Plus 132 September October

BECAUSE YOU’RE MORE THAN YOUR STATUS

MAHAWAM EXPLORES THE TRAUMA AND JOY AT THE INTERSECTION OF BLACK QUEER IDENTITY

TALKING HIV WITH A GAY ASYLUM SEEKER WITH A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WITH THE MAN BEHIND DESIGNATED SURVIVOR

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 www.hivplusmag.com

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IN THIS ISSUE SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019

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ON THE COVER 18 THE MAHAWAM MANIFESTO Hip-hop artist Mahawam discusses the joy and pain that comes with being Black, queer, and poz.

28 MARIANNE FAITHFUL HIV activist and founder of Project Angel Food, Marianne Williamson speaks about her 2020 presidential candidacy.

32 NOT-SO-SAFE SHORES Is the White House and endless red tape keeping HIV-positive and LGBTQ asylum seekers from safety in the U.S.?

38 SURVIVAL STORIES TV writer and producer Neal Baer continues to offer characters living with HIV on Netflix's Designated Survivor.

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38 47

6 BUZZWORTHY

6 PREP FOR THE MASSES Chicago's PrEP4Love campaign reaches millions and inspires real change.

8 HERO WORSHIP This art tome honors the beautiful souls lost to the AIDS epidemic.

10 LEADERS FOR THE CAUSE NMAC announces its Gay Men of Color Fellows of Biomedical HIV Prevention.

TREATMENT 42 INVISIBLE WOMEN Can a cure be found if we ignore half of those living with HIV? 43 MOUSE TRAP Rodent HIV research just may be the key to a functional cure.

44 HEART HELP A new drug can help keep poz people's hearts healthy.

45 JUST THE FACTS, DOC Are doctors telling their patients about U=U?

DAILY DOSE 14 BETTER THAN 'OK' Is internalized stigma preventing you from being your best self?

I AM THE FIRST 26 BROADWAY OR BUST HIV didn't derail Hernando Umana's Broadway dreams.

BACKTALK COVER (AND LEFT): Hip-hop artist Mahawam photographed by Guerrilla Davis.

ABOVE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP): TV writer Neal Baer (courtesy Baer); leatherman Jack Thompson (photo by Mark S. King); PrEP4Love ad (by AIDS Foundation of Chicago).

47 THE MARVELOUS MR. LEATHER Meet the first poz, trans, queer winner of color.

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editor in chief DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL • evp, group publisher GREG BROSSIA

creative director RAINE BASCOS deputy editor JACOB ANDERSON-MINSHALL editor at large TYLER CURRY managing editor DAVID ARTAVIA associate editor DESIRÉE GUERRERO assistant to the editor DONALD PADGETT contributing editors KHAFRE ABIF, DIMITRI MOISE, MARK S. KING, ZACHARY ZANE mental health editor GARY MCCLAIN contributing writers JAY BLOTCHER, GERALD GARTH, JEANNIE WRAIGHT interactive art director CHRISTOPHER HARRITY front end developer MAYRA URRUTIA manager, digital media LAURA VILLELA assistant vp, integrated sales STUART BROCKINGTON executive director, integrated sales EZRA ALVAREZ senior director, ad operations STEWART NACHT manager, ad operations TIFFANY KESDEN senior coordinator MICHAEL TIGHE designer, branded partnerships MICHAEL LOMBARDO director, branded partnerships JAMIE TREDWELL associate directors, branded partnerships ERIC JAMES, MICHAEL RIGGIO senior manager, branded partnership TIM SNOW editor, social media DANIEL REYNOLDS branded content writer IAN MARTELLA director of circulation ARGUS GALINDO office manager HEIDI MEDINA print production director JOHN LEWIS

PRIDE MEDIA chief executive officer ORLANDO REECE chief finance officer JANELLE MITCHELL evp, advertising and branded partnerships GREG BROSSIA corporate executive vice president BERNARD ROOK vice president ERIC BUI human resources ANTIOUSE BOARDRAYE ADVERTISING & SUBSCRIPTIONS Phone (212) 242-8100 • Advertising Fax (212) 242-8338 Subscriptions Fax (212) 242-8338 LOS ANGELES EDITORIAL Phone (310) 806-4288 • Fax (310) 806-4268 • Email editor@HIVPlusMag.com SOUTHWEST EDITORIAL OFFICES Retrograde Communications • Phone (951) 927-8727 Email editor@HIVPlusMag.com FREE BULK SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR YOUR OFFICE OR GROUP Any organization, community-based group, pharmacy, physicians’ office, support group, or other agency can request bulk copies for free distribution at your office, meeting, or facility. To subscribe, visit HIVPlusMag.com/signup.

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Plus (ISSN 1522-3086) is published bimonthly by Pride Publishing Inc. Plus is a registered trademark of Pride Publishing Inc. Entire contents © 2019 by Pride Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Unless otherwise noted, all stock images are of posed models.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

LUKE FONTANA (ANDERSON-MINSHALL); GUERRILLA DAVIS (MAHAWAM)

T H E R E WA S A movie in 1990 that has

stayed with me since I saw it. Directed by Norman René and written by Craig Lucas, Longtime Companion was the first widerelease, mainstream film to deal with AIDS. I was a part of ACT UP/Los Angeles at the time— marching, protesting, and shouting about the need for everything (medication, research, the end to threats of HIV quarantines). I already had friends dying around me, many fellow 20-year-olds.

