A&U Magazine - April 2021

art & understanding for 30 years

accelerate Initiative The Crisis in

Venezuela Advocate

Jim Pickett Artist

Larry Schulte Actor

Kyle Brown

Poetry by Akpa Arinzechukwu

Joe Babcock

huan

DONG,

MD

The Physician & Researcher Works to Make Healthcare & HIV Awareness Accessible to Everyone

APRIL 2021 | ISSUE 318

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 CREATING, 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

CHAD LIVING WITH HIV SINCE 2018 REAL BIKTARVY PATIENT

KEEP CREATING.

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 Chad’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

April

2021

22

FEATURE

HIV Activist & Researcher Jim Pickett Helps Chicago Stay Engaged in Care

30

A&U's Dann Dulin Talks to Researcher & Physician Huan Dong About How We Create a World of Care

26

FEATURES

20 Poetry

by Akpa Arinzechukwu

GALLERY

Larry Schulte Interlaces Life, Loss & Art

36 Crisis in Venezuela AID FOR AIDS Fights for Relief 48 Poetry

by Joe Babcock

DEPARTMENTS 4 Frontdesk 6 Digital Footprints 10 NewsBreak

cover photo by Tommy Wu

viewfinder 8 12 14 16 18

For the Long Run Ruby's Rap Art & Understanding Bright Lights, Small City Years of Living Precariously

lifeguide 40 Under Reported 44 The Culture of AIDS 47 Lifelines

Frontdesk From the Editor

Doctor, Doctor

A

s the recent COVID vaccines have shown, research is one of the important engines for improving our health outcomes, even if the mainstream does not pay attention to what clinical trials are doing until a treatment is approved and, once ready for the public, starts interrupting our favorite TV show with its commercials. We in the HIV/AIDS community, and others with ongoing health conditions, tend to pay more attention than most when it comes to clinical research. Even a Phase I trial might pique our interest. For those of us for whom whole classes of drugs have failed or for whom better comorbidity management strategies are needed or for whom quality of life issues want for improvement, we have at least two options. We can bury our heads in the sand to forget about our bodies (and believe me we have all done this), or we can be forward-looking. More often that not, I hope we are forward-looking.

Recent conferences have reminded me of what we have to look forward to, whether it is long-acting injectables as treatment or prevention (and how we can make them affordable) or the widespread access of the dapivirine vaginal ring as HIV prevention for women or increased acceptance that gender-affirming surgery has a positive correlation with increased viral suppression among transgender people on Medicaid in New York City.

And here at A&U we frequently cover treatment and prevention research, and do interview investigators, but we hardly ever shine a big spotlight on the individuals who are helping to shape our futures. That’s why I am pleased we are featuing Huan Vinh Dong, MD, in a cover story interview.

As someone comfortable in the field and in healthcare settings, Dr. Dong has participated in programs to help fight HIV stigma and encourage individuals to test for HIV and research into nutrition and HIV/hepatitis at Columbia and patient compliance and care among MSM living with HIV as well as male sex workers at Hanoi Medical University.

Now working in pediatrics, Dr. Dong, who was photographed by Tommy Wu for the feature, spoke to Senior Editor Dann Dulin about his many experiences, including volunteering as an HIV counselor at Berkeley Free Clinic’s Gay Men’s Heath Collective (GMHC): “I joined GMHC right after graduation from UC Berkeley.

I volunteered through their training program to become a volunteer ‘medic,’ quickly becoming a section coordinator for nearly five years. I used my community organizing experiences and then corporate experiences to help increase efficacy in staffing and digitization of documentation.

There, I was engaged in learning not only the health education and prevention side, but how important clinical interactions were.

“I learned the importance of being an advocate for your patient, while earning their trust in some of the most vulnerable, and sensitive experiences. These patients showed me a spectrum of different men who needed support in sexual health. I became someone who any of my friends could speak to about sexual health——something that even the toughest of guys have trouble expressing at times. This experience really broke down many stereotypes and presumptions of people’s behaviors from outward appearance. You really cannot tell if someone is at high or low risk for anything just by looking at them. “ It’s evident that Dr. Dong is no ivory tower academic who deals in facts and figures while forgetting the importance, complexity, and uniqueness of the people who benefit from HIV healthcare theory and practice, something our editorial team holds dear as we compile each issue. In April’s issue, Editor at Large Chip Alfred talks to Aid for AIDS’ Jesus Aguias about the humanitarian and medical crisis in Venezuela and what we can do to help alleviate the suffering of men, women and children. Senior Editor Hank Trout reports on the Accelerate Initiative’s new report, When We Feel Whole, which gathers the insights and experiences of Black gay, bisexual, same-gender-loving and other men who have sex with men in order to propose community-based solutions to dismantle the disparities in healthcare and wellbeing that impact this group of individuals.

In Bright Lights, Small City, columnist John Francis Leonard pays tribute to a guiding force in his life——his mother. Managing Editor Chael Needle, in his column, Art & Understanding, reflects on those on the magazine’s writing team whom we have lost, with a special spotlight on the inimitable Patricia Nell Warren.

We need to always go beyond the statistics in any research report and foreground the people who are the beginning and end of any discussion about healthcare. We need to always remember who we are——important, complex, and unique.

DAVID WAGGONER

AMERICA’S AIDS MAGAZINE issue 318 vol. 30 no. 4 April 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, John Francis Leonard, Candy Samples, Corey Saucier, Jeannie Wraight 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 mosttweeted

mostshared A&U’s Dann Dulin talked with actress Hailie Sahar about using her platform on TV’s Pose to enlighten others about HIV/ AIDS.

Everybody loves Merce!

The titular character, played by Charles Sanchez, was recruited, along with others from the comic soapy web series, for a sex-positive PSA that delighted viewers.

We featured two poems by most Walter Holland, “The Plague Years” and “The Merchant of Grief.” Both inspired readers to show their love.

@AmericasAIDSMagazine

6

@au_magazine

Hailie photo by Francis Hills

loved

@au_americas_aids_magazine • APRIL 2021

FOR THE LONG RUN

by Hank Trout

was Chicago, Illinois. The seventies were quite a heady, hedonistic time, with queer folk asserting their rights and spearheading the sexual liberation of the decade. And I was gleefully swept up in the revelry.

The scenes of Olly and his friends carousing in the bars could have been pulled from my own memories.

Many are the nights I spent cruising Touche, the leather bar on North Lincoln; leaving at 2:00 a.m. to head to Carole’s Speakeasy to dance my ass off until 4:00 a.m.; then wandering through the maze of anonymous sex at the Bijou Theater next door to Carole’s; followed by breakfast and eye-opening Bloody Mary’s and plans for the next night’s debauchery. So I applaud Davies for the accuracy and the enthusiasm of those episodes.

But just as our world crashed and burned around us beginning Lydia West as Jill Baxter and Keeley Hawes as in1981, so too It’s a Sin crashes and Valerie Tozer in It's a Sin burns toward the end. The script veers from lively, lived-in conversations into hard-to-bear speechifying.

For instance, I just don’t buy Ritchie’s mea culpa breakdown over his guilt for having continued to It's a Sin Gets A Lot Right–Until the End have anonymous sex after he was diagnosed with HIV. That scene felt like something that Davies ike every other HIV-positive gay man in the main characters very well, very quickly. The acting tacked on because he thought he ought to (after all, U.K. and the U.S., when I first heard that is uniformly impeccable, not a false note anywhere.

It’s a Sin, right?). Recrimination and blame become Russell T Davies (of Queer As Folk fame) was (Olly Alexander, as the ebullient Ritchie, is especialthe order of the day. developing a new television series about ly fine.) The music chosen (Kate Bush, The Pet Shop Even worse for me is the ending of Episode 5, the first decade of the AIDS pandemic in the Boys, et al) perfectly recreates “the scene.” Davies when Jill, Ritchie’s college friend who has tried to U.K., to be shown on the U.K.’s Channel 4 and on also does a good job of capturing the characters’ be a cautionary ally, turns her anger on Ritchie’s HBO MAX in the U.S., I began eagerly anticipating enthusiasm for the new lives they are embarking mother, who neglected to tell Ritchie’s friends the series. Having viewed and written about AFTER on——Olly in drama school after rejecting law, about his death. Jill harangues Ritchie’s grieving 82, the remarkable documentary by Steve Keeble Collin apprenticing at a Saville Row tailor, Roscoe mother——“You killed him! You killed all of them!” and Ben Lord that employs long-term HIV/AIDS escaping his homophobic Nigerian family. And I understand that anger. I share that anger. I have survivors telling their stories of the pandemic finally, the script does an excellent job of conveying dealt with many shitty parents and family members [A&U, July 2018], I knew that the pandemic had the confusion, fears, doubts and chaos that spread of friends who died——the ones who swept into their rampaged through London and Manchester just even more rapidly than the virus did. Davies is to be dead son’s apartment and threw out anything that as viciously as through New York, Los Angeles, and applauded also for not shying away from the painmight indicate he was gay; the ones who swore at San Francisco. But the new series promised a fresh ful images we all remember from the 1980s——KS me and hung up the phone when I called to tell look at the first decade of the pandemic, a fictional lesions; food trays left on the floor outside hospital them of their son’s demise; the parents who redepiction of the effect of the pandemic on the lives rooms; the emaciated bodies of the dying——even fused to claim the ashes of their cremated child. So of young Londoners. I was excited! if they make us flinch in painful remembrance. In a Jill’s anger is, again, familiar. But never once would Then, when I heard that the name of the series word, the series felt very familiar.

I (or anyone I know) have screamed and yelled at a was to be It’s a Sin, my first reaction was, “Uh-oh.”

Familiar also was the hedonism on full display grieving mother, blaming her for her son’s death.

My excitement slowly morphed into a vague dread, in the series. Consider: the characters in It’s A Sin For me, that scene is so false it borders on parody. an anxious feeling that the series might devolve are all in their late teens, early twenties, which I wanted so much to like this series more than I into moral posturing and recrimination. I found means they would have been about four or five did. But I refuse to play Davies’ version of Spin the myself thinking, a la RuPaul, “Don’t fuck it up!” when Parliament decriminalized homosexuality in Blame Bottle.

Well, he didn’t fuck it up. Not entirely. Just 1967. Thus, these characters are truly the vanguard enough to sour the series for me. of the gay sexual liberation in the U.K. I find it easy Hank Trout, Senior Editor, edited Drummer, Malebox, and Folsom First, the good: The production design is flawto understand their life-affirming hedonism. Been magazines in the early 1980s. A long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS less. Davies’ script races and rollicks through the there, done that, wrote smut about it! (diagnosed in 1989), he is a forty-year resident of San Francisco, first three episodes; we get to know the five or six I came out in 1974; my initial stomping ground where he lives with his husband Rick.

LET'S PLAY SPIN THE BLAME BOTTLE

8

• APRIL 2021

photo by Ben Blackall/HBO Max

L

Without health justice, we cannot end the HIV epidemic.

Show your support at sfaf.org/shop

cecilia gentili receives ACAP's leadership in advocacy award

accommodation, and non-religious schools. As the Board Co-Chair of the NEW Pride Agenda, her efforts led Governor Andrew Cuomo to mandate GENDA training for all 340,000 New York State employees.

She brought a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when the Trump administration erased provisions in the Affordable Care Act prohibiting sex discrimination against gay and transgender patients. Finally, she expanded access to community health services for transgender people, including helping a local community health center grow from twenty-seven patients in 2012 to 500 in 2016.

Also a playwright and actress, Ms. Gentili draws on a deep well of personal experience as an undocumented trans woman, sharing stories that are often excluded from mainstream media and entertainment.

“Ms. Gentili’s thoughtful leadership and tireless commitment to her work are shining examples of advocacy in its purest form——to improve the life and well-being of people who have been underrepresented and underserved,” said ACAP CEO Margaret A. Murray in a press release. “She shows us what it means to be a champion for your community. ACAP and our plans are lucky to benefit from her example and we couldn’t be happier to honor her today.”

ACAP represents seventy-eight health plans, which collectively provide health coverage to more than 20 million people. Safety Net Health Plans serve their members through Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Marketplace and other publicly sponsored health programs.

For more information, log on to: www.communityplans.net.

These figures come from mathematical modelling, which includes the CDC surveillance data and detailed analysis of data on the associations between smoking, body mass index, hepatitis C, depression, anxiety, hypertension, diabetes, raised lipids, chronic kidney disease, cancer, myocardial infarction, and end-stage liver disease in order to project the burden of other health conditions (comorbidities).

While the prevalence of multimorbidity is expected to remain relatively low in people in their thirties (12%) and their forties (25%), the prevalence will increase more in the oldest age groups, which are also the groups whose total sizes are expected to increase the most. Among people over the age of 70, the prevalence of multimorbidity is expected to increase from 58% in 2020 to 69% in 2030. By demographic group, the largest increases in absolute numbers of people with multimorbidity will be among Black men who have sex with men. In relative terms, the largest increases in multimorbidity will be in Latina women

and Latinx injecting drug users.

“It is uncertain if the current healthcare systems will be able to support care for multimorbid populations with HIV as they continue to grow in size over time,” Dr. Kasaie said in his presentation. “This promotes the need for new HIV care models that build out additional support for prevention and management of comorbidities among people ageing with HIV.”

O

n February 23, 2021, the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) presented Cecilia Gentili, Principal Consultant and Founder of Trans Equity Consulting, with its ninth annual Leadership in Advocacy Award.

