{"id":58486,"date":"2017-12-01T20:20:24","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T01:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/love-letters-and-hate-mail-to-world-aids-day\/"},"modified":"2017-12-01T20:20:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T01:20:24","slug":"love-letters-and-hate-mail-to-world-aids-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/love-letters-and-hate-mail-to-world-aids-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Love letters and Hate Mail To World AIDS Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love letters and Hate Mail To World AIDS Day<\/b>
\n\"World<\/p>\n

\n

\"world<\/a><\/p>\n

Leo and I wrote two very different posts on the same day, World AIDS Day two years ago that went in very different directions. Both were true and relevant though somewhat diametrically opposed indicating another pivot point in this supermarathon trek. Things are looking up for those with resources at least with some headway being made across the board. Enjoy what you have and we love you all. \u2013MG<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Today I Hail you Boogeyman.<\/h2>\n
\n

Dear AIDS,<\/p>\n

Today I Hail you Boogeyman.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019ll remember the first time your acronym tied itself to my Gay Identity before I could even fully develop it. Today I remember the many names you\u2019ve had: Saint\u2019s Disease, Gay Cancer, GRIDS, House in Venice, Gift.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019ll admire how elegantly you use silence to multiply, how neglect is your breeding ground. I\u2019ll think back on the cocktail parties and potential romances that were ground to a screeching halt with the mere mention of your name. I\u2019ll wonder how, after 30 years, the fear of you still has no name. No single word to describe the panic of a broken condom, the uneasiness of a regular flu, the sweaty palms of an HIV test. All while you changed our language, even added a few words. You made \u201cnatural sex<\/a>\u201d into \u201cunsafe sex<\/a>\u201d, anyone wanting to have it into a \u201cslut,\u201d you boiled entire people down to \u201c-\u201d or \u201c+\u201d signs.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019m in awe that the damage you can do to a body does not compare to what you can do to someone\u2019s self-worth. Today I\u2019ll recall the suicidal binges and sexual outbursts that followed the seroconversions of my brothers. Today I\u2019ll even admit that you and Meth still have really great thing going. I didn\u2019t think it would last but you guys<\/a> still dance really, really well together.\"world<\/a><\/p>\n

Today I\u2019ll lament on the spaces you closed, the bathhouses, bars and backrooms that shut their doors in a cloud of bleach. All the books, paintings, films and speeches that were never created and the advice from older men<\/a> that my generation so desperately needs but will never get.<\/p>\n

AIDS Day: one day EVERY little queer will know a lifetime without you.<\/h4>\n

Today I\u2019ll even laugh at the blue balls you gave me in my 20\u2019s and the terrible biohazard tramp stamp tattoos you made cool for a while.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019ll give you the recognition you deserve in the way that other cultures have respected their own holocausts, genocides, plagues and natural disasters.<\/p>\n

But Virus, you get one day from me.<\/p>\n

My other 364 days are dedicated to fucking<\/a> you up. To talking, asking, risking all of it with my community, to doing everything in our power so that one day EVERY little queer will know a lifetime without you.<\/p>\n

Enjoy your big day,<\/p>\n

-Leo Herrera\u00a0#<\/span>WorldAIDSDay<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a02015
(Originally published by the author on Facebook)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

#<\/span>hfad<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Happy Fuckin\u2019 AIDS Day.<\/h2>\n

And, no apologies for this one\u2026<\/p>\n

\"oneI\u2019ve hated AIDS for killing my friends and decimating the generations of gay<\/a> men<\/a> ahead of me. We shouldn\u2019t have had to care for, and lose so many.<\/p>\n

But beyond that, I really never wanted AIDS to also become \u2026a metaphor; a long-term profit center for drug companies; a chronic manageable illness; a battle of condoms vs. meds; a battle of stigma vs. sexual liberation; another way to criminalize my sexuality; a symbolic art-covering holiday; something we need to explain to young people; a political litmus test or positioning point;<\/p>\n

\u2026. breath\u2026<\/p>\n

\"oneanother way to discriminate against people with less access and those living in poverty; a rampant global epidemic; the reason my generation of gay<\/a> men<\/a> is even more damaged when it comes to sex<\/a> and intimacy; a platform for building a career, \u201cpersonal brand\u201d, or creative relevancy; a way for consumer goods and entertainers to disingenerously (my word) show faux compassion; or for it tounite\/divide\/define\/torture my gay<\/a> and lesbian<\/a> brothers and sisters for decades while those in power\u2013and in science\u2013made fun and used our lives to advance cynical agendas. (www.vanityfair.com\/\u2026\/reagan-administration-response-\u2026<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Sure some things have changed, but the costs have been too high. It\u2019s all taken too long. Negligence and callous disregard have allowed AIDS to spread out of control. Happy AIDS Day.<\/p>\n

I wish i had been able to spend all that time over the last decades\u2013the energy, emotion, worry, anxiety, fear, empathy, and mental cycling\u2013on other things.<\/p>\n

I wish I didn\u2019t have to say that being an AIDS activist and advocate is one of a few places I\u2019ve found real meaning in my life.<\/p>\n

Everything doesn\u2019t happen for a reason.<\/p>\n

Anything good that someone would like to put a happy face on \u2013or a \u201cspiritual\u201d one \u2014 and claim is the result of AIDS and the mobilization against it, I\u2019d gladly trade back.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not\u00a0#<\/span>grateful<\/span><\/span><\/a>, nor do I feel\u00a0#<\/span>blessed<\/span><\/span><\/a>, about any of it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an excellent punchline, but you can\u2019t really make \u201clemonAIDS\u201d.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t have to go this way. And I will never forgive those who let it.<\/p>\n

No. I just wish it hadn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n

Happy Fuckin\u2019 AIDS Day.<\/p>\n

\u2013Michael Goff, #WorldAIDSDay<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/strong>2015
(Originally published as a Facebook post)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"AIDS<\/p>\n

This picture from 22 years ago with\u00a0Spencer Squeaky Cox<\/a>\u00a0and ACT UP at the March on Washington in 1993. (Thanks\u00a0Thomas M. Keane<\/a>\u00a0for one of the few photos I have of that time)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post Love letters and Hate Mail To World AIDS Day<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"
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Love letters and Hate Mail To World AIDS Day<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n