That René and Lucas are both gay men added to the authenticity of the film, and the actors (and future stars) who populated it (Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, Mary-Louise Parker, Tony Shalhoub, Dermot Mulroney, and Dan Butler) had me in tears often.

There’s a scene where actor Mark Lamos, as Sean, has seen his AIDS complications reduce him to agonizing pain, inability to control his bodily functions, and near catatonia. His husband (or “longtime companion,” as The New York Times would call gay partners then) sits by his side and tells him it’s OK to let go. And he does.

I had a similar conversation about letting go with my father. He died shortly afterward.

While he didn’t have AIDS, the experience reminded me of how grief and trauma stay with you, long after the moment has passed.

That’s what it’s like to be a gay man over 50 these days. The trauma is there, but sometimes we forget, especially the older activists among us who worry that “kids these days” just don’t

get it, that many young people—especially in the African-American and Latinx communities—are actually experiencing both the residual of AIDSrelated deaths among older family members (an uncle, a mother) and the escalating rates of transmission between people their age (especially gay and bi men and transgender women).

That’s the intersection where our cover star, hip-hop star Mahawam, resides. A Black, queer, gender-nonconforming rapper and multiinstrumentalist, Mahawam has a new album, Is an Island, that addresses the rage and grief he felt upon getting a positive HIV diagnosis. The lyrics are depressing, self-destructive, and frenetic. It was, for him, a time of withdrawal from friends, social occasions, and himself.

We all know that HIV is no longer a death sentence, but to deny that some people still experience it that way—due to fear, stigma, history, and lack of access—is to miss what happens to young Black men today.

The ability to get and stay on treatment, to get to undetectable within weeks, to never transmit the virus and live a normal, healthy life isn’t something you can take for granted if you are a working class person of color in the U.S., much less in a different country (read our feature on HIV-positive asylum seekers from Africa on page 32). If you’re a working class, Black or brown woman with HIV, you know this well too: you may dream of affording the “self-care” everyone recommends for you (massages, acupuncture, vacation) but struggle to pay the rent and buy the kids’ school lunches, much less fork over $50 to feel good for an afternoon.

I’m relieved that my friends who lived are now healthy long-term survivors. I’m thrilled that PrEP uptake has risen almost 500 percent, scientists now universally agree that treatment can make you undetectable (and unable to transmit the virus), and that new research has us closer than ever to a vaccine and a functional cure.

But let’s not forget that while most people today won’t ever see their diagnosis devolve into stage three HIV (formerly known as AIDS), some untreated folks will. Without treatment, AIDS can progress quickly, much like it did in those early years.

That’s why we need to make sure that treatment and PrEP are both accessible and affordable to those invincible teens and 20-somethings of today.

Hip-hop star Mahawam speaks to Plus about owning his Blackness, queerness, and HIV diagnosis in music.

DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITOR@HIVPLUSMAG.COM

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BUZZWORTHY

PREPPING 4 LOVE REALLY WORKS A new study shows Chicago’s HIV prevention campaign, which racked up 41 million views, is reaching those who need it most.

BY DESIRÉE GUERRERO

THREE YEARS AGO, the Illinois PrEP Working Group (then called the Chicago PrEP Working Group) launched PrEP4Love, a sex-positive social marketing campaign designed to increase awareness of PrEP, an HIV prevention strategy, and Truvada, the only medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as PrEP, throughout Chicago.

The public education campaign featured print ads—with photos of Chicagoans who are most vulnerable to contracting HIV, particularly young Black gay and bisexual men as well as trans and cis women of color—and pop-up events around the city.

Now, a study by the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination at the University of Chicago reveals that the #PrEP4Love social marketing campaign generated roughly 41 million unique views across various social media platforms within four months of its launch.

“With these astounding numbers… we know the social marketing elements, pop-up events, ads, and messaging clearly resonated,” John Peller, president of the AIDS Foundation Chicago, said in a statement. “We still have much progress to make, however, and must continue to find innovative ways to increase PrEP awareness and access in the communities most impacted by HIV.” Dr. John Schneider from University of Chicago noted that the study on PrEP4Love was the first on a “sex-

RIGHT: Chad and Elijah OPPOSITE PAGE: Beverly and Diahnte

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AIDS FOUNDATION OF CHICAGO (BOTH PAGES)

positive PrEP public health campaign that is affirming to young, same gender-loving men, transgender women, and cisgender women; and is inclusive of their sexual orientations. Overall, the campaign reached millions of individuals, with substantial numbers receiving continuous education through multiple modalities including online, phone, and print. More studies are needed to examine this type of campaign in other contexts and to determine how to sustain its impact in the United States and abroad.�

The study also concluded that grassroots-organized social movements promoting health equity can successfully sidestep the increasing power of commercial and market interests in shaping public health interventions.

The PrEP4Love campaign was made possible by pro bono and volunteer services from four creative agencies: Leo Burnett, Starcom, Spark, and Razorfish; a grant from the Alphawood Foundation, and individual contributions.

