratives. As Alec [Smyth] and I began working together on this exhibition, I realized those of us who survived HIV and AIDS and are not just on our second pandemic, we form a third cohort as well. We have lived our entire lives on pandemic footing. A careful reading of 'More Life' hints at lessons to be considered for the rest of the twenty-first century.” “I hope that [younger individuals] will come to see the shows and learn,” Smyth encourages. There’s a unique opportunity to learn from these shows, because the artists featured in “More Life” approached their practices from a perspective that doesn’t exist anymore--—that of living as a queer person or as queer person of color in that time. “I think it’s vital for us to keep these stories alive. I hope that this [series of] shows does that in some way, and that people will take up the mantle and continue [this kind of work].” Those living in the New York City area can attend the “More Life”opening on June 24, at two David Zwirner Gallery locations: Uptown, 5 p.m.–7 p.m. and Chelsea, 6 p.m.–8 p.m. The gallery also offers an interactive online experience including images and an AIDS timeline. “Come!” Alec Smyth invites, “it’s going to be beautiful.”

Production stills from Marlon Riggs, Tongues Untied, 1989, video. © Signifyin’ Works. Courtesy Frameline and Signifyin’ Works.

JULY 2021 •

Find out more by visiting online at https://www. davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2021/more-life. Alina Oswald is Arts Editor of A&U.

• JUNE 2021

Music Speaks A&U ’s Chael Needle Talks to Singer Tony Enos About Mixing Social Justice Issues with Strong Grooves Photographed Exclusively for A&U by Holly Clark

JUNE2021 2021• • MAY

• JUNE 2021

n one part of his video for “POSI+IVE,” an anthem about living with HIV, native Philadelphian Tony Enos runs up the steps that Rocky made famous in that iconic moment of cinema.

Not being from Philly, I ask the singer/songwriter if a run up those steps is a rite of passage for those who live in the City of Brotherly Love. Tony laughs.”I think it is! It’s definitely symbolic of that ‘fight’ to keep going and to plow through adversity,” he says, explaining why he added that moment to the video. Resilience has been hard-won for Tony Enos. He has faced oppressive forces on several fronts and has countered what tries to hold him and others back with empowering songs. One of these songs celebrates living as a two-spirit person as an Echota Cherokee (“Two Spirit,” which garnered him a 2017 Native Trailblazer Indie Music Awards “Artist To Watch” honor). Another describes HIV-centric empowerment (“U=U”). Other songs explore social issues, like the environmental preservation (“Water Is Life”), and love and relationships (“Be My Boyfriend”). The two-time Native American Music Awards Nominee has performed at the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS in 2019, an experience that gave him the courage to be publicly open about his positive status. Whatever strength he has, he seems to want to share it with others, with the LGBTQ2S community, with Indigenous communities, with the HIV/AIDS community, with the global community. Music is his main vehicle. His powerful voice radiates outward and he is comfortable across genres——R&B, EDM, New Country. And don’t forget holiday music!

Tony started releasing music professionally under lil’ T Entertainment LLC., his own label, in 2008. His first album, DID IT RITE, introduced listeners to his sweet, smooth voice (and often sultry lyrics).So far he has recorded four studio albums and has released multiple singles.

Tony also performs on stage as an actor, and recently appeared in Ajijaak on Turtle Island, which, according to the play’s website, “tells the story of Ajijaak, a young whooping crane. Separated from her family in a Tar Sands fire caused by the monstrous Mishibizhiw, Ajijaak must make her first migration from Wood Buffalo, Canada, down to the Gulf Coast on her own, finding her voice and a family through the interconnectedness of all of creation.” The play celebrates this Indigenous interconnectedness through puppetry, music, traditional dances, animations, and kites. Asked about acting and the Ajijaak experience, in particular, Tony says, “I love live theater and performing live! I think I love the danger of it! [Laughs.] One night on tour in Wisconsin, everything that could go wrong did in my last quick change and I made my mark in the final scene by the skin of my teeth. That’s when I feel the most alive! [Laughs.] I had done several off-Broadway shows in Lower East Side theaters during the time I lived in New York City, and I’m grateful for those roots and that type of theater training. Ajijaak on Turtle Island was a tremendous blessing and a magical experience! The show was so beautiful thanks to