Ms. Gentili founded Trans Equity Consulting in 2019, an education and advocacy organization for the transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary communities. Her work focuses primarily on trans women of color, sex workers, and people with substance use disorders. She previously served as the Director of Policy at GMHC and with New York City’s LGBT Center.

Ms. Gentili has an extensive list of public policy achievements and advocacy for the LGBTQ community.

She founded Decrim NY and successfully lobbied for legislation to provide survivors of trafficking with record relief and to end the criminalization of “loitering”——a charge frequently targeting transgender women. She fought for passage of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression in employment, housing, places of public

growing old with hiv

T

he number of Americans living with HIV who are aged over sixty-five is projected to grow rapidly over the next decade and will result in large numbers of patients who have multiple co-morbidities in addition to HIV, Dr. Parastu Kasaie of Johns Hopkins University told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2021) on March 8, 2021.

The number of people living with HIV over the age of sixty-five doubled from 53,000 in 2013 to 105,000 in 2018. By 2030, over twenty-five percent of people taking HIV treatment will be over the age of sixty-five. Half will be over the age of fifty-three.

The total number of people taking HIV treatment will rise from 678,000 in 2020 to 929,000 in 2030. The prevalence of anxiety is expected to increase from 36% to 48%, while the prevalence of depression will increase from 47% to 49%. By 2030, 36% of people taking antiretroviral therapy are expected to have multimorbidity——in other words, at least two of the physical co-morbidities in addition to HIV.

10

• APRIL 2021

photo courtesy Trans Equity Consulting

NewsBreak

pronounced racial hiv disparities persist in the US

A

t a plenary session at the recent CROI 2021, Professor James Hildreth, President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and a member of President Biden’s COVID-19 Health Equity Taskforce, presented the case for paying attention to social determinants of health in order to address the racial disparities in both the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics in the U.S. Black people living in the U.S. have been and continue to be disproportionately affected

by HIV. In 2018, despite only comprising 13% of the US population, Black Americans made up 43% of all new HIV diagnoses, while Black men who have sex with men (MSM) alone made up a quarter of all new HIV diagnoses. Although transmissions in white MSM have decreased in recent years, there were significant increases in new diagnoses among Black MSM aged twenty-five to thirty-four from 2014 to 2018. Hildreth also pointed out that the number of Black people presenting with AIDS (stage 3, or a CD4 count below 200) continued to increase even when antiretroviral therapy (ART) become more widely available in the mid-1990s, while AIDS diagnoses in white people were steeply declining. He

collaboration on long acting treatment combination

O

n March 15, 2021, Gilead Sciences, Inc., and Merck announced that they have entered into an agreement to co-develop and co-commercialize long-acting treatments in HIV, combining Gilead’s investigational capsid inhibitor, lenacapavir, and Merck’s investigational nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor, islatravir, into a two-drug regimen with the potential to provide new, meaningful treatment options for people living with HIV. The collaboration will initially focus on long-acting oral formulations and long-acting injectable formulations of these combination products, with other formulations potentially added to the collaboration as mutually agreed.

Islatravir and lenacapavir are both po-

APRIL 2021 •

pointed to a “chasm’”in health status between white people and those of other races in the U.S. that has once again been exposed by stark COVID-19 racial disparities.

Hildreth identified poor access to health information, delayed medical care, poorly managed chronic conditions, mass incarceration, and economic instability as some of the factors which act as social determinants of health. He pointed out that although Black PLHIV were less likely to be put on ART in a timely manner than their white counterparts, that gap has been closing since 2012. Still, Black PLHIV lag when it comes to viral suppression.

As for interventions to reduce these racial disparities and their related negative outcomes, Dr Kashif Iqbal from the CDC presented results from the five-year THRIVE demonstration project.

THRIVE provided increased funding to jurisdictions with high numbers of Black or Latino men living with HIV, to enable health departments to develop community-based HIV prevention and care services in tandem with healthcare, behavioral health, and social service providers.

The program sponsored various activities to support PrEP implementation, ranging from increased HIV testing, supporting community-based organizations to provide services such as PrEP screening and counselling, social media campaigns, healthcare provider training, and ongoing evaluation to improve the quality of services.

“The goal should be for each person to achieve their personal best health and wellness,” Hildreth concluded. “Achieving health equity means recognizing and meeting individual and community needs——the same approach cannot be assumed to work for all.”

tentially first-in-class medicines currently in late-stage clinical trials, with significant clinical data generated to date. Neither lenacapavir nor islatravir is yet approved for use anywhere globally. Their safety and efficacy have not yet been established. However, both medicines have demonstrated sufficient activity at low dosages in clinical studies to support development as an investigational combination regimen with long-acting oral and injectable formulations.

The first clinical studies of the oral combination are expected to begin in the second half of 2021. Under the agreement, Gilead and Merck will work as partners, sharing operational responsibilities, as well as development, commercialization, and marketing costs, and any future revenues.

Through this collaboration, Merck and Gilead will focus on long-acting oral and injectable therapies, which may become a meaningful innovation in HIV drug development. Although daily, single-tablet regimens are available, options that would allow for less frequent oral dosing or infrequent injections rather than daily dosing have the potential to address

preference considerations, as well as issues associated with adherence and privacy.

In a press release, Kenneth C. Frazier, chairman and chief executive officer at Merck, said, “At Merck, we are resolute in our commitment to advancing the care of people living with HIV as part of our mission to save and improve lives. This collaboration with Gilead brings together two companies dedicated to the fight against HIV to develop potential new long-acting treatment options and is an important step forward in our strategy to harness the full potential of islatravir for the treatment of HIV.” Daniel O’Day, chairman and chief executive officer, Gilead Sciences, continued, “Through this agreement with Merck, Gilead is reinforcing its long-term role in transforming HIV care.

Our work in HIV over the past decades has been shaped by listening to people living with HIV and the physicians who treat them. Now we are taking the same approach with long-acting therapies, combining the most advanced science from both companies to accelerate progress.”

—Reporting by Hank Trout

11

by Ruby Comer

Kyle Brown “If you’re gay you’re going to hell!”

12

Line, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Wicked, where he was understudy for his life partner, Nick Adams [A&U, October 2011], who played Fiyero. Nope, no jealousy. Only support in this evolved union.

Kyle and Nick’s “showmance,” as us Broadway Babies call it (I was a former Broadway hoofer if you recall!), began while they appeared in Priscilla. Nick played Felicia and Kyle was in the ensemble. It has blossomed into a nearly ten-year relationship, and I couldn’t be more blissed out for them. The couple resides in Harlem with their dog, Dallas.

Today Kyle and I Zoom. His boyish energy is engaging, and he speaks from a desk in his living room. Look at him. The dancer is a glass of merlot with a broad chest and bugling biceps. Over his shoulder I espy a kitchen, and beyond that an eclipsed view of a bedroom. The overall appearance of the apartment is bright and clean, with lines of white and wood throughout. Contemporary and well appointed, the walls and bookcase are intertwined with framed personal

Ruby illustration by Davidd Batalon; photo by The Gingerb3ardmen

H

ow many of you have been victim to this evil epithet??!

Unfortunately, Kyle Brown was one of them. As a teen growing up in a rural upstate New York town, he was brainwashed with this belief. The two main predominates in this area were farming and religion. Well, there ya go. Most organized religions I dismiss as evil, condemning, controlling, and man-made. They only serve the person who created them. Anyway, let me get off my soapbox, but no wonder he kept to himself, being terrified just… to…be…Kyle.

On top of that——yes there’s more!——the teen was taught that if you’re gay you will get AIDS, and die. Whew, on my grandma Clifford’s grave, LordyMaryJesusandJoseph!

That was then but, unfortunately, there are still shortsighted bigots out there today who believe such hogwash.

Due to slanted views and misinformation about AIDS when he was growing up, Kyle, thirty-six, did not fully grasp the whole picture of the epidemic until college. He pursued his own research and learned about the virus’ history, discovering how it alarmingly affected a grand scale figure in his community. It disturbed and disgusted him.

This talented chap is an accomplished Broadway actor. In fact, I didn’t know then, but several years back I witnessed his skills in the original production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I happened to be in Manhattan attending a seminar held by the remarkable GMHC and decided to treat myself one evening to some frivolity!

In 2017, I saw Kyle again, this time nearly naked——yes! It was when I attended the annual Broadway Bares. The theme was “Strip U” and he played a coach in a rollicking musical number that takes place in a locker room. Broadway Cares raised nearly two million dollars!

Kyle is an ongoing advocate and contributor to Broadway Cares, even carrying the iconic “little red bucket” at the end of the many shows he’s performed in. He also has dear friends who are living with HIV. Kyle’s first Great White Way show was Legally Blonde, followed by An American in Paris, Anastasia, and then Moulin Rouge, which was closed in March 2020 due to COVID. He’s traveled in a number of national Broadway tours, including Chorus

• APRIL 2021

photographs. Homey.

Ruby Comer: Nice to see you. [I glimpse at the bookshelf and espy the top hat he wore in Moulin Rouge.] You are looking cheerful as ever! My god, I read you had COVID??!

Kyle Brown: You are correct, Ruby. I contracted COVID right at the beginning of the pandemic, back in March. Thankfully, my case wasn’t too terrible.

I did have about a week of fever, chills, and body aches. I think the strangest thing was that I lost my sense of taste and smell. [His head angles to the right, his thick, longish brows rise up, and he shrugs.] I’m doing okay now, although I did have some symptoms that lingered for a few months, like feeling very low energy and breathing issues.

photo by Evan Zimmerman/Broadway Cares;

Oh, I am so sorry to hear that, Kyle. I’m happy you are back to being peppy again. Tell me about growing up in Amsterdam, New York, when it came to HIV. [I place my index finger on my bottom scarlet-painted lip.]

Let’s see, when you were in high school that would have been about 1999.

Yes, indeed. I first heard about the epidemic as a student, but was told all these fallacies.

This just further instilled my fear of my own self and really crippled my ability to come out.

make sure you donate to BC/EFA [Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS]!

I not? [He releases a cute, schoolkid giggle.] So I just went for it. And, as they say, the rest is history.

Readers, do you hear that?! Broadway Cares is one of the best organizations around.

Truly! Kyle, what motivates you to give?

[He clears his throat and strokes his chiseled face, thinking.] Growing up, my mom was always looking to help others, especially those less fortunate, so I guess I learned it from her. I think once you see the good you can do for someone else it becomes sort of an addiction. You want to keep seeing how your charitable acts can positively affect those who really need it.

Okay…do tell, how did you two broach the subject of STIs? We had a very open dialogue about this from the beginning of our relationship when we wanted to be sexually active, and there was an emphasis put on the importance of being tested together….

You’re damn tootin’! Yes, I find volunteering is an addiction. It gives me such pleasure to know that I helped others, indeed.

I know you did some AIDS Walks, Kyle. Tell me about one.

How…horribly… ghastly. By the time you came of age, the cocktails had been Kyle in Broadway Bare's sketch, "Scrimmage" established; even so, sex was still dangerous.

In 2011, the cast of Priscilla, Queen of the DesHow did that play out for you? ert got to perform a few numbers from the show at I was both scared and cautious. When I was in the opening ceremony of the New York AIDS Walk. high school I was too afraid to even experiment Oh, Ruby…it was magical. The energy in the air because I thought I was going to hell [he groans was palpable. [Kyle’s come hither nut-brown eyes deeply]... so there’s that. By the time I got to college, I had more knowledge and understanding glow.] I highly suggest for anyone interested in finding a way to give back...do the AIDS Walk! Not to better protect myself, but I was still scared. only are you supporting a great cause, it gives you a sense of purpose and community.

Before I forget to ask, what was the name of that number you did in “Strip U” for I couldn’t have said it better myself, Kyle.

Broadway Bares?

How did you and Nick initially connect [Kyle brightly beams.] It was a number choduring Priscilla? reographed by my friend, Charlie Sutton, called Well, in a way the [Priscilla] choreographer “Scrimmage.” I played the coach of the school’s played matchmaker for us. Anytime Nick needed a lacrosse team [this old broad wracks her pretty dance partner in the show or to be lifted, he would head remembering], and it included two of my put the two of us together. I guess you could say best ladies, Katie Webber and Ericka Yang. It was I made the first move. I had my eyes set on him pretty sexy, Ruby, if I do say so myself. [Kyle takes from the moment I saw him. I mean…how could a beat.] Feel free to check it out on YouTube then APRIL 2021 •

Oh! Terrific, Kyle. Tell me about that.

Well, it was my first time testing. I was twenty-nine. I hadn’t had many sexual partners up until that point, but enough that I definitely should have been tested. So, Nick encouraged for us to get it done. [Kyle pauses, recalling.] I still had a lot of fear surrounding the epidemic that was instilled in me as a kid, but education and knowledge are power.

Where did you guys end up going?

We went together to a clinic in Los Angeles. Being my first time, it was very nerve-wracking [he dabs his forehead in a melodramatic way, half joking, half serious]; however the experience itself was easy. The staff was very friendly and the fact that Nick was there helped calm my nerves.

You bet. That’s the way to do it….together. How lovely, Kyle, it worked out like that for you.

Here’s one for ya: Who do you consider to be a hero in the epidemic?

[The dancer instantly replies] There really are so many, but I would have to say Larry Kramer for one. The Normal Heart really changed my life.

[Then Kyle abruptly howls.] Oh, and Jerry Mitchell.