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buzzworthy

CELEBRATING A GENERATION OF ARTISTS LOST

IN THE COFFEE table book soon, but immortalizes Heroes: A Tribute, author their work and Meyer’s for and artist Doug Meyer pays generations to come. homage by way of portraiture The sumptuous book also to some of the first casualties includes archival photos of AIDS complications.These and pages from Meyer’s brilliant creative figures DOUG MEYER’S HEROES: A TRIBUTE IS AN notebooks—in which mixed HOMAGE TO 50 CREATIVES LOST TO AIDS. media studies of his subjects include Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, Rudolf Nureyev, explode off the page, literally

BY CHRISTOPHER HARRITY Freddie Mercury, Rock breaking the boundaries Hudson, John Duka, Tina Chow, Klaus Nomi, Halston, of the notebook with inspirational photos and fabrics David Wojnarowicz, and Angelo Donghia—people whose overhanging the pages. The colorful studies often include contributions may be unknown to a younger generation. art deco neon shades that evoke the 1980s, the era in Photographs of Meyer’s representations—busts, collages, which the AIDS epidemic stole so many creative lives. and mixed media sculptures that appeared in a traveling “I find it so sad and horrifying that these 50 heroes exhibition—are printed on cardstock of various colors. seem to have fallen out of contemporary cultural “I employed everything I could muster up, including memory,” Meyer says. “My intent for both the Heroes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography—all combined project and this book is to expose a younger generation in various forms to create works that were uniquely to these heroes whose contributions, talent, and even different—to give the appearance that each object was existence have been forgotten or perhaps nearly lost in made by different hands,” Meyer says now, explaining his today’s digital world.” choice to blend techniques to create his 3-D art pieces Heroes: A Tribute is now available worldwide, including and uniquely represent each of the 50 heroes. on Amazon and Tra Publishing (TraPublishing.com), This gorgeous feast for the eyes and soul not where you can also find special collector’s and art only honors the creative geniuses who died too editions of the book worth the money.

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Doug Meyer blurs the lines between art and literature with Heroes: A Tribute.

The goregous tome, which pays homage to 50 creatives lost during the AIDS epidemic, is an art lover’s dream, beautifully weaving together biography, Meyer’s colorful 3-D portraits, and collaged pages. Among those featured are, as seen below, Vincent and Xavier Fourcade, Freddie Mercury, and Klaus Nomi.

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buzzworthy

DREAM TEAM eople of color experience disproportionately higher rates of HIV than the general population, due to complicated barriers like poverty, exclusion, racism, and other socio-economic factors. But NMAC has come up with a proposed solution by supporting local community leaders.

NMAC believes the best way to confront the issues around race and HIV within at-risk communities is to work through existing networks to coordinate a targeted response. One of NMAC’s programs along these lines is the Gay Men of Color Fellowship in Biomedical HIV Prevention, which is training 20 local educators and advocates about HIV prevention tools like PrEP, PEP, Treatment as Prevention (TasP), and U=U. Selected from the 48 counties specifically targeted as having the highest rates of transmission by the federal plan to end HIV, NMAC’s fellows are participating in a rigorous program that includes training at the 2019 United States Conference on AIDS, the 2019 Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit, and multiple educational video conferences.

Upon completing their training, the 20 fellows will use the knowledge gained to provide further training in their communities. Meet them here: 10

COURTESY NMAC

Gay men of color receive training to empower prevention within their communities.

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WORKING MEN (Left): Recipients of NMAC’s Gay Men of Color Fellowship in Biomedical HIV Prevention

Adrian Aguilar, McAllen, Texas Aguilar in an activist and local organizer who currently works with the Valley AIDS Council as a risk reduction specialist.

Jimmy Quach, San Francisco County Quach is a prevention project coordinator for Project Ohana in the Bay, a workshop program with Asian American Recovery Services.

Brandon Harrison, Los Angeles County Harrison is a project manager and trainer at the Primary Care Development Corp., providing training and technical assistance to organizations across the country.

Jorian Veintidos, Philadelphia County Veintidos is a Philadelphia native and activist who has worked with the Gran Varones storytelling project.

Bryon Buck, MPH, Jackson, Miss.

Buck is a researcher at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s School of Medicine, where he works on HIV and STI prevention while also continuing his education.

Charles (Jah’Mar) Pettiford, Nashville, Tenn.

Pettiford is a prevention coordinator at the Meharry Medical College and a national ambassador for the Greater Than AIDS campaign.

José Ramon Garcia Madrid, Maricopa County, Ariz.

Madrid is a native Mexican and activist committed to enabling Black, Latinx, and indigenous empowerment within the LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming communities.

José A. Romero, Durham, N.C. Romero is the director of encuentro for the inaugural Southern Gathering for the Latino Commission on AIDS.

Denovan Mejia, Queens County, N.Y. Mejia is a native Honduran and program manager for the Latino Commission on AIDS/ Oasis Latino LGBTS Wellness Center.

Kekoa Kealoha, Kailua Kona, Hawaii Kealoha is a native Hawaiian and activist who serves in a variety of positions, including PrEP navigator for the Hawai’i HIV/AIDS Foundation and a member of NMAC’s Native Hawaiian Constituent Advisory Panel.

Dustin B. Baker, Los Angeles County Baker has worked as the capacity building program coordinator at NMAC, providing technical assistance to local and regional nonprofits.

Mark Anthony Hughes, Marion County, Ind. Hughes has been living with HIV since 1995 and currently works as the Many Men Many Voices (3MV) prevention coordinator at Brothers United.

Frank Julca, New York City Julca is a Peruvian-born sexual health counselor who is currently working as an HIV counseling, testing, and referral specialist at the Latino Commission on AIDS.