JULY 2021 •

Heather Henson and Ty Defoe’s amazing vision and talented production team, and the fact that it was a show written by an Ojibwa and Oneida playwright [Defoe] playing on 42nd Street was incredible! He continues: “For Native theater to make it uptown is always a pretty big deal, and I’m proud of what our show was able to do. I had worked with everyone in the show for years before we went to Broadway, so to share that time and space with them——some who are no longer with us——was incredible. For me as a live performer and actor, it’s really more than you can ever wrap your mind around no matter how hard you try. When we did our stint at the New Victory Theater on Broadway, there’d be nights I’d be on stage singing my solo during the show and I’d be saying to myself, ‘Remember this moment! Don’t forget this! Don’t forget what this felt like!’ “When I was a kid, the bullies would cross the street to spit on me. I didn’t know what the feeling was at eight years old, but I felt degraded and mortified. I never imagined that that kid who felt so low would ever have the opportunity to do anything like that. I don’t think he was even able to imagine such a blessing.” When he is not performing or fine-tuning his music, Tony loves being out in nature. “I’m really thankful for all the green spaces in Philly. You can find me out hiking or roller blading on a sunny day!” he tells A&U. Looking ahead, Tony says, “I’ll finally be back on the road this year, touring and performing. All dates are listed at tonyenosmusic.com. I’ll also be releasing more Christmas videos this holiday season from my Christmas album, Mr. Christmas. I’ve also just begun working on my fifth studio album, Indestructible, slated for release in late 2022/early 2023.” A&U recently had the chance to correspond with Tony Enos about his music, journey of empowerment, and activism. Chael Needle: How did your love of music start? Tony Enos: I come from a musical family. My grandfather was a doo-wop signer and songwriter with Columbia Records in the ‘50s, and both of my parents always had records playing in the house, so I grew up with music constantly in the air. Seeing Diana Ross perform live when I was two years old changed my life. Thats when I thought “that’s it! That’s what I want to do!” One of my favorite songs as a kid was “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” from The Wizard of Oz. When I graduated kindergarten at five years old, my Dad asked my music teacher if I could have a solo and sing it at the graduation ceremony. That was my first public performance! [Laughs.] It was the pulse point of when it all started. Nothing was the same after that.

It sounds like you had a musical education and a support system for your talent all in one. What was it about “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that you loved? It’s so funny that you ask me that at this point in my life. My memory starts from two years old, and as far back as I can remember, I was always bullied by other kids for being different. At that age it was “You act like a girl!” Or, “Why do you act like a girl?” “You sound like a girl!” I was just doing and acting in a way that was natural for me. Then around six years old it became, “You’re gay!” “You act gay!” Then the pejoratives and gay slurs started around seven or eight. Kids have such visceral reactions, and I didn’t have the language as I do now at thirty-six years old to say I feel bullied, or oppressed, or I won’t tolerate this toxic behavior or violence against my spirit. Most of the time I just wanted to disappear. I felt mortified. After so many years of getting bullied every day, my young mind and spirit were troubled and heavy. I didn’t understand it all, but I knew what I felt, and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” became a way to express those feelings. Albeit totally subconscious. I longed for a place where I could be myself and not be accosted for it. Even when I hear it today, just those opening strings from the movie score, I get a feeling in my heart and in the pit of my stomach. That song became a safe space for me, and I’m faithful to it today. Fast forward to present day, I’m working on my fifth studio album, and I’m covering “I Will Survive,” for the very same reasons. I fell in love with that song around six years old because it expressed for me what I couldn’t express on my own.

Well, I’m glad you found the words to speak back to oppressive forces and protect and nurture your spirit. On your fourth studio album, POSI+IVE, your voice, which is lovely by the way, comes across clear and confident. Empowering. “Losing Season” had me in tears. Why did you decide to record this album? Thank you for your kind words; I appreciate that. Also, thank you for mentioning “Losing Season” specifically. That was the toughest song on this record to get through. We would have to stop and come back to it once the air cleared. The vehicle for the POSI+IVE album was really when I was the opening performer at the 2019 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. Here I was in this amazing affirming and safe space for people living with HIV, and I decided to stay closeted about my status. It caused me so much more anxiety and discomfort, but I also wasn’t able to commune with other people living with HIV and share that lived experience and say “me too!” or “I’ve been there; it will get better.” When it was over and I was on my way home thinking of those lost opportunities to experience community, I thought to myself, “This is so stupid; I’ll never do this again! I’ll never keep myself • JULY 2021

