Michelangelo Signorile: The First Generation of AIDS

 

 

There are two kinds of survivors from the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980's. Those that contacted the disease and successfully are living with HIV/AIDS and those caretakers who cared for and buried dozens upon dozens of our friends.

Either way, together, the HIV/AIDS community went through and unbelievable deadly epidemic that nearly wiped out a generation of the gay men's community.

Michelangelo Signorile has written an extraordinary column about those early days:

It was a rainy day in Central Park in the summer of '92 when we attempted to send Michael Santulli's ashes aloft over Strawberry Fields in white, helium-filled balloons. It was one of those requests that Michael hadn't thought through in those hazy, painful last days of his life, and someone probably should have talked him out of it before he died. (That couldn't be me, because I wasn't there, for reasons I'll explain.) But now we had to do it. The balloons were weighted from the ashes and further depressed by the rain. They were often sputtering as we tried to fill them with helium, with clouds of ash going off in all directions. I finally got a balloon filled with both ashes and helium, and then, just as I was about to let it go up, it burst in my face. I had ashes all over my forehead and nose, and I felt a sharp, terrible pain: A bone fragment was in my left eye.

Michael was getting me back, I thought to myself, letting out a chuckle -- because, if you knew Michael, this was in line with the direct way he let you know what he was thinking. I'd neglected him, running away as he wasted away, his body ravaged in the horrific way that AIDS takes its course. Pia and Jay had nursed him, bathed him, there until the end. But I was too busy with the work of AIDS activism, or at least that's what I told myself, to be there as he faced death at the age of 32.

We'd been inseparable friends as college roommates at Syracuse and later as roommates in Manhattan. He turned me on to Nina Hagen and Lene Lovich and taught me much about music, art and fashion. As I was a publicist-turned-nightlife-columnist at the time, I took him to the hippest parties at Area and Danceteria and the other New York clubs, both of us dressed in the hip downtown black outfits that we often threw together from nothing.

In 1987, as the AIDS epidemic reached down deeper into younger gay men, we went together to be tested for HIV. Michael tested positive, and we both cried for an entire day. He responded to it by immersing himself deeper in clubbing and partying. I immersed myself in AIDS activism, as did thousands of others, positive and negative. I joined ACT UP in New York and used my media and publicity skills, eventually chairing the group's media committee, helping publicize protests and expose government neglect in the media.

My life, such as it was -- my career, many of my relationships -- fell apart. My family ties frayed, as everything became about AIDS and ACT UP. I believed our lives were over, no matter our individual HIV statuses. Our community was under siege. Right-wingers in Reagan-Bush America were talking about quarantine and tattoos. It was a go-for-broke moment. I co-founded OutWeek magazine, where I loudly criticized public figures who were gay and powerful but closeted, calling them out for hiding when so many of us needed them. I came under a lot of withering attack in the media, but none of it deterred me. As far as I was concerned, it was the end the world -- our world -- and I was going to go down kicking and screaming.

But looking back, it was also escapism itself, and in one sense it was similar to Michael's clubbing and partying. I was escaping the epidemic by immersing myself in the politics and urgency of it, which seems paradoxical but really does make a lot of sense. I didn't have time for sickbeds or funerals, I told myself, because I had a government scandal to expose or a protest to publicize or a powerful closet case to rail against. I gave myself a special dispensation on grief and heartbreak. There was no time for grief, especially when anger and indignation was so much more empowering. Of course, what I'm painfully learning 25 years later is that you can put grief off, but you can't ever escape it. Unless you process it, unless you deal with it, it haunts you for the rest of your life.

READ THE ENTIRE COLUMN HERE>>>>>

Governor Christie's Health

 

 

 

People say you never understand a person until you have walked in their shoes.

Last May I had a gastric bypass and have known for the first time in years reasonably good health, energy and the resulting happiness. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner given years of diets, painful barbs and the look of concern on the faces that loved me.

Governor Christie has had the band procedure in an effort to return to a long life and good health. Immediately political commentators took it as 'the sign' that he is running for President. While I have no idea if he desires to run for President or not, I do know that is not the reason he had the procedure.

Why did he do it?

First and foremost for his wife and children. When you are obese you are reminded in so many ways of not only their concern but the restrictions that obesity puts on you for being fully part of their lives. The Governor is 50 and he has young children and he wants to be healthy and around to celebrate their achievements.

Second, the cruelty of the world that freely permits and laughs at the constant jokes and mean barbs directed at fat people. His political foes and comedians would never think about joking about someone dying of cancer but they simply have no problem bullying people who suffer from the disease of obesity.

Third, he had the procedure for himself. In many ways, since I had the bypass my self-esteem is better, the simple joy of fitting in a seat and not asking for a seat belt extension and the ability to have energy to seize the day is pure joy.

The fact of the matter is that medicine has finally found a solution to severe obesity and it is the band and bypass. While not perfect and you always have to be vigilant to maintain the weight you loss, it is a gift to those who are obese from science.

Wishing Governor Christie the very best in his journey and hoping beyond hope that he is successful in it. For political observers, it is simple a private matter and has no bearing on the his political decisions. Trust me, I have walked in his shoes.