Mike Gutierrez, Cook County, Ill. Gutierrez works to amplify marginalized voices as a counselor, crisis intervention specialist, medical advocate, and Ryan White Part C medical case manager.

Gabriel (Gabe) Bautista, Honolulu Bautista is a men who have sex with men (MSM) outreach worker for the Hawai’i Health and Harm Reduction Center.

Percival Pandy, Los Angeles County Pandy is a native of Southern California, where he is a program supervisor for south Los Angeles at the L.A. LGBT Center.

Gjvar Payne, East Baton Rouge Parish, La. Payne is chairman of the Baton Rouge TGA Ryan White Advisory Council and works as a patient health navigator at the Capitol Area Reentry Program.

Steven Tamayo, Travis County, Texas Tamayo has worked in HIV prevention with The Q Austin and most recently with Texas Health Action’s Kind Clinic.

Harlan Pruden, British Columbia Pruden is a First Nation Cree, two-spirit activist, Ph.D student, educator, and managing editor of TwoSpiritJournal.com.

Wally Soto, San Juan Municipio, Puerto Rico Soto is a psychologist and tattoo artist who oversees testing for HIV and care linkage with various local providers and organizations.

—DONALD PADGETT

HIVPLUSMAG.COM

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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.

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. 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.

ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. 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,

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.

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.

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

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

} Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-

GET MORE INFORMATION

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.

Get HIV support by downloading a free app at

MyDailyCharge.com

BVYC0102_BIKTARVY_A_7-875x10-5_Plus_KeepEmpowering_r1v1jl.indd All Pages 18927 Biktarvy Plus 132 Keep empowering.indd 2

} 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, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP EMPOWERING, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. Version date: December 2018 © 2019 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0102 01/19

7/12/19 11:01 AM

KEEP EMPOWERING. 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.

To learn more, visit BIKTARVY.com.

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

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D A I LY D O S E

BY TYLER CURRY

HOW WE REALLY END HIV SHUTTERSTOCK

YOU CAN’T STOP HIV WITHOUT CHANGING THE STIGMA AROUND IT.

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D A I LY D O S E

BY TYLER CURRY

I WAS RECENTLY at a community meeting where various leaders in HIV services gathered to figure out, among other things, how to end HIV stigma. Whereas the working group’s other agenda items were more concrete, the attempt to end stigma struck me as a rather awkward task to get my head around. After all, I have been working on various anti-stigma endeavors for the better part of a decade and I still don’t have an easy answer to what HIV stigma actually…is.

It’s always been difficult to fight HIV stigma because it is an everchanging foe. The prejudice and misperceptions about what it means to be living with HIV have changed as quickly as the drugs that are used to treat it. So, in the age of PrEP and U=U, exactly what impact does HIV stigma have today?

In my observation, it is the misplacement of sympathy, or worse, pity, for those living with HIV and the impact and ramifications it can have. Stigma isn’t just committed by those who are negative but by those who are positive themselves. Self-loathing is often one of the biggest symptoms of a person’s diagnosis that is often left untreated.

There is no reason whatsoever for a person to feel ashamed or guilty for contracting something that virtually everyone has been at risk of at one time or another. Still, it is often an inevitable by-product of the systems of care we have in place.

It isn’t enough to tell someone they are going to be “OK.” Being just OK is not something that anyone aspires to be. It is my ultimate wish that every person who is newly diagnosed is immediately told they are fabulous and flawless, and that this won’t stop them from being the best person they can be.

I can only imagine the many ways I could have used my own diagnosis as an excuse for being too afraid to go after what I want.

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SHUTTERSTOCK (BOTH PAGES)

I see this in so many who struggle with overcoming the weight that HIV can be. To this day, I remember the first time I told my best friend about having HIV, to which she replied, “Phew! At least it’s not cancer!”

As odd a response this may have been, it’s the only one that stuck with me. I told countless others after, but I adapted her approach instead of my sobbing ones. In doing so, it didn’t just help me, but it helped the people I confided in. It took the air out of it, because the truth was that my health was totally fine, and I was going to be fabulous.

Someone who feels like they are undeserving of love or too afraid to open up to their friends and family can easily slip into a place of self-pity. This type of stigma can be somewhat of a crutch that can hold so many back from living the life they absolutely deserve. A life with HIV is now limitless, but the failure to recognize this reality is a direct result of stigma. Whether it is a caregiver who treats a patient as a victim, a friend who walks on eggshells, or an HIV-positive person who benches themselves in the game of life when it’s only just begun, this is how I view the stigma that keeps us from moving forward in the fight against HIV. HIV is now highly manageable and easily treatable. Full stop. So many want to argue that this isn’t the case, but when only discussing the virus, it absolutely is. However, such barriers like a lack of resources, racial inequities in care, and the misplaced perceptions of severity are keeping so many from getting their limitless life back.

People don’t need you to feel sorry for them. What they need is stigma-free access to quality care that is delivered by people who understand them. That is how we fight stigma. That is how we end HIV. HIVPLUSMAG.COM

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No Man Is An Island

WRITER, PRODUCER, AND HIP-HOP ARTIST MAHAWAM IS BRINGING A NEW VOICE TO AN OLD FIGHT, STEPPING OUT OF THE SILENCE OF LIVING WITH HIV.