closeted in an affirming and safe space like that again!” I think at that point, I just got tired of carrying it. So we started to talk about what it would look like if I came out publicly about my status, and what would have a positive and healthy impact on the lives of the community. One night on the way home from the grocery store, I wrote the song “POSI+IVE” and I thought, “Well, no turning back now”! [Laughs.] So I decided the album would chronicle the past thirteen years of my living with HIV up until that point. My hope and prayer is that it can be good medicine for people and that folks living with HIV will feel seen, and their experiences validated. Yes, we cannot ignore those experiences that show us there could be another way forward. What has been the response to the album? I’m thankful that people have really been receptive to it and everyone seems to be able to find something that speaks to them and apply it to their life in their own way. That said, somebody’s always gonna hate. [Laughs.] And I’m okay with that. That’s art, and that’s the business. I think it makes it that much more special when someone really does get it and appreciates it. I’m just grateful anyone is interested in what I have to say and wants to empathize with me through music. That’s the miracle of music. Where words fail, music speaks. You have a lot of clarity about staying on track! I love the song “U=U,” where you educate about how an undetectable viral load means one cannot transmit HIV. It’s not easy to create a song that raises awareness and works as a dancefloor anthem, but you have done it. Why did you think it was important to spread this message? Thank you for that. Initially I think I was motivated to do it out of a bit of anger and frustration really! [Laughs.] As humans we’re habitual creators and most of our knowledge is recycled knowledge because, at some point, it became commonplace, or “the norm,” to know something. The fact that people living with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load through treatment CAN NOT transmit HIV is a GAME CHANGER! WHY ISN’T THIS COMMON KNOWLEDGE?! Why isn’t it part of school sex-ed curriculums, why isn’t there more pop-culture representation and commercials from big Pharma [side eye]? With that said, we all know the answer. The “business of the United States” has two key principles: (1) Control the people with religion and keep them stupid so we the government can do what we want in the name of “God” and no one will question it; even religion shames them into hating their own enjoyment of sex; and (2) Corporations are God. Anything that negatively impacts these principles and tips the scale of power towards the people becoming aware and having the ability to make informed choices is instantly and quietly carted away and buried. PrEP is a wonderful tool for prevention, but it’s not treating root-cause. Making sure that all people living with HIV have access to viral suppressing medications and the support to maintain an undetectable viral load is treating root cause. However, soapboxing like this isn’t always the most effect mode of education or advocacy! [Laughs.] So I decided to use a dance song as an educational tool. The knowledge of U=U attacks all the road blocks we face in ending the epidemic: Stigma, access, MORE STIGMA, and culturally appropriate education. Again, I feel where words fail music speaks, and, if people can have a good time and dance while learning, why not? In 2020 I was also blessed to be chosen as a U=U Ambassador for the Prevention Access Campaign’s U=U movement and campaign. My amazing fellow ambassadors, and being a part of the campaign have been such tremendous inspirations! I wanted to give us something! Something that celebrated us coming together and our resilience, but also that would give voice to what we’re out here fighting for. People are still dying from HIV. It’s not over yet. So we’re here, and we will be here. Until there’s a cure, and until it’s over. Agree. It’s not over yet. Speaking of resilience, what do you rely on to handle life’s difficulties? I think in it’s most simplified form, it’s love. After that would be awareness. There’s only two actual energies in the world——love and fear. Those energies create our emotions, which create our experiences, which creates our “reality.” JULY 2021 •

What you think about grows, so you have two choices: to grow and nurture love within yourself, or feed fear, which inevitably becomes a monster. My awareness helps me to remember that I’m connected to all things. Being aware that I’m a spirit that has a body and a mind has been a cornerstone in how I conduct my spirit. I’m aware that I’m not the thoughts that I think, but that I’m the observer of the thoughts that I think. I can observe them and cultivate healthier patterns of thought, and catch fearful thoughts much quicker that way. Thinking and thoughts are experiences in my awareness, as is “having” HIV. Living with HIV is an experience in my awareness, but I am NOT HIV. I’m not defined by it, or by any other experience of this world. I am what I am. We all are. So I’ve chosen to liberate my self from the stories of the world, and conduct my spirit in a way that I feel fills me with good things, so that I have good things to give to myself, and to give away to other people. You can’t give away what you don’t have. So we’re all responsible for filling ourselves with good things. Our spiritual health isn’t anyone else’s responsibility but our own! The good news is that there’s no shortage of good things. The world is full of immutably good things, and they’re good for no reason! Not because someone is paying them to be, or for political or financial gain, they’re just wonderful things! Trees which breathe life into our bodies, the birds and other pollinating animals which are responsible for about 35% of the world’s food, the life-sustaining sun, these are things that we all have access to noticing and appreciating. The saying “your best life begins with gratitude” is true! When you realize how full of love the universe is, and that you can never be disconnected from it because it lives inside of you, you can’t help but be filled with love. In turn, the things of this world, even the most horrible, we’re able to keep from having holds on our spirits when we choose to turn our attention back to love and make the choice to be love. I’m not perfect at it, and of course I have my moments, but it’s a commitment one makes to themselves and their spirit. These commitments can be lifesavers. Your response reminded me of the lyric in your song, “Two Spirit”: “difference shouldn’t stand in the way of love.” In your video, I love the way you enlisted a diverse range of individuals who are two spirit. In what ways has being two-spirit helped you in your journey living with HIV? I think having a wonderful and supportive two-spirit community has been an essential key to making me feel safe enough that I could come out publicly about my living with HIV. I feel the role of two-spirit also speaks to a time when we lived according to a different value system of life, each other, and the world around us. A great deal of the shaming and villainizing of people living with HIV can usually be traced back to a root cause of christian-institutionalized, or catholic-institutionalized belief. I think underneath that superficial layer is christian sex-shaming, and the thought being that “someone with HIV did something dirty or unclean to deserve getting HIV. They got what they deserved for being a sexual deviant.” Two-Spirits were here before colonization and the tyranny of christian religiosity. The role of two-spirit reminds me that I don’t have to admit that toxic and oppressive school of thought into my spirit, and that that’s not who I am. When I was first diagnosed I carried around so much self-loathing due to my own internalized AIDSphobia. I felt lower than the scum of the earth, and it was all other’s shit that I was carrying around inside of me. Taking up my two-spirit role has fueled my resistance and reminded me that I am not other people’s thoughts of me. For more information about Tony Enos and where and when he will be performing, visit: tonyenosmusic.com. For information about the photography of Holly Clark, visit: hollyclarkphotography.com. Chael Needle is Managing Editor of A&U. When he is not editing or writing HIV journalism, he writes fiction and poetry. Follow him on Twitter @ChaelNeedle.