Talk about giving back!

What Jerry created with Broadway Bares is nothing short of astonishing. Not only is it a beautiful event that brings the community together, it is a mega fundraiser for Broadway Cares. Each year that event alone raises over $1 million. Jerry continues to inspire us all to give back. [Kyle applauds and I join in.]

For more smiles with Kyle, log on to ww.aumag.org for an extended version of this interview.

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.

13

ART & UNDERSTANDING

by Chael Needle

viewfinder

Track Record

A Tribute to a Columnist Who Never Shied Away from Critical HIV Issues

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the first women marathoners in the U.S., even breaking into the Boston Marathon when it is male-only). And she brought to her editorials that same love of deeply felt, well-crafted writing. Her style never gets in the way of substance and paragraphs, like this one in a May 2006 editorial, pop like light bulbs: “Today our country needs activism, for sure. Every person who cares about the survival of democracy——and that includes a fair shake for immigrants——needs to act on that conviction. And it’s not just our democratic well-being that is at stake.

Patricia Nell Warren The personal health of Americans is at stake as Guinea and the oppression of LGBT individuals, well. We need activism from every American who is including the detrimental effect on AIDS services. concerned about the shoddy state of much of our Objective, Warren did not hesitate to call medical research, and the fatal crumbling of our out politicians and other policy makers on both healthcare system.” sides of the aisle.

In her October 2004 Left Field, Even one sentence could be enough make you she castigated both the DNC and RNC for stifling sit up and take notice: “As I write this, the Smithsonian apparently has yet to realize how pathetic peaceful protest, in the cites of their respective it looks, having publicly peed its pants when a conventions: “Many Americans believe that today’s gang of preachy politicos said boo to it about an anti-dissent atmosphere started with 9/11. Not eleven-minute video.” Who knew alliteration could completely. Criminalization of peaceful protest be a deadly weapon? This is from the March 2011 started back in the 1990s, when the minor charges issue and Warren is commenting on the flap over and light fines that were traditionally levied against a Wojnarowicz video in an exhibit that had been peaceful protesters began giving way to punitive decried as blasphemy by some Catholic critics. felony prosecutions. That wall of police that we Like Wojnarowicz, Warren, too, had a fire in her belly that motivated her to hone her unconventionsaw in Boston and New York City is becoming a al perspicacity. Her A&U column had been aptly tipermanent structure in our society, as our leaders tled: Left Field. She played hardball for social justice use all powers available to them——including FBI and those who could use an advocate and ally. She harassment——to shield themselves from dissent, shone a flashlight on financial conflicts of interest even the non-violent variety.” in AIDS research, the insidious drive for profit by Reviewing our archive of her writings convinced Big Pharma, the double standards that maintain me even more that we were blessed to have Patricia the divides between the developed and developing Nell Warren in our corner for as long as we did—— world, corruption, and government-led oppression, at home and abroad, among other issues. She the AIDS community, the LGBTQ+ community, the tackled under-reported issues like the devastation the global community of social justice warriors can of AIDS services in Puerto Rico and diseases that honor her by continuing to stand our ground in left were marginalized. Warren did not flinch from the field. facts and her analyses were often deep dives into the intricate webs of power. For example, her April Chael Needle writes fiction and poetry when he is not 2013 column, entitled “Hanged, Beaten, Burned” serving as Managing Editor of A&U. Follow him on drew connections among religious conservatism in countries like Uganda, Russia, and Papau New Twitter @ChaelNeedle.

photo by John Selig

H

ave you ever known someone who always has an original take on the issues of the day? A friend, or someone you religiously follow on social media, or a favorite writer? With all that has taken place in the last couple of years, from Trump’s fascist attempt to damage American democracy to the worsening oppression of LGBT individuals in Russia, from climate change to COVID-19, I have often wanted to turn to see what my colleague Patricia Nell Warren, who had a green thumb and black-inked fingertips, would have to say. But that has been impossible for two years now. Since her death on February 9, 2019, the world has suffered an immeasurable loss.

Although she would go on to develop the long-running A&U column, Left Field, Patricia Nell Warren first appeared in our pages in the April 1998 issue, when she wrote an op-ed about setting the record straight when it comes to AIDS history, and, in particular, creating an accurate account about who did what. She writes: “Today it’s an accepted fact that Elizabeth Taylor was the first brave celebrity to stand up for AIDS awareness. Right?

Wrong.” She takes aim at a 1998 APLA ceremony that spotlit Elizabeth Taylor as first on the scene.

Yet, as Warren points out, actress Zelda Rubinstein starred in APLA’s “Mother Cares” safer sex awareness campaign, created by Tyler St. Mark (Patricia’s business partner at the press she founded, Wildcat).

Neither were mentioned. Others, she argues, like actresses Vivian Blaine and Mamie Van Doren, had been glossed over in histories of early AIDS activism. Ultimately, though, she deflates the gay community’s love of celebrity: “The glammier, the better. Pity the poor pioneer who is not viewed as glammy enough. Most of our people won’t pay $300 a plate to see a community pioneer, no matter what wonderful thing they did.” (And just like Patricia to publish this in an issue featuring Carrie Fisher, a celebrity advocate!)

This critique, which also touches on the ableism and ageism embedded in who becomes valued in the gay community, is classic Warren. And, by “classic Warren,” I mean three things: she wrote in a voice as clear as a bell; she thought outside of the box; and she cared enough about her community to point out where it stumbled and fumbled, as the above-mentioned article shows.

Her impeccable writing style had been undoubtedly honed at Reader’s Digest, where she worked as an editor, before launching into career as a fiction and nonfiction writer. Most readers know her from her beautiful, passionate novel, The Front Runner (which drew on her experience as one of

• APRIL 2021

MY MA

M

The One I Turn to for Strength & Inspiration

y mother and I have always had a special relationship.

I was born in 1969 to an unwed mother when that was still a source of shame and seen as untoward. The product of a relationship with a much older, married man with his own wife and family, I was also the progeny of a still young and naïve eighteen-year-old. This made our relationship unique and it would always seem to be her and me against the world. She would go on to marry a different young man as an escape from her parents’ unhappy home and to provide me with a stable family of our own. She married a man, no better than he ought to be, as my Irish grandmother used to say, thinking that it was the best she could do for me, and it was at the time. This man always loved my mother, but that love, being unrequited to a great extent, turned to anger and resentment. He saw me as merely a carbon copy of my Ma, a mirror image of her and it was true that we have always been two halves of a whole. That acrimonious marriage lasted fifteen years and I was always made to feel like the third person in it,

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a heavy burden for one so young.

It would be rough going for a while. When her first marriage collapsed, with it went our family’s finances, but my mother worked hard, as she always had. There was a disastrous second marriage to a man even worse than the first, but my mom picked up the pieces and built her life again. She can sometimes seem to be fragile and overly emotional, like her son, but my Ma has a quiet strength and always perseveres. She found a great guy to whom she is happily married today and he’s got two daughters of his own.

The first thing people notice about Ma is her beauty. I still remember the fuss that was made over her when she’d show up at school when I was a child; it was the only time the other kids treated me with something other than derision.

At seventy-one, my mother barely looks forty and has an effortless style that belies the effort that goes into it. What’s important, however, is her quiet but strong faith and her sense of kindness and empathy. She remains extremely protective of me and I could never have made it through my tumultuous past without her strength. When I

viewfinder told her of my HIV diagnosis eighteen years ago, she didn’t fall to pieces, but stood with me and remained strong.

Thirteen years ago, my life as I had known it was in flux. I had lost everything, my relationship, my career, my home, just as she had more than once earlier in her life. I was living in L.A. and my mother convinced me to move back East, where I could rebuild. It took some doing, the road was rough, but she stood by me. She lent me her own strength until I could find my own. I rebuilt my life into something better, something stronger and I couldn’t have done it without her.

Now, more than ever, I need to tell her that, to show her that. On top of a recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, my mom is having surgery this week for lung cancer.

They’ll be removing a section of her lung in order to stop the cancer’s spread. The Alzheimer’s has seemingly snuck up on us; she’d been having problems with her memory for years and now it’s getting worse.

Before the cancer diagnosis, I was sitting with my mom having a glass of wine while we were waiting for her husband to get home so we could leave for camp. Ma expressed to me that she was ready to go, not to camp, but was ready for her time to be over. I wanted to implore her not to speak that way, but instead, I listened. I did what she would do, had done, for me. She expressed that she had had a full life, with much joy, but with much pain as well. It was her time, she felt.

With her most recent diagnosis, those words seemed all too prophetic.

I pray to God for the strength I’ll need if I lose her, but hope that we’ll have her a bit longer. I know it terrifies her that she might be a burden to us. Any survivor of AIDS who lived through the worst of the crisis knows that fear. I will be there for her, my brother and stepsisters will be too, but they have or are starting their own families. I have a luxury that they don’t have, and that’s time. And I owe a debt that I’d never be able to repay. I will do what I can, and do it gladly with that strength that was her most precious gift to me. I think of my mom’s mother, that tough little Irishwoman and her strength, a strength that allowed her to raise “six kids and a drunk of a husband” by cleaning houses until a weak heart sidelined her. But she had that strength, that quiet strength that was her gift to us passed down by so many before her.

Losing one’s parents is a journey we all must take. It’s a part of life. One of the greatest heartbreaks of my life was losing so many dearly loved friends to AIDS. But even that tragedy serves its purpose; it’s made me stronger. That and my faith, as well as my Ma’s strength will get me through.

John Francis Leonard is an advocate and writer, as well as a voracious reader of literature, which helps to feed his love of the English language. He has been living with HIV for fifteen years. His fiction has been published in the ImageOutWrite literary journal and he is a literary critic for Lambda Literary.

Follow him on Twitter @JohnFrancisleo2.

• APRIL 2021

illustration by Timothy J. Haines

BRIGHT LIGHTS, SMALL CITY

by John Francis Leonard

YEARS OF LIVING PRECARIOUSLY

by Bruce Ward

1986: THE VIRUS THAT DARED NOT SPEAK ITS NAME Part XII of an Ongoing Chronicle of the First Fifteen Years of the AIDS Pandemic

T

hough my public affect was one of stolid nonchalance, I began a private descent into shame, fueled by stigma and rejection——from society, our government, potential paramours, and even from medical professionals.

I was experiencing a throbbing toothache, and I went to the dental clinic that was available to me through the City Health Department. On the form I was given to fill out in the waiting area, I dutifully checked off that I was HIV-positive, and that I had been exposed to the hepatitis C antibody (as were 80% of NYC gay men at the time), meaning that I was not a “carrier” of the hep C virus and was not infectious.

After waiting an hour in the dental chair, both a female hygienist and a male dentist entered the room wearing rubber gloves, surgical masks, and fearful expressions.

They took turns giving my teeth a perfunctory prod with a piece of equipment.

“It looks like you’ll need a root canal,” the dentist informed me.

“We’ll be right back,” intoned the hygienist, as they again both rushed out the door, closing it shut behind them.

I waited in the chair for another hour.

When the hygienist returned by herself, still suited up in her HAZMAT uniform, she informed me that I did, indeed, need a root canal but that they would not be able to perform it at their clinic.

“We would need to autoclave the equipment for twenty-four hours prior to the procedure in order to sterilize it,” she stated mechanically.

“We’d also have to scrub down the entire office, including the walls. And we are not equipped to do that.”

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But what about my root canal and my impacted tooth that was hurting like hell?

“You will have to find another dentist,” she informed me.

After spending three hours in the office, two of them waiting with a bib tied around my neck, I was hardly in the mood to argue. Besides, I was beginning to take the mantle of “outcast” in stride. I skulked out of the office, feeling like a leper of Molokai.

After a couple of days had passed and I had consulted with Stephen, the Hotline supervisor, I realized that my instincts were right: These kind of precautions were unnecessary and showed an obtuse misunderstanding of medical knowledge.

Stephen urged me to file a complaint with the state’s Human Rights Commission and I did. I was later told by the lawyer that three other people had also filed similar complaints against the same dental clinic.

Word of the complaints was brought to the press and I was contacted on the phone by Art McFarland, a reporter at WABC, one of the local news affiliates.

I agreed to an interview and I met Mr. McFarland and a cameraman in his office.

At this point in the epidemic, there was a great distinction in the media in regards to being HIV-positive, having AIDS-Related Complex (ARC), and being diagnosed with AIDS. AIDS was a dirty word and it carried with it the connotations of death and nasty sex and extreme infectiousness. Being “positive” seemed more innocuous, like you were cheerily optimistic, not so infectious. Maybe you weren’t going to die immediately. Maybe you got the virus another way, a “nicer” way, say, through a blood transfusion.

viewfinder Because I had not yet had an opportunistic infection, I was not labeled in the dreaded AIDS category. This helped fuel my hopes that I wasn’t really “that sick.” I also naively believed that everyone else understood the distinction among the terms. Imagine my surprise when I watched the news report that night and saw the graphic “AIDS victim” scrawled on the screen beneath my face.

I was furious and mortified. At least I’m sure no one will see this, I told myself. My face was only on screen for about ten seconds.

The phone rang.

It was my mother. A relative from New Jersey, who I barely knew, had called her, having seen the news report.

I hadn’t had the official discussion with my parents about my viral status being confirmed.

But they were with me, after all, in Hawaii when I got sick, and they knew about the type of work I was doing and the very real possibility of my having the virus. I assured them that I did not have AIDS, and this seemed to comfort them. I was “merely” HIV-positive. They would have to somehow explain this to my New Jersey cousin, who had probably already fired off a number of phone calls.