BY GERALD GARTH P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y G U E R R I L L A D AV I S

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Mahawam

is living without fear. The queer artist (who goes by they/ them pronouns) released their debut Is an Island EP in March on the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ label Molly House Records. The hip-hop vocalist and producer is making waves with their new song and video “Michelle Pfeiffer,” bringing an innovative blend of lush electronics and vulnerable lyrics with a style reminiscent of Blood Orange and André 3000.

In the song, the Oakland-based artist tackles the complex emotional trauma that comes with an HIV diagnosis using lyrics like, “I’m not really dying, but I’m not fine/I don’t really know what to call that line/Best of both worlds, best and worst of times.”

Mahawam’s EP explores themes of loneliness and resignation—commonly felt by those coming to terms with their HIV diagnosis—but also lust and a growing sense of hope. While Mahawam found strength in telling their story, they acknowledge it wasn’t always easy.

“The loneliness I felt when I got my diagnosis was a lot,” Mahawam recalls.

“There are resources, there are groups and all that, but it was just interesting to see in my social circles that people don’t really talk about HIV, they don’t talk about AIDS. Every now and then, people ask what would our lives be like if we had not lost that generation during the peak of the AIDS crisis, but you only hear that conversation every once in a while, and it’s usually engaged by someone who is positive or who has been deeply impacted by a song that they heard or a book that they read or by a memory of someone they lost.”

From isolation to inequity, Mahawam’s work looks at the real struggles many people living with HIV still face—and they see connections between those issues.

“I think it’s all related,” the artist says.

“Equity is an issue that you have to think about intersectionally. It has to be about trans people’s access to health care. It has to be about underserved communities, poor communities, Black communities, brown communities, and poor white communities not having resources…. When new hospitals and health care facilities are built, they don’t build them on the side of town that tends to be considered the ‘bad’ side of town. They build it downtown. They build it on the wealthy side of town. It’s about access. And access is an intersectional issue.”

Music has been a constant in Mahawam’s life since grade school, when they were first introduced to the violin.

“Any class I could get away with not having to take, I took a music class instead. Music has always been my primary interest in life,” they explain. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2013, Mahawam became involved in the local

At the end of the day, I don’t worry about where I sit on the gender spectrum because of my music.

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drag scene as a DJ and started making beats behind closed doors. Rapping came when they needed vocals to go with their productions, many of which have a club music tempo and discordant, punk-rap experimentalism.

Mahawam’s rising success comes at a time when the rap world is beginning to open up to more than just straight cisgender male narratives. The mainstream success of Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and City Girls—and the rise of CupcakKe, Tierra Whack, and BbyMutha on the indie front—proves rap fans crave other perspectives. (Not to mention country rapper Lil Nas X, who came out publicly on June 30, the last day of Pride month.)

But challenges still persist, especially for folks like Mahawam who identify as gender-nonbinary. Queer and gendernonconforming artists still face harassment and homophobia, which tends to lead them toward LGBTQ audiences rather than the mainstream rap world.

“I think that dilutes the effectiveness of rap as a genre, rap as a platform, hip-hop as a lifestyle,” Mahawam says of segregating acts by gender or sexuality. “That division doesn’t need to be there.”

Despite the challenges, Mahawam has found strength—and an attentive audience— by simply speaking their truth.

“At the end of the day, I don’t worry about where I sit on the gender spectrum because of my music,” says the artist. “It’s not the focus.

I frequently switch genders in my music, and my pronouns even change.... I think me having that fluidity in my music and presenting the way that I look will inspire some other child who has decided to sit firmly in the middle and write what they want to write.”

Ultimately, for Mahawam, it’s all about the art.

“My art is to heal. My art is to explain myself. And in explaining myself, I hope to understand others and explain others as I explain myself. I suppose I am to bridge the gap—the age gap, the race gap, whatever it is. I just want to create understanding. I want to engender understanding. That’s really my goal. And to clarify complex emotions for things we don’t have words for or don’t have the language to discuss.”

Mahawam also has a message for other artists living with HIV. “I’d say if [your HIV status] has been something you’ve been avoiding featuring in your music, think of it as a feature and not a flaw—a way to deepen the connection to others, and it’s something to be explored in the work you make. It doesn’t have to be highlighted. It doesn’t have to be the only thing the work is about. But I think it could be introduced as a feature of who you are as a person.”

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I AM THE FIRST

BY DIMITRI MOISE

Losing His Religion

DUSTY ST. AMAND

Breaking away from his conservative upbringing helped Hernando Umana find himself—and become a Broadway star.

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ctor, entrepreneur, and HIV activist Hernando Umana believes in listening to his intuition. In fact, following his gut led him to become not only a Broadway star but also co-owner of CBD Dog Health (CBDDogHealth.com), an online shop selling full-spectrum cannabis products for dogs.

Always one to follow his moral compass, Umana came out as poz last year on Instagram, sparking a new dialogue among young queer men about HIV education and prevention. But things weren’t always so easy.

Umana, who is of Colombian heritage and grew up in Miami, recalls living a sheltered life surrounded by an extremely conservative community. He was removed from sexual education classes as a child, and his family never talked about sex—or anything other than abstinence and the giving of one’s self to God. The actor recalls his parents as very “hands-off” with their children, “except when it came to church.”

“I hate religion,” Umana admits now, adding that he is the first in his family to break away from the Catholic Church. He was the fourth child in his family, after three sisters. His parents have been married for over 40 years.

His father wanted to be a priest—that is, before he met Umana’s mother.