Heart to Heart

A&U’s John Francis Leonard Talks to U.K. Advocate Stephen Hart About His HIV-Centric YouTube Channel, the NHS & Treading the Boards

John Francis Leonard: Give me a brief biographical sketch of your background and life growing up. Stephen Hart: So, I grew up in a household that was very dysfunctional. First I all, I had been adopted. My adopted mother had schizophrenia and manic depression, so her journey in life was a really tough one. I grew up in a home that was full of different kinds of abuse, physical, mental, and sexual. I remember thinking many times that I wouldn’t survive, but I did. By the time I was six months from my sixteenth birthday, I had been kicked out of my home and was living rough on the streets of Glasgow. Then I went into the care system, which was another six months of wondering if I’d survive. By the time I was sixteen, I had my first apartment and a year later, started my training to become a nurse. But what I really dreamed of was becoming an

actor. I nursed for four years and in that time came out as gay, traced and found my birth mother who did not want contact with me at all, and realized that, although I loved nursing, I had to follow my dream of becoming an actor. You’ve had quite a career, especially on stage. Tell me about your acting career. In my search for my birth mother, I found out that she was white, but that my father had been Puerto Rican. This explained my olive complexion. I worked for many years playing leads in musicals and pantos [pantomimes] as well as bit parts in television series. Glasgow back then didn’t offer the opportunities I was looking for, this mixed-race guy with dark wavy hair and a Scottish accent just didn’t seem to fit in anywhere. So by the time I was in my late twenties, I knew it was time to make the big move from Scotland to London. London was big and scary, but I went to open calls and gave my headshot to everyone I could find. I just happened to write a letter, in the days when people still did that, to a casting director after reading an article about a musical they were then casting with mixed-race, the term they then used, as they couldn’t get enough Indian actors for the full Indian cast it was written for. I had been cast as so many races over the years that I thought, why not? A few weeks later I had the understudy role for one of the main parts in the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Bombay Dreams. I had the role of Sweetie, the eunuch, and my dreams really were coming true. After Bombay Dreams, I headed across the miles to New York City to tell my story in my one-man show, Shadowed Dreamer. It was time to tell my own story and give it all that I could. • JULY 2021

photos courtesy S. Hart

person’s story is powerful. It can really make a difference in the lives of those you share it with. London actor Stephen Hart has a particularly compelling one that he’s shared on the New York stage and in his current project, a YouTube talk show eponymously titled Hart Talks. It’s great viewing, with compelling interviews with HIV advocates and activists, artists, house music divas, as well as glimpses into Stephen’s life and personal story. A troubled childhood in Scotland didn’t hold Stephen back. He educated himself and became a nurse for four years, but long dreamed of becoming an actor, a dream he fulfilled. He was a successful working actor for years and plans to make his return to the stage soon. He shares his story with us here and gives us a great example of what it means to live successfully with HIV. I recently had a chance to have a heart-to-heart with Stephen Hart