But the cat was out of the bag, at least to some members of my immediate family. Cousin Bruce was a gay man with a gay disease.

I did indeed find a dentist, a gay one, who understood the necessary precautions, and I had my root canal.

The four of us involved in the complaint against the dental clinic filed a joint lawsuit and we won.

There was little monetary compensation for any of us, personally. We had only wanted to send a strong message regarding unnecessary and discriminatory dental practices. The clinic was fined, with the money going to AIDS organizations. The most important outcome, however, was that the directors of the clinic were told to implement an AIDS education program.

I was proud to have had my hand in just a little part of the city’s anti-discriminatory policy, but I had also learned my first lesson in the consequences of revealing my status. A new scalpel had been introduced to incise my self-worth. But the shedding of shame that had begun with acceptance of my sexuality was now replaced by a deeper, more sinisterly invasive shame. I had entered a new era of secrecy and self-loathing. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, I had the virus that dared not speak its name.

Bruce Ward is A&U’s Drama Editor, and he has been writing about the AIDS epidemic since its inception.

His plays, Lazarus Syndrome and Decade: Life in the ’80s, have been produced throughout the U.S. Bruce was the original Director of the CDC National AIDS Hotline, and he was honored by POZ magazine as one of 2015’s POZ 100. You may follow him at: bdwardbos.wordpress.com.

• APRIL 2021

POETRY 20

The Police Arrest Me Restocking ARVs

I

will never let no man nor God weep for me anymore.

Let the pity end where my saliva lands.

At night they let me blame myself for surviving—they find a scrap of steel, sharpen it against thunder, & hard, they strike me while my night is still young.

The police, they have arrested me.

If I told a lie they would ricochet my name to the case book.

I showed them the prescription but there’s a plague. If I can’t be dead in seven months why risk it to the hospital in the middle of a pandemic? & boy oh boy what is your virus against a virus? I promise, if you go home the plague will soon be defeated, we’ll go home too, to our families, & you can have as many ARVs as you desire.

Arjuk ya ilahi anqithny——have you seen, Lord, how everyday I plot my survival but someone keeps snatching the graph, have you seen Lord, how they cage a bird, starve it till the song in its throat is a cough, the last note of heavy metallic?

The police, they have me.

Death is time spent with your country.

— Akpa Arinzechukwu

Akpa Arinzechukwu is an Igbo writer. Their work has appeared in Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, The Southampton Review, Poetry Review, Adda, Fourteen Poems, Arc Poetry, Clavmag, Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. They were a finalist for the Black Warriors Review Fiction Contest 2020.

• APRIL 2021

POSITIVELY PERSISTENT HIV Activist & Researcher Jim Pickett Never Yields to the Word Impossible

by Dann Dulin Photos by Brian Solem/AIDS Foundation Chicago

Expert!

“Expert” is one of those overused words that eventually become a cliché. Think…“Luxury.” “Bargain.” “Improved.”

Describing HIV “expert” Jim Pickett, the adjective returns to its authentic meaning. Mr. Pickett, who’s Senior Director of Prevention Advocacy and Gay Men’s Health at AIDS Foundation Chicago, and an inductee into the Chicago LGBTQ+ Hall of Fame, has labored in the HIV field for over twenty years. Jim’s mission is to speed-up treatment and prevention.

His continual revved passion is awe-inspiring. In 1999 Jim, who is living with HIV, began his public health career. He managed a book project called Faces of AIDS–Living in the Heartland, with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). Its success prompted the printing of a second book. It featured personal stories of people living with HIV/AIDS in thirteen Midwestern states impacted by the epidemic.

Around this time, under the auspices of the Syphilis Elimination Task Force, Jim directed the development and implementation of a citywide social marketing campaign on syphilis and simultaneously worked with the LGBTQ+ community on substance abuse.

In 2004 he joined AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC). A year later he launched the International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA) to provide a global advocacy and communication platform for scientists, advocates, policy makers, and funders. It includes research and development of safe, effective, accessible, and acceptable rectal microbicides for men, women, and transgender individuals. Microbicides are compounds (creams, gels, etc.) that can be applied inside the rectum or vagina to protect against STIs. The studies continue.

Thank heavens this lightening rod…never gives up.

Continued efforts brought him to spearhead a two-year project called Mapping Pathways, with RAND Corporation (a U.S. nonprofit global think tank) along with partners in South Africa, India, and the United States. Through a blend of research, stakeholder engagement, and scenario planning it sought to aid communities in preparation for the implementation of new HIV prevention technologies.

In 2014, AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) formed the Illinois

22

PrEP Working Group (IPWG) in partnership with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). It provides a platform to collaborate, coordinate, and network in the service of improving awareness of and access to PrEP for vulnerable communities.

Currently there are over 400 members in Illinois comprised of clinicians, advocates, educators, navigators, health officials, researchers, and so on.

In 2016, under the umbrella of IPWG, Jim helped to create a social marketing campaign called PrEP4Love. The focus is black men and black women, including transgender women. This ongoing PrEP education and community mobilization operation has been shown to be highly effective in its reach. It is correlated with evaluations conducted by Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. During COVID they’ve increased their online programming.

In 2018, PrEP4Love was the model for France’s PrEP campaign!

Jim initially entered the workforce as an editor and an advertising sales associate for a weekly, Gab, writing satires and critiques of Chicago gay nightlife. About this time he was diagnosed with HIV, which emotionally and psychologically rocked every cell of his being. It changed the trajectory of his purpose. Jim realized he needed to confront this monster virus head-on in his writing, so he started a column called “Sick–A Body of Work in Progress”——noting in detail the “schizophrenia of being HIV-positive.”

Raised in the Badger State, Wisconsin, Jim, fifty-five, first heard about the epidemic in 1984 when he was a first-year student at the University of Wisconsin (UWM) in Milwaukee. The following year he came out. In 1987 he transplanted to Chicago when he turned twenty-one. He never left.

Fourteen years ago he met Kevin Jack, a lawyer, and they wedded not long ago. Jonesing to travel once COVID is contained, Jim is a full-on wayfaring enthusiast. But in the meantime, his daily joy is to grab a catnap, and his life credo, “Try it, you might like it.”

Dann Dulin: …Faces of AIDS, a winsome title. I’m eager to read it.

Jim Pickett: [He nods with a smile then beams.] I loved this job. I was hired based on my “Sick” column, and CDPH’s Frank • APRIL 2021

APRIL 2021 •• MARCH 2021

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Oldham, Jr. led the project. The idea was to share personal stories as a way of demonstrating the needs of people with HIV in a very human, intimate way.

What an innovative project, Jim. The first book was so successful we did a second.

Accompanying the books were 100 large portraits of individuals and families living with and impacted by HIV, a traveling photo documentary. These images were used in a variety of exhibitions and events across the country, which I implemented and at which I spoke. The venues ranged from governmental buildings to churches, colleges, high schools, airports, malls, community centers, and conferences, all to increase HIV awareness and understanding.

What states did you travel to?

My territory for conducting interviews for the book included Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri ,and Oklahoma. I interviewed a compelling array of people from a gay priest in Tulsa to a woman serving time in Kansas to a family where both parents were HIV-positive and their adolescent son was the primary caretaker. [He intensely inhales, and then sighs.] It was truly incredible…and such an honor.

What research, what discoveries, and what progress!

The stories were meant to educate the public as well as our elected officials, and to connect people’s lives with policy, program, and resources needed to help people live and thrive with HIV. What’s the mission of International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA)?

The mission has now evolved to focus on all HIV prevention modalities, from short-acting, user-controlled, “on demand” methods, to long-acting choices delivered in the clinic. IRMA hosts a website and a dynamic listserv and has published six major reports. It’s led several campaigns and projects with our African members. It includes a demand for lubricant access, and has engaged in many community consultations on study trials and prevention needs of vulnerable communities.

In 1985 you came out while as a first-year college student, the same year AIDS killed Rock Hudson.

My god, having sex was scary back then! How did it all play out for you?

I kicked that closet door down, hard. There was a lot of lost time to make up for, and definitely hormones raged on overdrive. I was away from home so there were no barriers. Up to that point I had limited sexual experience.

Being aware of HIV, I was terrified of it, but it didn’t stop me from becoming as sexually active as possible. Some of my first sexual experiences were without a condom, but that changed quickly after my first HIV test. Back then results took a month. It was agonizing to wait! After that experience, guaranteed condoms were used from there on. [His eyes pop, brows furrow, and he shuns a smirk.]

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About ten or eleven years later you were diagnosed positive. Take us back to that time.

• APRIL 2021

Left: Leading a protest at the HIVR4P conference in Madrid, 2018 Right: Asking the tough questions at the Conference on Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2019 I was taking part in a study for sexually active gay men in Chicago where they followed us over time for several years. They asked a million questions about my sex life every six months, and with those pesky questions always came an HIV test. In August of 1995, my test was positive.

And your immediate reaction was…?

I was numb, terrified, devastated, angry…and very, very sad. This was before the advent of highly effective HIV drugs, so I really thought I had only about ten years to live. I had seen a lot of people get sick and die, and most people didn’t make it very long. The only saving grace here was that I was tested frequently, so I knew my seroconversion was fairly recent. Other than that I was bereft. I curled up into the fetal position for three days before I was able to even move, or think about what I was going to do about this.

Wow. My heart goes out to you. Heavy. Intense. Was this the motivating force that inspired you to dedicate your life to helping others?

When I was diagnosed, I was working as an editor for a sassy Chicago weekly called Gab. A couple of years passed and then it occurred to me that I needed to change gears and write about the hardest thing going on in my life——being HIV-positive. So I started the column, “Sick.”

photos courtesy J. Pickett

How did you approach it? What did you tackle in the column?

Well, I started on meds for the first time that year, and, while they made my T cells soar, they also gave me daily diarrhea and nausea. I was doing great with my numbers, but I felt beyond miserable. So that’s where I was coming from, and the perspective was very personal, and raw. The column was well received by people living with HIV and those working in the HIV community. It led to many open doors.

I applaud you, Jim. This column really was the start for a second career in public health, one that I have been passionately in love with ever since. Had I not been diagnosed with HIV, I can’t imagine public health being in the picture. I would have never thought of it, quite honestly, and really had no interest in it until my column led me into rooms and situations and opportunities that started to make clear that a new path was opening up for me.

Hallelujah… “Sick”! You work, study, and research HIV people of color. What are the reasons for the high number of infections?

In terms of high rates of HIV among people of color, this speaks mostly to structural racism. Our health infrastructure, like every other structure in this country, is plagued by white supremacy and racism. White supremacy ensures adequate testing and prevention for most whites. Care services are not as availAPRIL 2021 •

able or accessible to most people of color. White supremacy helps ensure that culturally competent and literate healthcare is the exception——not the norm.

[Jim’s on a heartfelt roll. His volume increases.] White supremacy helps ensure most people of color make less money, are more likely to be unemployed, more likely to be uninsured or under-insured, have more housing instability, are hungrier, are less educated, don’t have providers that look like them or understand them, and on and on. [He takes a beat.] Our country fails most marginalized communities over and over and over and over——and has been doing so for 400 years. This is the main reason we see the racial disparities we do in terms of HIV…and pretty much every other health condition.

Well said. Do you see anything coming down the pike in prevention or treatment?

In the next few years we will have long-acting treatment and prevention options delivered via injections that are very exciting and offer folks new choices to fit their lives. We may see long-acting oral pills for treatment and prevention as well, removing the need to take pills every day. Further out are things like implants. Imagine something inserted in your arm that delivers HIV prevention, or treatment, for a year. That …could…be…a…thing! I say the more choices, the better. [There’s a playful glee in his voice when he yields] I’m also excited watching the development of a rectal douche with anti-HIV drugs that could be used to make your booty fresh before sex——and——provide safe, effective protection from HIV. Electrifying news! Now that sounds fun! Hooray. Who do you consider a hero in the AIDS war?

I have many, but I am going to say Dr. Sharon Hillier, head of the Microbicide Trials Network. She is a fierce scientist and an even fiercer advocate. Tough as hell, smart as hell, and a heart as big as the planet.

Who else in that galaxy attracts you?

All the young global advocates who are going to be taking over the world… hopefully sooner rather than later!

Being an expert in the HIV field for many years, what’s your number one piece of advice?

[Jim straight away bursts with fiery conviction] Silence = Death.

For more information about AIDS Foundation Chicago, log on to: www.aidschicago.org.

Dann Dulin is a Senior Editor at A&U.

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the

of

L

arry Schulte is an artist whose graphic, layered works over the past forty years have been as much about context as they are about subtext. A long-term AIDS/HIV survivor, his remarkable range of work, which over time has continued to develop his practice of physically weaving strips of painted paper as well as images into single works, have a confluence of the tangible and the ephemeral. A supreme use of color, and the “looming” practice of his method, combine in works that evoke both the presence of the human, and the celebration of the spirit. Yet, these works are empowered by a kind of vulnerability, a risk any artist takes to create and pay tribute to memory as much as to the act of documenting the present. Two periods of pandemic, the AIDS crisis, and the current coronavirus crisis, have given him a context of survival, in which to remember lives lost, and it also provides him with an ever-present subtext of strength in the urge to live and create. His work powerfully attests to both.