Umana grew up with a “male-dominated mentality” while also being the “poorest spoiled boy ever,” he says. His parents never tried to teach him the importance of working for the things you are passionate about and never gave him any laboring responsibilities. In his family, chores were for the women.

“My mom loves the crap out of me,” he says.

That being said, Umana’s father has a mental health issue and, he says, his mother hardly protected the children during dad’s violence while the actor was growing up. “My mom is so in love with my father and God,” he adds, “those two things came first.”

Still, “I didn’t think of it as a hard childhood at all when I was younger,” the actor says. “I didn’t really know the neglect I was getting.

Looking back I’m like, man, I missed out on a lot of real-life things that I had to learn a lot later.”

Despite the sheltered life, Umana still found his path as an actor. He started early, starring on Univision in Spanish-language TV shows.

After his stint with Univision, he did theater in middle school and high school. He credits his high school teacher with inspiring him to pursue musical theater and constructively teaching him the importance of a work ethic.

By 14, Umana was working shifts at a restaurant while balancing school and shows. And by 18, he found himself studying musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. He was also financially supporting his parents. continued on page

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Hernando Umana and RuPaul backstage at the hit musical Kinky Boots in 2016.

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Angel in America?

Longtime HIV activist, spiritual leader, and founder of Project Angel Food MARIANNE WILLIAMSON throws her hat in the presidential ring.

Since announcing her candidacy for president of the United States in January, best-selling author and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson’s visibility has been a slow burn.

Williamson’s highly anticipated performance at the first round of debates in June was met with mixed reviews. While she might not be a candidate by the time you’re reading this, the activist’s compassionate ideas have certainly tapped into America’s water supply.

Her messages about lowering prescription drug costs, family separation at the border, criminal justice reform, and climate change are undoubtedly liberal.

Her calm—and slightly unpolished—demeaner places her in a position to be the “anti-Trump,” according to some pundits. Even Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon had a go at impersonatting Williamson, which for many is a clue that she’s triggered the attention of voters. But can it last?

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Williamson’s delivery is a breath of fresh air compared to the aggressive rhetoric of the White House. And while there are critics who question whether she’s too offbeat, there are fans who argue that Democrats and Independents are eager for a political outsider to challenge Trump.

No doubt, she’s one of the biggest HIV advocates among the candidates for president so far. After all, Williamson has spent her entire career turning “crisis into opportunity.”

“I’ve realized that all a country is is a collection of individuals,” she explains to Plus. “For the same psychological and emotional principles that prevail within the journey of one person prevail within the journey of a nation, and I want to apply those same skills of deep truth-telling and deep spiritual regeneration and internal transformation to the journey of this country that I have seen work such miracles in the journey of individuals.”

Williamson, a staunch HIV and LGBTQ activist since the 1980s, founded Project Angel Food, which in 1989 started delivering meals to homebound people living with HIV. But even before that, she says, LGBTQ and poz folks helped “establish my career.”

“When I began speaking in 1983, I was at a place called the Philosophical Research Society in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles,” she explains. “Now, today, that’s a kind of hip and happening neighborhood, but in those days, it was this far-off, weird place…

Not long after I began speaking, the AIDS crisis burst onto the scene. Organized religious institutions, for their own reasons, dealing with their own issues, were profoundly silent for quite a while. In Los Angeles, it was so hard-hit by [AIDS] and there was a young woman, myself, who talked about a God who loved us no matter what, and who works miracles. So, people affected by the virus, particularly gay men, began flocking to my lectures. And that was simply the river that flowed to my door.”

At the time, Williamson’s sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer. “There was so much suffering, death, illness around me that the idea of starting a nonprofit organization that would provide

COURTESY MARIANNE 2020

Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson founded Project Angel Food in1989. Since then, the group has served over 11.5 million meals free of charge to more than 20,000 people affected by life-threatening illnesses.

nonmedical support services to people with lifechallenging illnesses, when I first did it, I wasn’t even thinking about AIDS specifically. But, at our first fundraiser, when I saw who showed up, who gave the party, who did the work, I looked around and I went, ‘Oh, my God. This is the AIDS community.’ I knew that the organization was theirs.”

She continues, “When we started, there were lectures and support groups three or four times a week. But I thought it was an outgrowth of my lecture on [my book] A Course in Miracles. I wasn’t thinking of this only for the people who were ill. I was thinking of this as much for the people who were not ill... There was so much pain and so many tears. At that time, for some of these young men, telling their parents they were gay was as traumatic as telling their parents they were dying. It was like being in a war zone. We had love for each other. It was a very profound experience.

You’re marked forever by something like that.”

Williamson recently received blowback when activists allege she is suggesting that prayer and meditation is an adequete replacement for medication. In a May 1 tweet, she responded: “Just to be clear: when a spiritual support group leader prays or meditates with a patient, it is NOT meant as a substitute for medicine. In today’s world, an integrative approach to healing includes a spiritual component. The mind-body connection is not some wacky or voodoo idea.”

Williamson further reflects with Plus, saying that a giving spirit is an American trait. “Americans are very good at showing up for each other after a tragedy has already occurred, but we need to show up with greater love for each other so as to prevent many tragedies from occurring.”

Today, Project Angel Food has served over 11 million meals. Williamson went on to cofound The Peace Alliance in 2004. One of the platforms that sets her apart from other 2020 candidates is her call for the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace, which will focus on peacebuilding across all sectors.

During Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, he vowed to end the HIV epidemic by the year 2030.