I’d love to hear all about your journey with HIV. I PrEP is now covered by the National Health Service. What is your perspecam poz myself, and am particularly interested in tive on how that is working and what remains to be done? the details leading to your initial diagnosis and PrEP is now covered by the NHS due to the hard work of campaigns like the I Want treatment. Tell me how important the NHS was in PrEP Now project and the Terrence Higgins Trust. My thoughts on PrEP are that it’s this process and where you think it can improve. another amazing advancement in helping people to prevent themselves from getting One cold October night a few months after I left Bom- HIV/AIDS. If I weren’t already positive, I’m sure that PrEP would be part of my routine. bay Dreams, I was out to meet a close friend for a drink at a local bar. I had split up with my long-term boyfriend just I’ve been binge-watching your YouTube show, Hart Talks, it’s very well a few days earlier, so we talked about what was going on done. What inspired you to create the show and what were your goals with that, but then he received a call that he had to leave when you did. What are your goals for it going forward? Who, so far, has and I stayed on. Not long after my friend left, I remember been your favorite guest and who is your dream guest? feeling really drowsy and heavy-headed. I remember a After the run of my one-man show, I kept getting messages from people guy’s voice asking if I needed some fresh air. I said yes, wondering what was next. After doing something that had such an effect on me and but couldn’t lift my head to see his face. Many hours later, on so many people who had watched it, I needed time to reflect on it all. YouTube kept I was awoken by the sun on my face, but it felt like only popping up in my thoughts. It was something I had thought about for a few years, but seconds had passed since that really nice guy had helped due to being in my Forties, not feeling well a lot me outside. of the time, and my life not being that exciting, I tried to stand, but I wondered if there was enough to keep people felt slapped in the face entertained. On vacation in Brazil, it hit me that by dizziness. I managed it was now or never. If I had begun telling my to drag myself home and into the bathroom and story in Shadowed Dreamer, Hart Talks would was now able to stand with be about my continuing to tell my story, but support. As I undressed allow others to tell their stories too. I feel that the for the shower, it became more exposure we have to people of different clear from all the blood backgrounds or lives that may not be looked that I had been raped. I upon as the norm, the more understanding and got into the shower and accepting we can be, and that was the goal for scrubbed at my skin until Hart Talks. it bled, knowing what they Going forward, I would love to be cast in a said about preserving dream project, but I just hope that my channel evidence after a rape, but continues to grow. My channel has been a slow only wanting to wash what burner with subscriptions and views because happened down the drain. I am not your typical YouTube personality with A few months later, I found content and in age. But my thoughts always go out that I was HIV-positive "Despite the sadness in my life, back to if a story helps just one person. I have as a result of the rape. two favorite guests, to be honest. The first is there has been lots of happiness, I spent the next two years just surviving. I worked Scott Alan, the American musical theater songthen came home, drank too much, listened to Whitney too. I have had people placed writer. I am a huge fan of many years and have Houston, watched YouTube videos, and cried a lot. I was into my world who have been seen him in concert loads of times so I spent educated about HIV, but like many, I thought my life amazing inspirations to me. " was over, cut short by a deadly disease. the whole time with him swooning. My second Two years passed and I realized that I wasn’t was Nello, who was ninety-three, lived in San going to die anytime soon. I educated myself with Francisco, and had lost many friends and lovers the help of the NHS and services like the Terra\ence in the AIDS crisis of the eighties and nineties. Higgins Trust. I have a great HIV doctor named Rachael who told me about U=U and Hearing him tell his and their stories was really powerful. My dream guest would be I was gobsmacked. I was undetectable and unable to transmit the virus. Barbra Streisand. Well if you’re going to dream, why not dream big! It is was in my third year of living with HIV (2009) that I started writing my one-man show, Shadowed Dreamer. I wrote it for myself, but it was also time to start What is your biggest source of strength? telling my story to others. I also really wrote it for my friends. They had known me for Despite the sadness in my life, there has been lots of happiness, too. I have had so many years, but never really knew my story. I hoped that my story would reach just people placed into my world who have been amazing inspirations to me. So much of one person, then it would have been worth it. what I have done and who I am is because of them. My friends are my family, my cats Shadowed Dreamer hit New York in 2009. There were only six people in my first Gracie and Gus——my children——and a night out seeing a good musical is my nonaudience and I asked myself, “What the hell are you doing?” Almost a year later, my guilty pleasure. Besides that, I just keep smiling as often as I can. Because who doesn’t show closed off-Broadway having been seen by thousands. Although it hadn’t been love a cheeky grin? easy going out there time after time and telling my story, I reached a lot more than just the one person I had hoped to. Check out Stephen Hart’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/StephenHartHartThe NHS and the people who work there are amazing, but in desperate need of Talks. funding and support in all areas. The people who work there are so overworked and underpaid that it just can’t continue as it is. Our government needs to view the NHS as a necessity. Without the National Health Service, I would have died many years ago and John Francis Leonard interviewed actor Lou Liberatore for the September 2020 issue. the fact that I am here now is due to some of the best doctors and nurses in the world. He writes the Bright Lights, Small City column for A&U. JULY 2021 •

Under_Reported by Hank Trout

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

HIV Testing Rates Dropped During COVID ccording to an April 21, 2021, report by NPR, rates of testing for HIV fell to troubling levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdowns put in place to contain the spread of COVID, clinics limited in-person visits; doctors’ offices and emergency rooms halted routine HIV tests; rapid-testing vans ceased operation; medical personnel were diverted from HIV/AIDS work to COVID-19 response; and in the city, county, state, and federal agencies, health expertise became focused singly on COVID. Nearly 700,000 fewer HIV screening tests were conducted across the U.S.——a 45% drop—— and 5,000 fewer diagnoses between March and September 2020, compared with the same period the year before. Prescriptions for PrEP also have fallen sharply. State public health departments have recorded similarly steep declines in testing. Alliance for Positive Change, a local nonprofit that has served New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS and other chronic health conditions for thirty years, recorded a drop nearly 40% in HIV testing during COVID. The nation’s HIV surveillance system cannot monitor the virus’s movement for the first time in decades. While the impact of this drop in HIV testing is just beginning to be felt, it is clear that the impact will be the most severe in the Southern states, which account for 51% of new transmissions, eight of the ten states with the highest rates of new diagnoses, and half of all HIV-related deaths, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a major derailing,” Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta and head of the Emory AIDS International Training and Research Program, told NPR. “There will be damage. The question is, how much?” A&U corresponded with Sharen Duke, founding CEO and executive director of Alliance for Positive Change, about the COVID-related reduced rate of HIV testing. Hank Trout: NPR reported that, due to these COVID-related changes, “For the first time in decades, the nation’s lauded HIV surveillance system is blind to the virus’s movement.” Please discuss some of the real-world effects of this “blindness.” Sharen Duke: When we administer fewer HIV tests, we identify fewer HIV-positive individuals, which subsequently delays getting them connected to care, on treatment, and finally, undetectable. Knowing how many individuals we have along each step of this path (known as the HIV treatment cascade) is critical.