Philip F. Clark: I was thinking back to the first time I saw your work, in the ‘80s, when you had your studio in one of the old spice factories in Brooklyn, under the bridge (I can still smell that scent!). I was really struck by the beauty of the work, but also its composition——strips of photographs, I believe?——that you wove into a final composition. I loved the way that the process lent to the idea of layering and juxtapositions—— collages of multiple meanings. The way that the images were a whole made of many parts. Has that continued to be your primary method of making your images and if so, how?

Larry Schulte: I love those observations. My primary method of making art the past forty-plus years has been weaving strips together, as you observed “layering and creating juxtapositions——collages of multiple meanings”; images of a whole made of many parts. I could never describe the work that well. But I do have one variation from your observation. I have been primarily weaving paintings together, rather than photographs. You happened to visit my studio at a time when I had diverged from that primary method. The woven photos were a separate path that I went down during the AIDS crisis. Mostly, they were to create images for pre-serving memories of friends, many of whom were dying or had died. It was the first time that I had made what I call portraits, though still interspersed with color and pattern. I have sometimes since then used photographs to weave, but photographs of patterns and architecture, not of people. The only other time that the human form has entered my work is in the current Covid Pages project, created during isolation. Both of these periods were times of pandemics.

Your move to Albuquerque, New Mexico was a big change——how has a

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Larry Schulte Intertwines Loss, Reflectiveness & Survival in His Art

by Philip F. Clark

new geography enriched or changed your work since your move?

My husband and I retired to Albuquerque in 2015. My work immediately changed in that I was using brighter and purer color. The light here is wonderful, a reason that many painters over the past century have moved here. That bright sunny outlook changed the past year during the Covid pandemic.

How has your work in this time of isolation, evolved in terms of subject or processes?

Since the pandemic hit in March of 2020, I have not been working in my studio, where I create large woven painted paper pieces. I needed to find something smaller, that I could work on at home. I had already been considering a project that included collage and machine stitching, and had completed a stitched collage piece in the studio. To that end, I had purchased several used books with interesting images, with the thought of cutting up the images for collage. One of the books was titled Fritz Kahn. Fritz Kahn (1888–1968) was a German doctor who was interested in illustrating how the human body worked as if the body’s systems and organs were machines. The book is an oversized coffee table-style volume. In looking through the book, it occurred to me that rather than cut up the images, I could simply use the pages as a base for works on which I would collage and stitch. Though my work has always been about color and pattern, it seemed appropriate during Covid-19 to include body images, as a statement on the frailty of the human body——the same as I used photographs of friends during the AIDS crises. The completed works are all 12 by 9 inches and over seventy have been completed. The publication Surface Design has just published a blog that describes my work during this time. It is available at: www.surfacedesign.org/pandemic-projects-two-worlds-of-larry-schulte. The blog describes both my primary work as well as current work. “Two Worlds of Larry Schulte” will be exhibited in solo exhibits this fall in New Mexico and Nebraska.

As an HIV long-term survivor, how has your art responded to, or been inspired by HIV/AIDS as a subject? Certainly not all of your art directly relates to it as a main subject, but how as an artist has it been a part of creating your work? The ‘pink triangle’ portrait series——these were created in memory of friends in your life, lost to AIDS. How did these first come about?

Most of my work does not relate directly to HIV/AIDS. But I don’t think any artist’s work can be separated from life experiences, so all of my work has been affected by HIV/AIDS. There are a few works that are direct responses to HIV/AIDS. The photographic works you referenced are a case in point. The first one, Peter Dances, Silent, was a response to the AIDS death of my best friend from graduate school • APRIL 2021

a&ugallery

Self Portrait Silent, 1991, woven painted photographs, 24 by 18 inches APRIL 2021 •

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Peter Sits Silent, 1991, woven painted photographs, 18 by 24 inches at the University of Kansas. Peter had a PhD in psychology from KU but was also a ballet dancer. The work consists of two identical photos of him in a dance pose. On one photo, I painted a pink triangle——the symbol Nazis used for internment camp prisoners during WWII who were homosexual. On the second photo, I painted the word SILENT, a reference to the then popular ACT UP trope, SILENCE = DEATH. The word silent referring to the fact that Peter was dead. A series of these works included those two symbols painted on the photographs before they were cut into strips and woven. In some cases the person had died of AIDS, in others I was simply worried about the person. The self-portrait in this series reflects my knowledge that I was HIV-positive and had expectations of an early death.

Some other works also refer more generally to HIV/AIDS. That reference is less obvious. They consist of my regular woven painted paper pieces that then had black paint applied to most of the surface, obliterating underlying work. It took me many years to realize that this dark paint over the top of the work was a response to the volume of death around HIV/AIDS, the darkness and depression that was a result.

The painting Look Around Gone: Christopher, Peter, John is one of those works. The Light Peeked Through is another.

The subject of HIV/AIDS has created a vast archive of past and ongoing work in this subject. It is a documented history of not only the disease and its aftermath, but also a document of the artists creating it. Are there specific artists whose work relates to what you are doing, or are creating work that inspires your own?

There are so many inspiring artists who have addressed HIV/AIDS that I admire.

Frank Moore (1953–2002) directly confronted HIV/AIDS in remarkable detailed paintings. Two other artists whose work immediately come to mind: Ross Bleckner’s floating orbs of light against a dark background and Eric Rhein’s exquisite wire sculptures of hummingbirds and leaves. Somehow, for me, these less direct responses carry more grief, speak more directly to human vulnerability. A number

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Fibonacci, 2005, woven painted paper, 34 by 34 inches

• APRIL 2021

a&ugallery of amazing writers also addressed HIV/AIDS in inspiring ways. Poet Mark Doty’s Heaven’s Coast: A Memoir made me cry.

As readers of our magazine know, you are also a poet. How do poetry Hunger, 2020–21, collage and art find context or relationand stitching on book ships between your work, the page, 12 by 9 inches verbal and the visual? How much of your visual art includes the verbal or linguistic?

My poetry and visual art works have always remained fairly separate. In the year 1995 I was finding it particularly difficult to create visual art. I had taken a class at MoMA about John Cage and his ways of creating. I wanted to try some of his ideas, so I set up a random number method of choosing words from written articles and arranging them in lines of words equal to numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence. I then used obituaries from the NY Times that listed AIDS as a cause of death as source material.

In a way, this is a tribute to those brave enough to make public that cause of death, as there was still much stigma associated with AIDS. Using these “rules” that I had made up, I was able to create without the angst of thinking about the work. I simply followed my rules. I kept up this project throughout the year, and ended up with a book of poetry. Removing the process to arm’s length allowed me to keep creating.

Picasso is once quoted as saying, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,” but I tend to believe that some of that dust is very elemental to the creative process; even when we need renewal and replenishing. How do you replenish and renew?

I have always worked in more than one medium, so that when one blocked me I could simply move to another. I have a loom, and love weaving——usually mundane things like scarves and rugs——but the repetitive process slows me down and lets me think. Also, I created screen prints at Manhattan Graphics Center (an artist-run cooperative print shop in Manhattan) for many years. And of course the poetry is another outlet that takes me away from the visual to another world. These separate media refresh me, give me time to think before moving back into the woven painted paper work.

What current projects are you working on, or would like to develop?

The Fritz Kahn, Covid Pages, project from isolation is winding down, and I think will soon be finished. I have created a few abstract works that use a similar process: using one of my screen prints as a base and then adding collage and machine stitching. I will pursue this as one direction. As always, I will return to woven painted paper works. The Covid pandemic seems to be waning, and I will return to my studio to do larger work.

Human as Industrial Palace, 2020–21, collage and stitching on book page, 12 by 9 inches

Philip F. Clark, A&U’s Poetry Editor, is the author of the poetry collection, The Carnival of Affection (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017). He currently is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at City College, New York, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing. He is an Associate Poetry Editor at The Night Heron Barks, and the editor of The Poet’s Grin. His poetry and reviews have been published in Lambda Literary, Vox Populi, (Re:) An Ideas Journal, and HIV Here and Now. His other published writing has been included in Crashing Cathedrals: Edmund White by the Book (ITNA Press, 2019), and Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman (Squares and Rebels Press, 2019). His poetry in Tiferet Journal has been nominated for a 2021 Pushcart Prize.

APRIL 2021 •

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A world of

care Dr. Huan Vinh Dong Talks to A&U’s Dann Dulin About Tackling Stigma in Tanzania to Encourage HIV Testing, Working with Male Sex Workers in Vietnam & Engaging Communities of Color in Care in the U.S.

by Dann Dulin Photographed Exclusively for A&U by Tommy Wu

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• APRIL 2021

APRIL 2021 •

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A

cting is not only a profession. It’s a philosophy, it’s therapeutic, and it’s a life skill builder. An acting class can provide self-awareness, confidence, centering, communication, and teamwork.

Dr. Huan Dong has proven so. He initially embarked on acting studies, receiving a theater degree from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), and then merged his training with a medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in May 2019 from the David Geffen School of Medicine.

“I have utilized both majors,” contemplates the physician who’s in residency until early 2022. “I continually find parallels between medicine and theater. My acting skills have helped me to be a more compassionate doctor.”

One area of specialty for the doctor is infectious diseases. An HIV educator and researcher, Huan was an HIV/STI counselor at the Berkeley Free Clinic’s Gay Men’s Health Collective, and for the New York City Department of Public Health where he created graphic novels and scripts for HIV/STI education, derived from improv-based focus groups on men who have sex with men (MSM) of color.

“These scripts integrated, normalized, and addressed fears and questions regarding HIV/STI testing that were prevalent in the community. I really got to use my directorial and scriptwriting skills, in conjunction with placing health issues into a relatable social context,” relays Huan (pronounced “Juan”) who

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completed his Masters in Human Nutrition at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons before he entered medical school.

Currently in residence with UCLA Pediatrics, Huan rotates shifts at these sites: Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, Olive View UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica UCLA Hospital, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, though in July 2020 this site has been exchanged for Miller’s Women and Children’s Hospital in Long Beach. At the end of residency he will apply for an infectious disease fellowship, satisfying his thirst and knowledge for well-being.

Now thirty-five, Huan arrived in America at the tender age of four, having relocated from Saigon, Vietnam. His family settled in San Jose, California, but to an outsider this family could be living in Asia! In fact, one of Huan’s essays for a college application was titled, “I Go to School in America and I Go Home to Vietnam.” Speaking only Vietnamese, his parents raised chickens, grew Vietnamese vegetables on their farm, and cohabited with sixteen other Vietnamese.

A hodophile at heart, Huan has been unable to travel much due to demanding studies and a strict schedule. However, thus far, his career has led him to New York City, Tanzania, and Hanoi, Vietnam. After COVID and after his workload lightens, he plans on more adventures, especially to Europe. Paris and London beckon!

After graduating from UCB, Huan’s passion for health and theater aligned. He joined the touring theater troupe, Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Program, educating and performing for over 60,000 kids a year, addressing hot topics such as obesity, non-violent conflict resolution, and HIV/STI prevention.

In summer 2014, he traveled to Tanzania with Support for International Change, an NGO that helps reduce the HIV and AIDS infection rate in underserved communities. He volunteered there for two months residing with a host family. Huan educated students in the villages about HIV, tackling stigma surrounding the disease. Many of them wouldn’t get tested due to a backlash from their community. So, Huan dipped into his theatrical toolbox! He created a character named Kaka Bob, or Brother Bob in Swahili, and this character became a powerful instrument in breaking down barriers.

In 2016, Huan received the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty Global Health Fellowship, usually designated for post-doctoral junior faculty (not students), and worked on a research project with Hanoi Medical University. Even though it was Huan’s first year at med school, he took the year off, reveling in the opportunity to visit his homeland.

Huan was part of a team that looked at the compliance of the patient and the care for HIV-positive individuals who identified as MSM as well as male sex workers. On this trip he also encountered prevalent antibiotic usage, which could easily be purchased without a prescription at the corner store. In other words, individuals were ingesting antibiotics freely without regulation.

Huan confronted this same issue (inappropriate use) early on while working as an HIV counselor at Berkeley Free Clinic. It’s a practice that he highly questions, especially when it comes to STIs. Huan took full advantage of his Vietnam expedition by plunging into his cultural roots, encountering family members he had never met. It was cathartic for the young student.

Though Huan has not known anyone personally who died from AIDS, he did date someone who tested positive while they were going out. Having just graduated from UCB, Huan was still volunteering at the Berkeley Free • APRIL 2021

Clinic’s Gay Men’s Heath Collective (GMHC). He used those training skills to handle the delicate situation, offering input and support. His beau advised Huan to get tested, which he did. Huan proposed that he’d step back to give his boyfriend time to process his diagnosis, a meteoric impact indeed.

Huan’s boyfriend agreed, though their relationship became strained…and then…radio silence. The chap scuttled off without a peep. Pow!——that hurt. Huan was heartbroken. He admits it still haunts him today and he has thoughts about possibly reaching out to him this year for resolution.

One of Huan’s first recollections of hearing about HIV was when he watched TLC’s music video, “Waterfalls.”

The members of the all-girl hip-hop band were known to be AIDS activists [A&U, September 2003], especially the lead singer, Left Eye (Lisa Lopes) who often wore condoms on her apparel or condoms attached to eyeglasses. (A&U interviewed T-Boz and Chilli after Left Eye’s untimely passing.) The protagonist in the Prince-penned song acquires HIV, becomes ill, and dies. “Waterfalls” was the first number one song to address the epidemic (1995), which also garnered Grammy nominations as well. “Waterfalls,” an international hit, deals with the dangers of the virus and urges women to not take risks: “Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.”