Hell's Kitchen Journal: The Importance Of Being Corey

 

 

Former State Senator Thomas Duane and Candidate Corey Johnson

Ever have one of those days where unexpectedly a friend makes you extremely proud of them?

My dear friend Corey Johnson, who is running for New York City Council, gave me one of them this week. Corey has been an icon in the LGBT community since he came out to his high school football team in 2000.

Since then he has distinguished himself and those around him by his devoted work on behalf of full equality for LGBT Americans. He has been relentless in determination in this effort and pity the poor homophobic soul who met him in person. Corey does not tolerate fools easily.

When New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn decided to run for Mayor, Corey announced that he would seek her seat. Amazing political observers he raised all the money allowed for the race in record time! As a result of this achievement, his devoted allies and considerable political skills, Corey has been able to keep any serious competition out of the race.

Corey came out this week for the second time.

Known to most of his close friends was the fact that he was HIV positive. However this information has not been public knowledge. He tested positive nine years ago. In a New York Times article by Gina Bellafante:

I met Mr. Johnson one afternoon last week on the 12th anniversary of his move to New York, where he has pursued gay and community advocacy and made many friends, one of them former State Senator Thomas K. Duane, a particularly avuncular man who laughs robustly and cries easily. Under his tutelage, Mr. Johnson has learned a lot about politics and more about life, enough so that now, at 31, he is running for Mr. Duane’s former City Council seat.

Mr. Duane famously won the district that covers much of Manhattan’s West Side below 59th Street (currently represented by the mayoral candidate Christine C. Quinn) in 1991, during the height of the city’s AIDS panic, as one of the first openly H.I.V. positive political candidates in the country. Lending his friend his valuable endorsement, Mr. Duane told me he phoned Mr. Johnson not long ago to talk about the campaign, asking him first, “How are we going to handle your H.I.V. status? Have you told your mother?”

Mr. Johnson was diagnosed during a routine physical exam nine years ago, a revelation that shocked him, he said while seated across a desk from his mentor in Mr. Duane’s Midtown office.

In a sign of how much has changed over the past two decades, Mr. Johnson had not given much thought to his condition in the context of the Council race; in a sign of how little the emotional climate around the disease has altered, Mr. Johnson had not, as it happened, told his mother. “And I’m very, very, very close to my mother,” he said. (His father died of cancer last summer, a day before his paternal grandmother passed away.)

Similarly, Mr. Duane had forestalled telling his own family that he was H.I.V. positive until his nascent political career forced him to do it. “My mother said, ‘Don’t tell anybody,’ and I said, ‘I’m going to tell everybody,’ ” Mr. Duane recounted.

The conventional wisdom around H.I.V. and AIDS is that it is largely a disease of poverty, having migrated away from hubs of affluent gay life in New York to linger in places like central Brooklyn, the South Bronx and Harlem. This is both truth and obfuscation.

According to city statistics, the combined neighborhoods of Chelsea and Clinton have the highest per capita rate of new H.I.V. diagnoses in the city, and also the highest rate of people living with H.I.V. and AIDS. Mr. Johnson said that in his own Council district, which includes Chelsea, where he lives, he has watched the number of H.I.V. cases grow in recent years

When former Senator Tom Duane came out as a candidate who happened to be HIV positive in 1991 it was a major news story across the country. He broke down a barrier and gave HIV Americans new hope. Personally, I have had such awe and admiration for Senator Duane for his courage.

Corey's declaration of his HIV status will hopefully help end the closet that has developed around HIV. With new meds, it is possible to be HIV Positive and in the closet. If you think you don't know anyone with HIV/AIDS, then you are less likely to do battle against the disease. The more people that 'come out' with their status the better the odds of defeating this horrible epidemic.

Unlike Duane's announcement in 1991, Corey's will not send shockwave's across the country. What it will do is make it acceptable to come out of the closet with HIV/AIDS and help bring this ugly health crisis to a quicker end. Really very proud, Corey, to be your friend and thank you for sharing!

Scientists Deeply Concerned About Deadly Virus That Is Spreading In China!

 

 

 

The Denver Post is reporting that their is deep concern in the scientific community about a very deadly new strain of virus (Bird Flu) that appears to easily transfer from birds to humans.

It is one of the most deadly strains seen in decades. So far the ability of the new strain of Avian Flu has not mutated so it can spread easily from human to human.

However, the World Health Organization is watching it closely for signs of a global pandemic. In China, 20% of the people who have contacted the new H7N9 virus have died.

The Denver Post reports that Dr. Keiji Fukuda said, "This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far"

Salon.com is reporting that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has issued 'interim guidance' to prepare for a possible outbreak. They made clear that currently there is no vaccine for the new strain.

The CDC said that because H7N9 is 'novel' the threat of an international pandemic remains 'high' should the disease be able to spread from human to human.

John Aravosis's Exclusive Interview With Daughter Of Handcuffed Man Drag From Husband's Bedside

 

 

Roger and Allen

One of the most appalling and shocking examples of discrimination against LGBT Americans took place in a Missouri hospital this week. When the family of a sick man showed up they demanded that his husband of five years be removed from the room. The man's husband had the 'power of attorney' but nevertheless was ordered to leave. He refused and they handcuffed him and forcibly removed him from the hospital.