During the pandemic, we lost a year of data for all of these categories. Cascade data helps us identify trends in infection, allowing us to target specific communities with culturally competent prevention information and testing. It also informs where our government partners allocate funding for our communities, in order to ensure specific communities are receiving help proportionally to their needs. The region of the country most impacted by these changes is the South. Can you discuss the cultural/religious/economic factors that contribute to that disproportionate prevalence of HIV transmissions and deaths? In New York City, we are lucky to have dedicated resources to fight the HIV epidemic, robust public benefits, expanded Medicaid, and the commitment from our taxpayers and government to make funding available. At Alliance, we often see people migrating from the South in their quest to access medications and treatment in New York City——as well as public benefits support towards housing and affordable medications, among others. There are geographical accessibility issues in the South, where health clinics are often many miles away. Other factors, such as stigma and discrimination, present additional barriers to HIV prevention and treatment services. Given the higher rates of transmission in the South, it’s likely that many of these intersecting factors hinder access to culturally competent care. The lack of healthcare insurance has had a detrimental effect on HIV testing and services since long before COVID-19, particularly in those states that refused to expand Medicaid coverage under the ACA. Has the lack of healthcare insurance contributed to the drop in HIV testing and other services during COVID? If so, how? COVID-19 has certainly exacerbated a lot of the entrenched health inequities that disadvantaged communities face in our nation. During the pandemic, more people were out of work and without health insurance——these people were disproportionally from lower-income brackets. Access to insurance is absolutely a barrier to health equity in general. I believe policymakers and funders need to look at alternatives to traditional medical settings to make testing available

to everyone. We must overcome the barriers to widespread access to all health screening and services, nationwide. Although no one can predict the exact longterm repercussions of these COVID-related obstacles, what do you think the worst, long-lasting damage to HIV tracking and treatment might be? In terms of tracking cases, we lost a year of crucial data. It’s worth repeating that this will make it much harder for service organizations and government funds to reach the communities most affected by HIV. Finally, what actions can the government and ASOs take to mitigate that damage? Or is it too late now? It’s not too late. Governments on all levels can invest money and resources——we especially must continue to invest in Medicaid, so that people have access to the full array of services they need and deserve. The government can also engage with ASOs to increase community vaccination efforts, which help mitigate barriers to accessing care. The importance of getting tested for HIV/ HCV/COVID-19 and knowing your status, in order to protect yourself and those around you, cannot be overstated. For the June issue, Hank Trout interviewed activists about marking forty years of the known AIDS pandemic. • JULY 2021

Amida Care is here for you, as always. When you’re ready, our Medicaid health insurance gives you access to: $0 monthly premium and low/no cost copays A large network of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, dentists, and more

Treatment and preventive care for a safe, healthy sex life, including PrEP and ARVs Health advocates to help you every step of the way Help with housing referrals, job training, and other support programs

HEALTH. ADVOCACY. CARE.

www.AmidaCareNY.org

STANDING STRONG with you and for you. Contact us for confidential answers: 1-855-GO-AMIDA (1-855-462-6432), TTY 711 Amida Care complies with Federal civil rights laws. Amida Care does not exclude people or treat them differently because of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. ATENCIÓN: si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios gratuitos de asistencia lingüística. Llame al 1-800-556-0689, TTY 711. 注意：如果您使用繁體中文，您可以免費獲得語言援助服務。請致電 1-800-556-0689, TTY 711. Stock photo with model.

ACCESS TO CARE

lifeguide

by Chael Needle

ALL NEED ACCESS

A New Report Promotes the Inclusion of Transgender Individuals in HIV National Strategic Plans

n June 7, 2021, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and the trans-led organization GATE released new infographics highlighting transgender inclusion in national HIV planning documents from around the world. HIV National Strategic Plans (NSPs) dictate a country’s overall response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Considered to be “epidemiologically sound,” NSPs ensure that all high-risk populations receive appropriately tailored programming and funding. Worldwide, transgender people are disproportionately impacted by HIV, but are historically absent from NSPs. Meaningful inclusion in an NSP requires inclusion in five sections: the plan’s narrative/ background, epidemiological data, targets/indicators, activities, and budgets. Among the three dozen or so NSPs reviewed, only five countries’ NSPs mention transgender people in all five sections of their NSPs. Asked about the sparse inclusion of transgender individuals in these countries’ NSPs, Jennifer Sherwood, Public Policy Manager at amfAR, told A&U, “Unfortunately, our world is still plagued by transphobia and homophobia that can get in the way of sound policy. The epidemiological data on high HIV risk among trans populations is clear, and if NSPs were solely based on epidemiological data we would see trans people included in every country’s plan. However, NSPs are political documents and often reflect the political priorities of a country. If trans people are not afforded equal rights, protections, or recognition in a country’s laws it is less likely that they will be a priority population in the HIV response.” The study examined NSPs from countries in five regions: Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Asia and the Pacific; Eastern and Southern Africa; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Western