When asked if that’s possible, Williamson tells Plus, “Of course, [but] the issue is whether or not there’s moral equivocation on the part of our leaders.”

“We are experiencing challenges,” she explains, “Because we have basically transitioned from a government that prizes the concept of ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people,’ to a government that basically has become ‘of a few of the people, by few of the people, and for few of the people of multinational corporate corporations, by multinational corporations, and for multinational corporations.’ Our government at this time has become a system of failed aristocracy. It does more to advocate for short-term process for multinational corporations than it does to advocate for the people of the United States and the people of the world and of the planet on which we live.”

“So when you say, ‘Is it possible?’ Of course, it’s possible. It’s called money. For a country, as much as for an individual, how you spend your money is

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ARAYA DIAZ/GETTY IMAGES FOR PROJECT ANGEL FOOD

an expression of your values. So, what does money translate into with AIDS policy? It translates into more science, more scientific research, more medicine, more doctors. It’s not a mystery here, so when you have a $2 trillion dollar tax cut, where 83 cents of every dollar went to the very richest corporations and individuals... then what you’re doing is squeezing a huge amount of public treasury into the hands of a very few people, leaving less and less money available for the humanitarian and deeply democratic causes that would truly enable people to thrive.”

Williamson is also proposing reparations for slavery, something she’s been fighting for since the 1990s. As president, she says she would create a council of slavery reparations and establish a board of trustees, which would be entrusted with disbersing funds (she recommends between $200 and $500 billion) over a period of 20 years, with the stipulation that the money be used for projects of economic and educational renewal for Black communities throughout the country.

And she thinks we need to spend more time learning our history, so we aren’t doomed to repeat it. “Just as part of the agreement between Germany and the Jews after World War II was to guarantee Holocaust education, I believe the United States owes it to our children and to our future that every American child grows up with a deeper level of understanding [of ] American history,” adding, “We have 11 states that don’t even require half a year of American history, civics, and government, and that’s dangerous in a democracy. If people do not learn as children what the Bill of Rights is, then how does that person grow up to be someone who’s appalled when the Bill of Rights is under assault?”

For Williamson, equal rights have been at the root of her bridge-building for decades. “I remember being on television many years ago [discussing] when the idea of gay marriage would be legal,” she recalls.

“I was one of the only people saying, ‘Of course it should be legal!’ And I remember saying to someone at the time, ‘I don’t think you should be able to get married because you’re gay, I think you should be able to get married because you’re American. What should matter is that they’re American. They have the same equal rights you have. This is America. This has got to be the ultimate—and the principle over personalities.”

“We have to take very seriously the notion that in America we must be there for each other,” she continues. “There have been those in our history who have struggled for those principles, sacrificed for those principles, and even died for those principles. Our generation is being asked in our time to rise to the occasion. Democracy doesn’t just give you rights, it gives you responsibility—and I think whether you’re gay, Jewish, Black or all the above, there are things we look at in our history and we can see where others like us, living in former times, were discriminated against, were victims of prejudice and oppression and sometimes violence. It is right and proper that we be aware of that, we take a stand, that we draw a line and we do everything possible to ensure that those after us will not suffer the [same] persecutions.

Williamson believes this idea should also translate beyond issues of discrimination, especially in relation to the new wave of anti-abortion laws.

“I think it’s horrifying what’s happening,” she says.

“I think that abortion is an issue of private morality.

I don’t believe the government should be legislating private morals. I believe that American women have a right to make their own moral decisions and their own biological choices, and this is an attack on women.

This is an attack on the very idea that a woman is a full adult who can make her own adult choice. It’s very concerning to me what’s happening, but I believe that American women, one way or the other, will rise up and make it clear who we are and what we are made of.”

Williamson ran unsuccessfully in 2014 as an independent candidate for a seat in California’s 33rd Congressional District but did garner numerous endorsements from respected politicians. She says that now is the time for voters to come together as a matter of principle over party.

Marianne Williamson speaking at Project Angel Food’s Angel Awards 2015.

“More people in this country love than hate,” she explains. “I believe that as a people we are good, we are decent, but we have a political system that does not speak to our decency and our ability so much [as] to our self-interest. We’re all showing up the best we can in the roles that we’re in, with the skill sets that we have, working with those who agree with us because that’s what an election is,” she says.

“Donald Trump is not president just because certain bigoted people voted for him. He is also president [because] some very good people, I think, voted for him, and also because of the people who didn’t vote...

It’s time to become very involved... with people who do agree with you—so we can magnify the voices of tolerance, inclusion, mercy, justice, and love.”

As far as choosing a running mate, Williamson responds, “I have a long way to go before such a decision would be mine to make.” But, “there is a name that pops up. She, at the moment, shall go unnamed. I wonder, of course, would America elect a woman? And then an even deeper question: Would they elect two of them? Time will tell!”

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WAYNE PENALES/PEXELS

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BY DAVID ARTAVIA

For asylum seekers living with HIV, the United States is not the land of the free.

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t ’s b e e n t w o y e a r s s i n c e Uchechukwu Onwa (who goes by the nickname “Valentine” now) was released from a detention center. Like thousands of LGBTQ refugees before him, the Nigerian-born Onwa had high hopes when he sought asylum in the United States. Instead, he found himself caught in an impenetrable system.