Huan’s familiar waters include his partner of nearly four years, Kevin, an administrator at the recording academy at the Grammy Museum Foundation. The two met on Tindr. They soon found out that they had some mutual friends in common, and, grippingly, found that their families lived close to each other in the early eighties in nearby neighborhoods in Saigon, Vietnam.

Their home is located at the brim of Culver City (a Los Angeles suburb), where they have twenty-five “pets”—— succulent plants. Though currently they have no kids, Huan and Kevin take pleasure in being a strong presence in their nieces’ and nephews’ lives. “We take pride in being happy uncles,” relates Huan merrily, indicating that his nephew glues more to Uncle Kevin than his own Uncle!

The couple’s first date was low-key. They dined on tapas and beers, and then chatted and shared laughs strolling through the lively, funky neighborhood that is downtown Culver City.

During the evening both were upfront about their sexual history. Kevin divulged that he was HIV-positive. Since Huan had been an HIV counselor and was well educated on this disease, he remained calm. This new information would not deter him from forming a serious relationship. In fact, Huan felt just the opposite. This was the beginning of an honest connection to someone he could bond well with.

Their honesty is commendable. Absolutely not an easy task upon the first meeting. Straight away, their behavior set forth a foundation of trust for their relationship. Huan and Kevin certainly set a healthy model for others.

Kevin is undetectable, Huan is on PrEP. They both take mindful care of themselves. Kevin does Yoga twice a day from an online subscription service, and, testament to his career, Huan exercises, as well, relishing time when he can rock boulder climb (less risky than rock climbing) at various facilities around his environs.

As for dealing with COVID stress, it’s been an adjustment since the partners are typically social beings. But they heed the restraints to protect themselves and others by staying in, hoping to set an example for family and friends.

APRIL 2021 •

Whereas many couples have split during lockdowns, the pandemic brought these two closer. They are both cooks but since isolation they’ve delved into more adventurous menus, and began composting outside, creating an herb garden. They learned to grow mushrooms and bake bread. “We’ve reconnected to Home Ec,” giggles Huan.

Further healthful behaviors include Huan and Kevin disconnecting daily from social media, taking lengthy walks or visiting Mother Nature at botanical gardens, as well as hiking in canyons, or regional or state parks. To ease robotic computer position and sedentary eyestrain, they huddle together and read. Kevin is currently plodding through the classic The Glass Menagerie, while Huan’s page-turner is Endurance by Scott Kelly. What makes their kinship thrive? “We’re good friends,” Huan plainly states then counters, “we also have a similar sense of humor.”

When posed with the question to describe himself Huan answers, “Dancing through life.” (Unquestionably a dynamite title for his autobiography.) He elaborates. “It implicates energy, carefully coordinated footsteps, creativity, fun, expressivity, and carefree attitude.”

I authenticate his self-portrayal, finding him also down to earth, engaging, personable, and spirited as we encounter each other’s presence over Google

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Meet one late afternoon, shortly after the turn of the new calendar year. Huan is a goblet of white wine——soothing, classy, and peppy.

Offhandedly dressed in an everyday-gray archetypal hoodie with a “University of California Berkeley” inscription, Huan riffs that he’s had it for years and practically lives in his “comfort” sweatshirt. His earth-tone hair is close-trimmed but not short, his Lacoste specs are cool-dark cobalt, almost black, and he sports a few days whisker growth. Huan’s quintessence is clean-cut, cheerful, colorful——and sometimes cheeky. The man also possesses a killer Jake Gyllenhaal smile.

Since I’m a novice to this video conferencing, and somewhat technically handicapped too, Huan offers instructions on how to manipulate certain features, such as selecting the appropriate size of the screen. He then illustrates other features such as altering background screens to a coffee shop, bookcase, snowcapped mountain, and so on.

Huan greets me with a real-life “screen” that is his second bedroom-turned-office with mirrored closet doors, which I view over his shoulder.

Throughout our chat, though, he chooses a backyard setting, replete with vintage RV bus nestled underneath a glowing lit patio carport, decked with virtual trees, ivy, and bushes. It’s as if he and I are seated cozily in lounge chairs conversing over a cuppa tea.

virgin now….

Huan Vinh Dong: I broke it. I took it from you, Dann. [He quickly quips, deadpan.] Now you’ve got to credit me in the article for that! [In unison we howl.]

Dann Dulin: Hey thanks for getting me acquainted with this system, Huan. [I make one more slight adjustment.] Well, I’m no longer a

Very cool! I’ll see if I can arrange that! Do most people call you Huan or do you have a nickname?

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Well, here’s a fast pop-up question: Is there someone’s autograph you treasure?

[Huan ponders a moment then casually prefaces his answer emphasizing that he’s not the starstruck type; though he enjoys celebrity talents, they’re unimportant in his life.]

I treasure a signature from Pham Thi Lan, a professor at the National Hospital for Dermatology and Venereology. She wrote me a small note and signed a copy of her PhD dissertation after I visited and shadowed her in her clinic. I admire her and she’s such an inspiration. [He straightens his bod, pulls his shoulders back.] Dr. Pham Thi Lan studied the implications of STIs in rural Vietnam. [Huan props an elbow up on his desk, one finger dangling on his lip.]

To me, there’s more to celebrate in that work than an entertainment celebrity.

[Abruptly, Huan has a surge of glee] Oh, on second thought, Dann, if I had a chance to meet RuPaul, that may be one celebrity that I would really appreciate an autograph from…!

• APRIL 2021

Most people call me Huan, previously Huanito, because I didn’t have growth spurts until I was about sixteen years old. But now [he titters] I am adequately tall and pretty fit, so no one really calls me that anymore.

My family still calls me “Tô,” which means “big bowl” in Vietnamese. When I was under four and still in Vietnam, I would eat voraciously and request big bowls of noodles or rice! [Grinning, he uses his hands demonstrating size.]

I find it noteworthy that your introduction to the AIDS epidemic was partly through TLC’s “Waterfalls”….

When I first saw the video I didn’t really get it —— What is happening to him? [he asks rhetorically, later learning that the protagonist has an AIDS-defining illness]. After viewing the video I became more sensitive to the topic. I didn’t understand why some people were very vocal about the differences between HIV and AIDS, which led me to read more about the natural history of HIV infection and the complexity of the virus itself.

I also distinctly remember that at UC Berkeley there was a class called “Biology and Sociobiology of Human Sexuality and Reproduction,” taught by Ivy Chen, which helped me become more comfortable talking about the topic of sexuality.

You do indeed remember professors who’ve made an impression…brilliant! [I pause.] Yeah, sex is still difficult to talk about in this society.

In some ways we’ve come far, and in other ways we’re still immature. After learning about HIV, how did it all play out for you?

The epidemic sparked a very important motivation inside of me to do all I can to promote social justice given the stigma and discrimination I saw around the HIV status of an individual. Even more, HIV is heavily associated with LGBTQ+ folk and particularly gay men who were further compounded by the marginalization. These are my peers. I knew that I didn’t want to live in a future world where communities I care about had to deal with this unnecessary prejudgment.

Let’s create some brouhaha here on your statement! [I flaunt my approving fists.] Now, elaborate on your years being an HIV counselor at the Berkeley Free Clinic’s Gay Men’s Heath Collective (GMHC).

Well, I joined GMHC right after graduation from UC Berkeley. I volunteered through their training program to become a volunteer “medic,” quickly becoming a section coordinator for nearly five years. I used my community organizing experiences and then corporate experiences to help increase efficacy in staffing and digitization of documentation. There, I was engaged in learning not only the health education and prevention side, but how important clinical interactions were.

How so?

I learned the importance of being an advocate for your patient, while earning their trust in some of the most vulnerable, and sensitive experiences. These patients showed me a spectrum of different men who needed support in sexual health. [He gracefully sweeps his hand through his silky locks, swooping up a thatch of hair then releases it.]

I became someone who any of my friends could speak to about sexual health——something that even the toughest of guys have trouble expressing at times. This experience really broke down many stereotypes APRIL 2021 •

and presumptions of people’s behaviors from outward appearance. You really cannot tell if someone is at high or low risk for anything just by looking at them.

Undeniably, and gee, what an all-encompassing training you had. So, Huan, you wanted to pursue an acting career…?

I never really wanted to be an actor. I was in theatre to learn about expression and communication. My interest lies in biology. [Huan’s vivid browns peer candidly into mine.] Actually, I am more of a talented dancer than singer or actor….

OH?! Fred Astaire? Mikhail Baryshnikov? Channing Tatum? Willi Ninja? Derek Hough? [Huan giggles and trails off.] Huan, I want to hear more about “Uncle Bob” the character you created while teaching in Tanzania.

Many who live there refuse to get tested because they’re afraid of what the community will think of them. I challenged that mindset by creating this character Kaka Bob in my classroom. Kaka Bob sat in on “Basic Skills” class I was teaching and become a friend to the students. At the end of class Uncle Bob was tested for HIV and found out he was positive. This then prompted a discussion about whether Kaka Bob was now any different, and how we could help him.

The children rallied around Kaka Bob. What a keen idea, Huan.

The character was a powerful tool to start dialogue about fighting HIV stigma. I wouldn’t have thought to create or been able to create this character without my training at Theatre Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley and my experience at Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theater Programs, where I got to perform shows and learn how to place health education messaging in a socially relatable context for children.

What a sturdy foundation and atypical tools you’ve acquired for your doctor’s bag. What was your living situation in Tanzania and did it work out for you?

I stayed in a farming town with a population of 600. We were able to implement a rather successful testing campaign where we tested over 200 individuals in the town and surrounding townships. This led to my curiosity and interest in pediatric patients because it was actually the kids in this town who really helped our testing campaign. They helped us by singing songs throughout the town, which then helped some of their older community members understand the importance of providing screening and prevention measures.

What a groundbreaking way to get people to test. Kudos. Next on your travel list, you spent a year in Hanoi, Vietnam! Share your experience.

During my work here I saw the lines really blurred between social constructs of sexuality and in the strong pressures of society that influence how one pursued their life, particularly in male sex workers——who did not identify as queer or gay. [He clears his throat.] Some had families, and some were married with children as well. At times these individuals just saw their sex work as an extension of massage or physical labor.

This is quite eye-opening.

[Huan nods.] I also was able to conduct research into community antibiotic usage without a prescription, particularly in the realm of sexually transmitted infections. My collaborative discussions with stakeholders in Hanoi Medical University led to the development of my grant from the Fogarty Global Health fellowship. I realized that my future career is not pointed towards being a laboratory technician but in coordinating research efforts.

[He ponders; his tone becomes thoughtfully wistful.] The year abroad really helped me understand where I could impact global health and research collaborations as a young trainee.

Continued on Page 43

35

CRISIS IN VENEZUELA The Arrests of Venezuelan HIV Humanitarian Aid Workers Sparks International Response

by Chip Alfred

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I

t was the sound that was heard around the world. Authorities slapping handcuffs on the wrists on five innocent humanitarian aid workers and hauling them off into custody. On January 12, 2021, members of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence raided the offices of Azul Positivo, an HIV/AIDS Service Organization in Maracaibo, a city in Venezuela’s Zulia state, one of the areas hardest hit by HIV. After questioning directors of the organization at their headquarters for a period of six hours, without a legal order, the officials proceeded to arrest five staffers, including Azul Positivo’s president. The five men, who were not allowed any outside contact during the process, were taken into custody, and are facing charges related to the Computer Crime Law, the Law against Organized Crime, and the Financing of Terrorism, according to Amnesty International. As a result, Azul Positivo temporarily shut down operations.

• APRIL 2021

APRIL 2021 •

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R

eaction was swift condemning the persecution of these humanitarian workers. James Story, the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, called for the men’s release. Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director, concurred, “I call on the Venezuelan authorities to release from police custody the five humanitarians working for the nongovernmental organization Azul Positivo, and to return essential equipment seized at the time of their arrest.” On February 10, the five men were released from physical detention, but the charges have been upheld and they must report to authorities every thirty days.

This is not the first time an incident like this occurred in Venezuela. On February 15, 2019, according to The Venezuelan Network of Positive People, the headquarters of the MAVID Foundation was the subject of an arbitrary raid by state security forces, identified as members of the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Service Corps (CICPC). The MAVID Foundation is a non-government organization (NGO) that provides advocacy, education, and distributes medication for people living with HIV in the Venezuelan state of Carabobo. Officials entered the organization’s headquarters after business hours and forced the locks off the doors and security bars. In the raid, officials confiscated antiretrovirals and other pharmaceuticals for medical treatment, and containers of infant formula. They also seized C-section kits and packets of the antiretroviral zidovudine, required by public hospitals for childbirth by women living with HIV. Three people including MAVID’s vice-president were arrested and detained for seven hours. With the help of lawyers and numerous calls from national and international human rights organizations, they were released.