JULY 2021 •

and Central Africa. Researchers found that: • In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, only three of the seven NSPs reviewed mention transgender people in at least one key section; none mentioned them in all key sections. • In Asia and the Pacific, eleven of the thirteen NSPs reviewed included transgender people in at least one section; only three mentioned them in all key sections. • In Eastern and Southern Africa, eleven of the sixteen NSPs reviewed included transgender people in at least one section; but none mentioned them in all key sections. • In Latin America ad the Caribbean, eight of the nine NSPs reviewed mentioned transgender people in at least one section; only one mentioned them in all key sections; and • In Western and Central Africa, six of the fifteen NSPs reviewed addressed transgender people in at least one section; only one mentioned them in all key sections. The countries that included transgender

folks in all five of the key sections are Pakistan, Fuji, Malaysia, Dominican Republic, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were far outnumbered by the countries that make no mention of transgender people in their NSPs. The exclusion of transgender folks in these countries’ NSPs impacts the worldwide fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Sherwood again: “The HIV response is hurt when we don’t follow the science. Transgender people are a key population in the fight against HIV——meaning that they face not only disproportionality high rates of HIV, but also criminalization and policy barriers to services. We won’t see the end of the HIV pandemic without reaching trans people with population-specific services that reaffirm their gender identity. Fully including trans people in NSPs is a good first step to indicate the political will to reach this goal.” Effecting the inclusion of trans populations in all aspects of HIV/AIDS policy, research, and treatment will require local, state, national, and international collaboration. “First, the international HIV community can fund research for and by trans people around the world,” Sherwood told A&U. “Exclusion of trans people from NSPs is often justified by the lack of country-specific data, so making trans people visible in HIV data is a priority. Second, the international HIV community can support the trans advocates and activists who have been fighting for rights in their countries for a long time. Resourcing local or regional trans groups to interface with their government with international support can help effect change. Powerful international HIV funders such as PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and UNAIDS can also make their support of trans populations clear through funding allocations, strong statements of support, and making trans inclusion a key focus of their government relations work.” A PDF file of the infographic “A Neglected Population: Transgender Inclusion in National HIV Plans” can be found at https://www.amfar.org/A-Neglected-Population/. For more information about the three organizations involved, log on to: www.amfar. org; https://gate.ngo/; and www.eltonjohnaidsfoundation.org. Hank Trout writes the For the Long Run column for A&U.

3 EDITION rd

FR AND OEPEE TO ALL! N

OCTOBER 2021

Gathering and Celebration of multicultural and LGBTQ communities For the fight against racism and the fight against homophobia

VARIOUS ACTIVITIES IN THE GAY VILLAGE AND LATIN QUARTER NEW OUTDOOR PROGRAMMING THIS YEAR, DETAILS TO COME partners as of September 15, 2020

SERVICE À LA FAMILLE CHINOISE DU GRAND MONTRÉAL

graphisme et vidéo multimédia

TO BECOME AN OFFICIAL PARTNER, OR PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATION, OR VOLUNTEER :

INFORMATION@BBCM.ORG

COMMUNITY EVENT ORGANIZED BY :

MEGA 30 th EDITION CELEBRATION

MAJOR WORLD-RENOWNED LGBTQ PARTY FESTIVAL

BLACK&BLUE MAIN EVENT ALL-NIGHT IN THE SAME VENUE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2021 CANADIAN THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

STAY TUNED FOR UPCOMING DETAILS!

STAY SAFE!

WWW.BBCM.ORG PARTNERS AS OF APRIL 2021:

graphisme et vidéo multimédia

COMMUNITY EVENT ORGANIZED BY

TO BECOME AN OFFICIAL PARTNER, PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATION, OR VOLUNTEER : INFORMATION@BBCM.ORG

EDITION

INCLUDED

ALBUM SOUVENIR XXX: SEND US YOUR BEST MOMENTS AT MEDIA@BBCM.ORG

FI LM FILM

RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO!: a love story about fetish porn Directed by Ryan A. White & Alex Clausen Wohler Films LLC