Journalist John Aravosis of AmericaBlog obtained an exclusive interview with the daughter, Amanda Brown,  of the husband, Roger Gorley, who was handcuffed and dragged from the room. Here is her description of the incident.

I just spoke with Amanda Brown, 26, the daughter of Roger Gorley, who was handcuffed and dragged away from the bed of his husband, Allen Mansell, at the Research Medical Center in Lee’s Summit, Missouri on Tuesday.

Amanda, who was in the hospital room when her father, Roger, was taken away by the police, directly contradicts the hospital’s claim that Roger needed to be removed because he was “disruptive.”

She also accuses the police of wearing gloves, and worrying that her father had AIDS, simply because he was gay.

Hospital says gay husband was “disruptive and belligerent”

“This was an issue of disruptive and belligerent behavior by the visitor that affected patient care,” the hospital alleged in a statement released Thursday afternoon, after the story had gained national attention. In addition to intense media scrutiny and anger in the gay community, federal officials are now also investigating.

The incident happened Tuesday around 4pm, central time.

According to Amanda, her father Roger had every reason to be disruptive at his husband’s hospital bedside – his authority as Allen’s spouse, and thus the person in charge of Allen’s medical decisions, were Allen unable to make them himself, was being challenged by Allen’s brother, Lee, in the presence of a nurse.

Roger has Allen’s medical power of attorney, so there should have been no question as to who was legally responsible for care decisions.

Nurse allegedly knew the parties, yet did nothing to confirm Roger had medical power of attorney

What’s more, the nurse, according to daughter Amanda, knew Roger and Allen. Amanda say the nurse must have known that Roger was Allen’s designated representative, as they had been to the hospital many times before, and had been treated by the same nurse.

“The nurse knew who my father was, she knew who Allen was,” Amanda told me by phone. “She had treated Allen before, and dad had been there before, dad had signed off on medical treatments before. She should have had all the information on file.”

Amanda says that the nurse had her father removed because of the loud disagreement her father was having with his partner’s brother, Lee, who had arrived at the hospital room at the same time as her father.

Rather than intervene and inform the brother that Roger was in fact the designated representative of his gay partner, the nurse had Roger removed. This, in spite of Allen reportedly saying from his hospital bed that he wanted his husband to stay in the room with him.

“Allen said he wanted dad in the room,” Amanda told me. “He said ‘I want him here’” as the nurse was asking Roger to leave.

When I asked Amanda if the nurse was possibly not aware of what the fight was about, Amanda responded: “She knew what was going on.”

CONTINUE WITH ENTIRE INTERVIEW BY CLICKING HERE.......

Crystal Meth Epidemic Stabilizes But Still Haunts Gay Men

 

 

The campaign against the epidemic of crystal meth use in the gay male community has had an impact. Of those in the gay community who have used drugs, one in four of that sub-group had used meth. That is down from a high of 50% in 2002. While those figures are high one has to be careful since it is not 25% of the entire gay male community but just those who have indicated they have used drugs.

The meth epidemic in the gay male community has taken a high toll over the years. The very addictive drug which supposedly increases and prolongs sexual pleasure has led to suicides, disruptions of relationships, loss of jobs and homelessness. A campaign has been taken place to lower the use and it appears to have been effective in diminishing the impact of the dangerous drug.

Edge On The Net reports:

According to Mike Rizza, a substance abuse counselor and manager of meth recovery services at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, his organization’s support groups and outpatient program for meth users are at capacity.

"We are still seeing really productive young men who get caught up in this drug dismantle their lives," said Rizza. "No one ever starts out using this drug with the intent that within two to three years their life is not going to resemble what it looked like the day they started."

Long-term meth use has many negative health consequences, including permanent brain damage and death. Users often become so obsessed with meth that they are unable to maintain employment and become financially crippled by the drug.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advices that a growing body of research supports the relationship between meth use by gay men and an increase in behaviors -- sexual and those related to injection drug use -- that can put the user at risk for HIV infection.

John McLauglin, a recovering meth user whose real-life story inspired the making of "Meth Head," struggled with meth for years before breaking free of the drug’s notoriously tight grip.

"I was living in West Hollywood, California, and partied on the weekend, as so many of us did. And, like the story has been told so many times, [my meth use on] Saturday through Sunday lead to Friday through Monday, which lead to Thursday through Tuesday, which lead to losing my job, losing my lover and losing my home," recalled McLauglin. "I was very lucky that I was able to make a phone call and get help."

New York’s GMHC has not seen an increase in the overall number of people who are actively using crystal meth. But Jeff Rindler, GMHC’s managing director for Program Services and Evaluation, said, "[GMHC] is seeing an increase of people who come to us while crashing from crystal meth and are in immediate need of mental health counseling. Often this is combined with extreme hunger from not eating for days, and they may be facing eviction due to all their money being spent on crystal meth and other drugs. There are times when GMHC feels like an emergency room."

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