For a closer look at the challenges facing organizations with humanitarian missions in Venezuela, A&U sat down with Jesús Aguais, Executive Director of AID FOR AIDS (AFA). AFA provides free medication to people with HIV in developing countries that don’t have access One of many Venezuelan immigrants who trek thouto treatment, prevention education, case management, sands of miles for a better life (los caminantes) healing, and advocacy to those with HIV and those affected by the epidemic both internationally and in the U.S. Aguais, a Venezuelan native, founded AFA, which is says Aguais. “It’s an inhuman walk. They go over mountains, where they have headquartered in New York City, with its largest field office in Venezuela. died. They have to cross very dangerous roads, leaving Venezuela as a way of The current crisis in Venezuela, according to Aguais, began in 2013 after survival.” Child malnutrition has reached crisis levels. Diseases such as measles, Nicolás Maduro took over as president of the country, with his hands deep in diphtheria, and malaria, which were once eradicated, are now spreading, and the pockets of drug cartels and organized crime. “It’s a country kidnapped by even spilling over national boundaries as Venezuelans migrate. To sum it up, he criminals,” Aguais says. It’s also the country with the highest hyperinflation says, “Venezuela is one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.” in the world, and the minimum monthly wage is about $2. The U.S. is among “Soon after Maduro took power, we were seeing the Venezuelan healthcare more than fifty countries that recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan system collapse.” For people living with HIV, Venezuela became a country Guaidó as the country’s legitimate leader rather than Maduro. Guaidó invoked without access to treatment, and the government was not providing ARVs for the constitution to assume a rival presidency, saying Maduro’s 2018 re-election HIV patients. “Public hospital became a place where you needed to bring your was fraudulent. Maduro alleges that Guaidó is a puppet of the United States, syringes, you needed to bring your own medicine to be treated.” All of this was and he has refused aid from the U.S. happening against the backdrop of COVID-19, which has dealt a powerful blow Amid all of this political and economic turmoil, it’s the people of Venezuela to countries like neighboring Brazil, with nearly 12 million cases and the secwho are suffering the most. According to a 2019-2020 study conducted by the ond-highest death toll in the world, claiming the lives of over 287,000 people.

National Survey of Living Conditions at Andrés Bello Catholic University in CaraAs of March 18, 2021, according to Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems cas, 96% of Venezuelans live in poverty and 70% live in extreme poverty. With Science and Engineering, Venezuela had a cumulative total of just 147,577 most people not knowing where their next meal will come from, many are descases from the beginning of the pandemic with only 1,459 deaths. perately seeking refuge. Since 2014, about five million Venezuelans have fled Opposition critics claim Venezuela’s COVID case numbers and deaths may the country seeking food, work, and a better life. “People are walking without be under-reported, while testing numbers may not only be exaggerated, but the shoes from Caracas to Bogota, which is like walking from New York to Atlanta, or they walk from Caracas to Lima, which is like walking from New York City to L.A.,” reliance on rapid blood antibody tests from China rather than the gold-standard

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• APRIL 2021

all photos courtesy AID FOR AIDS except IAS photo: Marcus Rose/IAS

nasal swab exams could be missing countless individuals infected with the virus. With less than one percent of the nation's population reported to have received even one shot of a COVID vaccine, this country’s hospital system is ill-prepared for a new COVID outbreak.

A recent government survey of the country’s forty-seven hospitals dedicated to treating COVID-19 patients found that just 57% have regular water supply, and 43% have insufficient or no PPE kits for medical professionals. ICU beds and medical personnel are also in short supply.

AFA has been collecting and distributing unused and unexpired ARVs to people living with HIV across the world including Venezuela for twenty-five years.

AFA also provides and distributes infant formula in thirteen states of Venezuela to mothers who cannot or should not breastfeed. But this country in crisis needs more.

In March of 2016, AFA received an urgent call from The National Network of Positive People. “They said, ‘We are calculating that by July of 2016, there won’t be any ARVs for anybody in Venezuela.’” That includes approximately 70,000 people enrolled in the National AIDS Program. For Aguais, that set off alarms. He helped to organize a satellite meeting as part of a high-level meeting to end AIDS at the U.N. in New York City. In the meeting were leaders of UNAIDS, Women with HIV in Venezuela, Civil Society Organizations, and other AIDS activists from Latin America. The message was clear: Venezuelans with HIV need help!

The meeting served as a wake-up call to AIDS activists across the globe and to UN agencies that what was happening in Venezuela was something they may not have seen before. “The Venezuelan crisis is a crisis without a war, which is very unique.” Aguais knew that the situation needed to be approached by “a collective from the international community” to not only address what was happening in Venezuela but all the migrant communities that have developed in surrounding nations. Since then, more partnerships have formed, and more international funds are supporting the humanitarian relief efforts in Venezuela.

In 2018, AFA helped to secure the largest ever ARV donation from a pharma company to Venezuela in partnership with the Toronto-based International Council of Aids Service Organizations (ICASO) and other NGOs. That took care of all the ARVs needed for 2018. Now, Aguais says the funding comes from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Even though free ARVs are available, thousands of Venezuelans living with HIV are joining the exodus from their country. With only one drug combination available, those with resistance to it are out of luck. Combine that with a broken healthcare system and it becomes a life-or-death decision for many.

As my conversation with Aguais continued, he shared his concerns for the health and safety of the people doing the work in his native land, especially his own staff members. “A lot of organizations are really afraid,” he says. “They can do anything they want to any organization. The people of Venezuela are exposed.” He would like to see more Americans step up and get involved.

“The crisis in Venezuela is happening right next door to the U.S. It’s like your next-door neighbor has been raped and you’re allowing it to happen because APRIL 2021 •

Clockwise from top left: Four men thank AID FOR AIDS for donation infant formula to Carabobo; Jesús Aguais speaking about Venezuela at IAS 2017 in Paris, France; Aguais with Venezuelan immigrants on their trek; Aguais with one of those immigrants you believe in privacy, or because you don’t want to know what the neighbor is.

Well, this is your neighbor. Get informed, get involved.”

“How can we in the U.S. be connected to this reality that is against everything we believe in? The ones being persecuted are the ones that are providing services to their community and the ones that run free are the drug dealers and the drug cartels. This is the world upside down. Kids are dying of hunger, but you don’t see them because they die in their house. People die from simple things like hypertension. If you go to a hospital and there’s nothing for them to treat you, people die. This is not a political issue. It’s a human rights issue.”

As bleak as things may seem, Aguais says the Venezuelans he knows are incredibly resilient, and they are not waving the white flag any time soon. “They are warriors, despite the persecution. We will be able to restore the dignity of so many people who have lost their basic needs.” For my last question, I asked Aguais if he thought the five men who were arrested at Azul Positivo would go back to their jobs if their names were cleared and the charges against them were dropped. He did not hesitate for a moment with his answer. “I’m sure they will. These guys are heroes. And they are just like thousands of other Venezuelans working in NGOs, putting their lives on the line to make sure that somebody else gets what they need. They’re on the front line of a war they’re fighting for everybody with HIV.” If you or someone you know would like to donate HIV medications or find out more about AID FOR AIDS, please visit https://aidforaids.org.

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.

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Under_Reported

WHEN WE FEEL WHOLE

H

The Accelerate Initiative Supports Black Gay, Bi Men oping to inform and inspire a wide range of community-based solutions to the disparity in healthcare and wellbeing of Black gay, bisexual, same-gender-loving and other men who have sex with men, ViiV Healthcare sponsors The accelerate Initiative.

The accelerate Initiative began with ViiV’s $10-million investment in the project in two cities hardest hit by HIV and other health problems, Baltimore, Maryland, and Jackson, Mississippi.

The accelerate team collated and evaluated data collected between 2016 and 2019 by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and the TCC Group; in addition, the accelerate Road Tour, a series of community listening sessions conducted with gay and bisexual Black men in those cities throughout

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2019, collected quantitative surveys and did further research with accelerate participants. Their report, When We Feel Whole, was published on February 25, 2021.

Despite the pre-2015 groundbreaking scientific and policy advancements that had the potential to cut new transmission rates and increase quality of life for people living with HIV, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), treatment as prevention, the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and the Affordable Care Act, several reports highlighted the disproportionate impact of HIV among Black gay men, showing that between 2009–2010, only 16% of Black gay men were virally suppressed, and the CDC projected that one in two Black gay men would be living with HIV in their lifetime.

The place-based approach that accelerate took for their work is particularly relevant to addressing health disparities, as they are rooted in the social, cultural, political and economic determinants of health. Working with Black men affected by HIV in Jackson and Baltimore, accelerate worked with Black men affected by HIV to design, develop and deliver community solutions across those cities as high-prevalence cities. Informed by insights derived from the study, grant investments

focused on four key areas: strengthening networks across affected communities; effectively adopting HIV testing as an entry point to HIV prevention, care, and treatment; strengthening peer navigation services; and making sex education relevant to the lives of Black gay men.

In addition to eliminating the disparities in health outcomes for Black men, accelerate also seeks to decrease HIV-related stigma. One such project is As Much As I Can, an immersive theater experience, a co-created innovation to reduce stigma that affects Black gay men——stigma around sexual orientation, gender expression, race, skin color, body type and HIV status. The live performances reached over 1,700 attendees from diverse backgrounds in Jackson, Baltimore, and New York, giving people an opportunity to hear others’ views and opinions in post-performance talk back sessions. Thus, voices and experiences of Black gay men were elevated to touch the lives of family and friends, faith leaders, care providers and the general public. After experiencing the play, 72% of viewers said they would speak out if they heard any stigmatizing language about PLHIV, 63% said they would speak out if they heard anti-LGBTQ language, 90% said they would talk about the play with friends, and 52% said they would talk about HIV prevention options with their friends.

The accelerate Initiative also aims to reduce the medical mistrust among Black same-gender-loving men, a distrust forged not only from the negative historic mistreatment of Black people in research and health care (e.g., Tuskegee Experiments) but also from everyday racism and stigmatizing messages from faith, medical and community leaders around sexual orientation. This reinforces the fear of being shamed, judged or “outed” because of • APRIL 2021

photos by Harley & Co.

by Hank Trout

seeking care. The Initiative focused on addressing mistrust by helping men build self-advocacy skills and confidence in healthcare settings.

Finally, the accelerate Initiative offered three principles to tackle the healthcare disparities experienced by Black HIV-positive men: 1) We need to develop flexible mechanisms for continuous community listening and identify essential design elements early on.

2) We need to acknowledge that HIV cannot be addressed in a vacuum. A person’s “whole self,” including housing stability, mental health, and economic well-being must be considered in healthcare approaches.

3) Leadership development is critical in order to strengthen communities, coalitions and organizations to drive impact.

4) Sharing learnings is a key opportunity for making change on a community and national level.

As for tackling the stigma attached to HIV, the accelerate Initiative cited another four findings from their study: 1) Stronger networks help men break down stigma, build social and economic supports and feel more empowered to engage and advocate for the care they want.

2) Safer spaces and peer navigation help men build trust and community connections, critical to making HIV prevention and testing the pathway to APRIL 2021 •

care that it should be.

3) Investing in the leadership and professional development of peer navigators builds overall community power and helps men move across the HIV care continuum by meeting men where they are and supporting them in getting to where they want to be.

4) Arts and culture activations are effective in engaging Black men and facilitate stigma reduction.

After five years of their place-based initiative in Baltimore and Jackson, ViiV Healthcare is building on this momentum and lessons learned with communities to amplify and sustain the most effective and innovative strategies. In 2021, ViiV Healthcare is expanding its commitment to support the health and well-being of Black gay, bisexual, queer, trans and other men who have sex with men through new funding opportunities and initiatives.

In Baltimore, Jackson and nationally, accelerate will support networks with a focus on innovative safer space models, linkage, and engagement programs with a focus on peer navigation, and advocacy with a focus on leadership opportunities connected to pathways to employment.

In an email exchange, P. J. Moton-Poole, Senior Manager, External Affairs North America, at ViiV, told A&U, “To help continue the momentum of our pilot program, ViiV is expanding our commitment

to support the needs of Black gay men nationally. As part of our $20M commitment to scale up resources to disrupt disparities in HIV care, the next phase of accelerate will build on the lessons learned from Baltimore and Jackson to drive community-centered solutions across the country. For the first time ever, organizations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico are eligible to apply for accelerate funding.

“At ViiV Healthcare, community insights are central to everything we do. We utilize a unique suite of tools; ethnographic research; storytelling gathering; community listening, and cultural interventions (like the play As Much As I Can, Being Seen podcast, and Take My Hand spoken word project) to reach people in authentic ways. As we continue to expand our accelerate programming, we’ll continue to utilize innovative tools and methods to meet people where they are with key findings on what we know works to help close gaps in care for Black gay men and end HIV once and for all.”

If you would like to read the full When We Feel Whole report, please log on to https://viivhealthcare.com/ content/dam/cf-viiv/viiv-healthcare/en_US/When-WeFeel-Whole-Lessons-and-Learnings-from-the-accelerateInitiative-v1.pdf.

Hank Trout writes the monthly column For the Long Run for A&U..

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Cover Story

Continued from Page 35

…And while in Vietnam you were fortunate enough to meet some kin.

[Huan beams while stretching his arms outward.] Oh, Dann, it was a huge moment of respect for myself and for the distant family to see that even though our branch of the family moved away and have become members of another country, we can still pay homage to our cultural and familial roots.

How exhilarating. Huan, what motivated you to go into the medical field and devote your time to helping others?

I think a large motivator was that I received a lot of help when I was younger. We were immigrants and we didn’t have much. We used food stamps, I always got a free lunch at school, I was in a special after-school program because my parents worked a lot, and we all were learning English. I received tutoring from volunteer programs and the special programs that were placed by state and federal government to help families like us. I was recipient of extra academic outreach so I could do better on SATs, for example. People were there for me. I.. am…lucky…. [He halts still in thought.]