AW! UNCUT! VIDEO! a love story about fetish porn, an in-yourface documentary by Ryan A. White and Alex Clausen, is not a documentary about AIDS. And yet, the specter of AIDS hovers over every frame of it. White and Clausen chronicle the rise and fall of gay porn studio Palm Drive Video and contextualize gay fetish porn’s historical significance during the height of the AIDS crisis in the U.S. This story of how a devoted leather couple helped fight a devastating health crisis by promoting safe kinky sex is just as rowdy and boisterous, as eye-opening and wild——and just as important——as the original Palm Drive videos themselves. As the AIDS pandemic decimated the gay community in San Francisco, writer/editor/filmmaker Jack Fritscher [A&U, March 2020] and his husband Mark Hemry moved north to a ranch in Sonoma County. They worked to create “a safe-sex porn studio that offered viewers new sexual possibilities in an age of plague.” They birthed Palm Drive Video, as Fritscher put it, “to entertain the troops with safe sex scenes and techniques during the 1980s war on AIDS. Palm Drive Video films were instructional. At the height of the AIDS dying, Palm Drive Video, via mail-order, taught thousands of men socially distanced in the hinterlands how to make their solo safe sex hot with a safe-sex partner on the screen.” “We wanted to bring sex back into people’s lives at a time when everyone was scared of sex,” Mark Hemry says in the film. They sought out ruggedly muscled, hairy, bearded non-professional models of all sizes and ages among San Francisco’s men with HIV, most of whom have now passed, who wanted to be memorialized on screen in a safe-sex format. Models enacted/verbalized their unique erotic fantasies, directly addressing the viewer, enabling him to participate in that kink. The one straight model they filmed, Steve Thrasher, wanted to perform to honor his brother Billy, once Co-Chair of San Francisco Pride, who had died of AIDS-related causes. One model, Steve Parker, said of his debut in Lightning Rodz, “I was thirty-six or thirty-seven years old, I had just lost my husband to AIDS, and I was ready to explore my kinky side.” Palm Drive celebrated a wide range of gay fetish figures such as cops, firemen, cowboys, wrestlers, bodybuilders, and more. White and Clausen have compiled a lively, thoughtful history of a short-lived labor of love, a thank-you bouquet of leather roses to Jack and Mark, and their models, for giving horny gay men an alternative to the typical air-brushed muscle-mag gay porn then available, in scenes that will intrigue anyone interested in the intersection of art, sex, and kink. Palm Drive Video made art that freed their models to explore and engage

the viewer in their darkest, most NSFW sexual fantasies——and freed the viewer to “share” that fantasy in private, in safety. As Mark put it, “at a time when everyone was scared of sex,” they made kink safe so the troops could fight on. This documentary pays deserved honor to their art. RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! had its international premiere at the 50th Kyiv International Film Festival (Molodist), and its West Coast premiere at Frameline45, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, running June 17 to 27 online. For more information about the documentary, please log on to: www. rawuncutvideo.com. —Hank Trout Hank Trout is a Senior Editor of A&U.

• JULY 2021

the AIDS activist project Faces from the frontlines of the fight against AIDS

sum

25 years in the making, over 60 portraits of the people who stood up and fought the AIDS Crisis. Find out more & purchase your copy at www.theaidsactivistproject.org

A Calendar of Events

lifelines

s a measure of caution, the Circle of Harmony HIV/AIDS Wellness Conference (COH) planning committee decided this year’s meeting will be virtual. The conference, whose theme is “Uplifting Our People: Soaring to New Heights,” is “in recognition of the resilience and innovation of tribal communities during the pandemic and how we envision the future of ending the HIV epidemic in our communities,” according to COH’s website. The conference will take place August 24-26. Coordinated by the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board’s Community Health Education and Resiliency Program with input from experts in the field of HIV and members of the National Native HIV Network, COH is one-of-a-kind——the only event to focus on HIV/AIDS prevention and substance abuse prevention from a Native American-centric point of view. On the agenda: best practices for implementing PrEP navigation, the intersection of mental health and HIV prevention and treatment, and strategies for advancing health equity. For more information or to register, log on to: https://aaihbcircleofharmony.org.

JULY 2021 •

POETRY

Song of the First Men I board a bus to the city beneath the tunnels under train-lines, pass the chapel of chapped brick and drop down in the crypt, dig the dirt and deeper through lose my nails until I find solid proof that the myths were true that the men were once alive. —Shaun Hill

Shaun Hill is a recent Pushcart nominee and was one of five UK writers nominated and selected for the Apples & Snakes | Jerwood Arts: Poetry in Performance Programme (2020-21). His work has previously appeared in Magma, Impossible Archetype, Radical Art Review, on BBC Radio 4, and elsewhere. His debut collection, warm blooded things, will be published by Nine Arches Press in Autumn this year.

• JULY 2021

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

HOW DOES HIV TREATMENT WORK AS HIV PREVENTION Starting and sticking with HIV treatment every day helps lower the amount of HIV in your body. It can get so low it can’t be measured by a test. That’s undetectable. Less HIV in your body means it causes less damage. And according to current research, getting to and staying undetectable prevents the spread of HIV through sex. It’s called Treatment as Prevention. Or TasP for short. There’s no cure for HIV, but if you stick with treatment you can protect yourself and the people you care about.

Talk to a healthcare provider and watch It’s Called Treatment as Prevention at YouTube.com/HelpStopTheVirus