I also saw how much my parents worked and how hard they worked. [He thinks a moment, tilting his head to the side.] They were my role models. They endured and persevered, never giving up on us.

What a blessing.

I witnessed many parts of society, especially immigrant families, who didn’t know how to effectively use healthcare to promote their well being. In developing countries only when you are acutely ill is when you go to emergency to see a doctor. In my family, there were many missed opportunities to screen for such diseases as hepatitis B, breast cancer, lung cancer, or tuberculosis. They have impacted my extended family greatly. For me, there was this need to help educate people about preventative care.

I get it, yeah. You have a profound interest in nutrition and living healthy and sharing it with others. Tell about your decision to study nutrition at Columbia.

Coming from health education, I wanted a transition to a graduate degree that would allow me to better understand how to interpret and conduct research. While at Columbia I worked on the intersection between nutrition and chronic viral infections——HIV and hepatitis C——and the impact of the inflammation on bone mineral density and fracture risk, especially in older individuals.

photo courtesy H. Dong

What did you learn about this in relation to individuals who are living with HIV? The major advice is to exercise all through our lives. We cannot “catch up” later! Many middle aged or older individuals do not exercise because they worry about their joints and bones being too weak to support exercise, but actually our bones and muscles need that usage and resistance to get stimulated to maintain bulk.

First-rate information. Just then, Huan, I think you were channeling Dr. Sanjay Gupta and fitness guru Jane Fonda. [He cracks a half smile, chortling.] As you know, HIV stats have risen in several communities and has hit hard the younger generation, especially gays. Any ideas how we can better reach youth today?

We have to meet them where they are——which likely means a push towards messaging through technology. Influencers are very important today for youth and I think it would be great to connect with them to spread messaging. [He dons a high note] …But not just warnings and scare tactics——honest discussions, so they can understand that they can trust adults and healthcare providers with these personal and sensitive topics.

APRIL 2021 •

Good pact.

If I may add, we all really need to not forget the incredibly difficult work that the LGBTQ+ community did to help reduce infections when the epidemic raged in the eighties and nineties. We need to continue to unite as a community to protect the health for us all.

We must remember the past——always. You’ve done much work with high-risk gay youth of color. Does anything stand out?

Different communities have different histories that make trust in healthcare systems difficult. My approach has been that we can all look different on the outside but there are experiences that we’ve been through that can connect us.

The major thing I learned was that beyond credentials and official titles, people in medically mistreated communities need someone who is from their community——who look and sound like them.

Smart words. Say, you are doing a residency in Pediatrics. You definitely have a passion for kids! On the personal side, are you and Kevin considering children?

This is an ongoing discussion, Dann. [He smirks and then he becomes pensive and sincere.] Having biological children would be incredibly wonderful… however, I’m not absolutely tied to that idea, given all the children without families in America and across the globe.

Wholeheartedly agree, Huan. What’s your take on the current state of HIV? It’s not over. [He heaves a sigh.] There’s still so much work to be done. Sexual health is an important part of overall health. We cannot allow our discomfort over talking about it lead to potential disease. We must change the tide in infections that continue to affect millions of people each year. [Huan is revved, his urgent voice elevates….] Let’s all get tested and reduce transmission of HIV and other STIs, investing in the future of our community. If not now… then WHEN!?

[Huan highlights his words and emotions by gently twisting to profile, exposing the Lacoste trademark alligator on his eyeglass frames, lowering his cranium, as his eyes cast vaguely downward——a dramatic pose. Point. Well. Taken. Dr. Dong did learn a thing or two in acting class.]

Credit to Davidd for his sage counsel and long term devotion.

Senior Editor Dann Dulin interviewed actress Hailie Sahar for the March cover story. Follow him on Twitter @DannDulin.

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FILM FILM

Mapplethorpe: The Director's Cut Directed by Ondi Timone Samuel Goldwyn Films

W

hen I watched Mike Leigh’s 2014 film, Mr. Turner, I knew little about its subject, British Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner, who, before he died in 1851, arguably revolutionized painting. I knew little of the man——his personality, his art career, his relationships. I had seen some of his paintings before and had been struck by their lumimous visions, so much drama in something as simple as a red sunset or a dark-ash sea or a sky swept into a typhoon. When I watched the film, I hoped its creator would make good on that storytelling maxim: Tell the readers something new about something they care about.

And I did learn something new——that his artistic star ascended early; that he had awkward, abusive relationships with women; and that he sometimes touched on social issues in his paintings. On the last score, I still search out the fiery, hellish sky that spans Slavers, Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying (1840), with its murky slashes of waves almost swallowing any signs of life, yet, among the manacles, limbs, a leg, outstretched arms, remain for one vital moment longer so that the viewer can witness the brutality.

When the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is your subject, as it is in Mapplethorpe: The Director’s Cut, the maxim, Tell the readers (or in this case viewers) something new about something they care about, becomes a tall order. We are awash in information (lore, as well) about the photographer: biographies by Patti Smith and Jack Fritscher, to name two; academic treatises, panel discussions, and magazine articles; documentaries and news clips about “obscenity” and federal arts funding.

We are also awash in his own images. They live in our bedrooms and in

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museums around the world. In the past couple of years, I have seen two shows in New York City, where I live, without even trying. Even now, glancing up from my laptop as I write this, I see that my roommate has on his bookcase shelf a weighty tome of Mapplethorpe photographs.

So, I didn’t envy director Ondi Timoner, who wrote the script with Mikko Alanne, and lead actor Matt Smith their task, trying to tell viewers something new about something they care about. They succeed.

Timoner resists the explosive whirlwind of his later life and instead opts for the steady breeze that builds into cool stardom. Here we see evolution, not revolution.

Even monumental shifts are presented quietly, presenting a rather isolated Mapplethorpe as both timid and self-assured. Indeed, the most emotional scene belongs to Milton Moore (McKinley Belcher III), Mapplethorpe’s model and lover, who, disgusted with the photographer’s embrace of white-privileged desire, smashes a glassframed portrait on his way out. The film hangs together with a series of beautiful moments of interiority, like when Mapplethorpe waits on a fire escape for his brother, Edward (Brandon Sklenar), to arrive, or waits in bed with Patti as their dreams take shape, or when he waits Director Ondi Timoner, Matt Smith and McKinley Belcher outside a leather bar to gather his nerve, or when he waits for death in III on the set of Mapplethorpe: The Director's Cut a hospital bed, flashes of his life fluttering like a camera shutter. Like many artists trying to make a name for themselves, the film seems to • APRIL 2021

photos by Ondi Timoner

Mapplethorpe: The Director's Cut: (clockwise from left) Matt Smith As Mapplethorpe; Smith and Marianne Rendón as Patti Smith; Smith and John Benjamin Hickey as Sam Wagstaff say, Mapplethorpe became good at waiting.

The film deftly catalogues Mapplethorpe’s biography, from his Floral Park rebellion to his friendship with Patti Smith (Marianne Rendón), and from his frustration to the doors of the art world slammed in his face to his meteoric rise, thanks in part to Sam Wagstaff (John Benjamin Hickey), his mentor and lover. We are invited to witness his deep dive into craft and a queer imagistic space he created where calla lilies coexist with kink, his burgeoning sexual agency (including its racial politics), and the pain of familial rejection, sharpest, perhaps, when he receives a bouquet of flowers he thinks is from his father. Smith captures Mapplethorpe, a “shy pornographer,” as Wagstaff calls him in one scene, with an intelligent expressiveness. Throughout, Smith plays him as that boy we see at the start of the film, taking pictures in a church, trying to make sense of its iconography and his relationship to it, a Möbius strip of sorts made of the sacred and the profane. Along with cinematography and set design that lovingly recreates New York in the 1970s and 1980s, and direction that aims for plain honesty above all else, Smith’s portrayal is like propulsive the heartbeat/drumbeat that underscores a montage of some of Mapplethorpe’s more iconic photographs in the film’s title sequence.

In one scene, after Mapplethorpe has gained some fame, the photographer tells a group of sex partners: “All these art snobs think they’re so cutting edge. I take out my portfolio and I show them the bullwhip up my ass. If they blink or they look away then they just can’t handle it because they’re not so fucking cutting edge after all.” Later, however, he plays gatekeeper himself, when brother Edward and he are in the same show and the bill features both of their names, two Mapplethorpes. Robert insists that Edward change his name, ostensibly to prove himself in the art world sans any coattail riding. His loft has become a castle, and he inhabits to some extent the role of gatekeeper. I wish the film explored this tension more in a final act, but maybe that kind of synthesis was not possible. Mapplethorpe’s life, like many others who died of AIDS-related complications, was cut short. We cannot follow them into their elder years, like we do with J.M.W. Turner, and see the wisdom gained; we only see the wisdom in the making.

—Chael Needle Mapplethorpe: The Director’s Cut is streaming on Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, GooglePlay, Kanopy, FandangoNow, and Vudu.

APRIL 2021 •

MUSIC MUSIC

Dance (RED) Save Lives Vol. III

I

n honor of (RED)’s 15th anniversary, Mavin Records and (RED) have joined forces to launch DANCE (RED) SAVE LIVES Vol. III, a new Afrobeats-inspired album that raises money for the Global Fund COVID-19 Response.

Releasing on April 2, 2021, this highly anticipated album was curated by legendary Afrobeats producer Don Jazzy and musical artist Aluna, DANCE (RED) SAVE LIVES features “fourteen fun, energetic tracks guaranteed to get you pumped up and dancing,” according to the folks at (RED). The album includes remixes from Aluna, Felix Da Housecat, Chris Trucher, Michael Brun, Sofi Tukker, TOKiMONSTA, Vitamin String Quartet, Virgil Abloh, and many more. Mavin Records and (RED) have also released a feature track from the album as a single, Rema’s “Woman” (Sofi Tukker Remix).

The complete album is available to stream and download worldwide with proceeds going to support (RED)’s efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on life-saving HIV/ AIDS programs in sub-Saharan Africa. You can find DANCE (RED) SAVE LIVES on Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube Music, Napster, and Tidal.

In addition to the album itself, you can also support (RED) by purchasing DANCE (RED) SAVE LIVES t-shirts and caps. Select items in the collection feature the official DANCE (RED) SAVE LIVES Vol. III album artwork by Brooklyn-based Nigerian artist Laolu Senbanjo.

Laolu’s signature work has also been interpreted into a limited-edition facemask for protection from the coronavirus. The complete DANCE (RED) SAVE LIVES merch collection is available for purchase worldwide, at https://shop-red-originals.myshopify.com/.

Collaborating with partners such as Amazon, Apple, and Bank of America, (RED) products have raised over $650 million in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Funds raised through this album and the related merchandise will be used to help prevent COVID-19 from derailing critical progress made in the AIDS fight.

—Hank Trout Chael Needle is Managing Editor of A&U. Follow him on Twitter @ChaelNeedle.

Hank Trout writes the For the Long Run column for A&U.

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H

A Calendar of Events

lifelines

ousing Works, the New York City organization working to end the dual crises of homelessness and HIV/AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses, will celebrate its thirtieth edition of Design on a Dime NYC, its yearly fundraiser, on May 20–22, 2021.

Design on a Dime NYC brings together nationally renowned interior designers who use donated merchandise from hundreds of brands to create one-of-a-kind vignettes and collections at Housing Works’ bookstore and two of its thrift shops. Everything used in those vignettes and collections then goes on sale at fifty-to-eighty percent off its usual price. All proceeds benefit Housing Works‘ services and advocacy work to end the AIDS epidemic including housing, healthcare, and social justice for all, as well as Housing Works’ current frontline efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tickets will be required for a two-hour timed shopping spree on May 20; ticketed and timed sales will continue on May 21 (with online shopping added on this date), before the sale is open to the general public on May 22. Tickets range from $200 to $1,000 depending on how early you want to shop and the level of VIP treatment you choose!

The event and sales will occur at Housing Works’ Bookstore Café & Bar as well as their SoHo and Gramercy thrift shops (at 130 Crosby Street and 157 East 23 Street, respectively).

For more information, log on to:http://bit.ly/38v2aln For tickets, visit http://bit.ly/2OfZp0w.

APRIL 2021 •

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POETRY 48

Reaching Past Silence

I

t was the summer we had to be smaller than towns where boys with pretty smiles get their teeth knocked out.

To be blood brothers we rub our cuts together.

Where does rubbed blood lie?

How many of us are there now?

Are you my blood?

A new life, another cut.

I grow woozy at the prescience; my mother’s bible, the pulsing vein in your dad’s temple, our limp wrists an inadequate defense for the plague.

The cancer from above must be righteous, to them.

It’s no secret that we hide under our skin, and then you see it.

A stop sign, a fire truck, a warning, it blooms like roses on the pavement.

They commemorate us, now that you’re buried.

Does a moment of silence reach the silenced?

They won’t see what they haven’t witnessed, can’t commiserate unmentioned kisses.

My unintended sorrow never escapes your lost eyes.

These lesions are still pitted with wishes you left in the sky.

Blood brothers never needed a ruling, or witnesses, or absolution, or thanks.

Our friends, since passed, already are our saints.

—Joe Babcock

Joe Babcock’s poetry has appeared in MockingHeart Review and The Night Heron Barks. He is the author of two novels, The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers, and The Boys and the Bees. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his husband, Dan Freeman, and their dog, Lucky, a.k.a. Little Missy.

• APRIL 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

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