Thanks to a significant change in the asylum process mandated by the Trump administration earlier this year, the Asylum Division of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services prioritizes the most recent affirmed applications when scheduling interviews—rather than processing cases in the order they were received. In a nutshell, the regulation means asylum seekers in the U.S. who’ve spent years waiting for their interviews, 34

like Onwa, have no idea when their file will be considered.

During the interim, many refugees are limited by the inability to work. Applying for a work permit could take several months, and even then, there are heavy travel and occupational restrictions. In Onwa’s case, it took 67 months for him to get a work permit after coming out of an immigration detention center. But that was just step one.

“Even when I got the work permit, where is the job?” he says, arguing that in many cases, businesses don’t recognize college degrees from other countries. “Most people end up working in a kitchen as a dishwasher. These people, I know so many of my friends in Nigeria who are medical doctors, lawyers, have so many great things they were doing back home—but they

Rainbow Railroad executive director Kimahli Powell (left) poses with Uchechukwu “Valentine” Onwa at a panel in New York City where they discussed the LGBTQ refugee crisis.

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Onwa (left) and Powell strike a pose during the OUT100, hosted by Plus’s sister publication, OUT magazine.

wanted to be somewhere they can be free to be themselves without being beaten up or killed. So, they come here, they have to go back to square one, start life all over. You have to forget all the life you lived back home.”

For many, the system wins. “It’s so demoralizing and so challenging,” he explains. “I’ve known people who withdrew their asylum and asked for deportation because the process—sometimes you think about it and you’re like, I don’t think I can do this. It’s very tough. Some people have been waiting for five, six years without even having an initial hearing. They don’t even know what’s going on in their case.”

HIV-positive asylum seekers face specific barriers in the immigration process. Since immigration laws changed in 2010, allowing the government to accept HIV-specific cases, the U.S. has not released data on the number of HIV-positive refugees despite strong efforts from groups like the Center for American Progress and Immigration Equality. The lack of data makes it hard for activists to advocate for appropriate policies. It also makes it impossible to see the full scope of the HIV discrimination crisis across the globe.

According to a recent UNAIDS report, more than 80 countries worldwide criminalize HIV nondisclosure, exposure, and transmission. Even in the U.S., 26 states have laws that criminalize HIV exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, Central America, Africa, and Eastern Europe

are particularly known for persecuting people living with HIV. Last year, the case of Ana Batiz and one of her daughters, Susan, 18, made headlines when both of them fled persecution in Honduras due to their HIVpositive status. Batiz had her life threatened while Susan was constantly being beaten up by classmates at school, according to New York public radio station WNYC. Upon arriving at the border, because Susan was considered an adult, their asylum interviews were separate. Batiz ended up passing, but her daughter was deported back to Honduras.

LGBTQ refugees face reprehensible treatment in immigration detention centers. Over a four-year period, one in four sexual abuse cases within centers involved a transgender person, according to ImmigrantJustice.org. As Onwa notes, trans women could end up in an all-male unit under the order of immigration officers. For those who are lucky enough to have a choice, many trans asylum seekers opt to stay in solitary confinement out of fear of being harassed by other refugees—and even officers.

In May 2018, Roxsana Hernández, a transgender woman living with HIV, died in an immigration detention center. Though ICE reported that she died of a heart attack and suffered symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration, and complications associated with HIV, an investigation from the Transgender Law Center showed contradicting results. Before her death, TLC revealed that Hernández had been the victim of constant abuse HIVPLUSMAG.COM

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and physical beatings.

Gay sex carries a potential penalty of 14 years in prison in Nigeria—and progress is a slow burn. According to an Initiative for Equal Rights survey of Nigerians earlier this year, 47 percent of respondents say LGBTQ people shouldn’t have access to public services while 43 percent say they should (10 percent are indifferent). That’s a 19 percentage point reduction in those who are against LGBTQ public access, in a matter of three years. This encourages Onwa.

While living in Abuja, Nigeria, Onwa worked for the International Center for Advocacy on Rights to Health as an outreach coordinator and clinical documentation clerk, coordinating an HIV prevention program and conducting human rights advocacy work for the LGBTQ community. When he arrived in the U.S., thanks to the aid of Rainbow 36

Railroad, a Canadian-based organization helping LGBTQ people seek asylum, Onwa continued his advocacy in Chicago until he relocated to New York City and started working as codirector of community organizing at Queer Detainee Empowerment Project.

“I want to say to refugees, asylum seekers: Don’t lose hope,” he advises.

“People should seek legal advice, should seek medical advice. Look for somebody to talk to. Some people are just there. They don’t like to socialize. They don’t want to ask questions. So, I’m encouraging people to ask questions. If you see somebody who is in the same shoes but in [a better situation] than you, ask this person questions. If the person is not willing to tell you, leave this person and look for another person.”

Organizations like Rainbow Railroad, which received 1,151 asylum requests in 2017 and ended up fully processing 206 of them, trying to work the system doesn’t come cheap. As executive director Kimahli Powell said at a recent panel in NYC about the LGBTQ refugee crisis, successfully bringing one person to safety can cost thousands of dollars (due to transportation, paperwork, and outside-the-box routing), only to find a new set of challenges once they reach a border.

Once free from detention, violent oppression continues, especially since Donald Trump’s recent order allowing officers to raid people’s homes and

COURTESY UCHECHUKWU ONWA

Nigerian-born Valentine Onwa fled LGBTQ persecution from his country. Now he’s using his life to help others find refuge.

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You live your life in fear. Don’t lose hope.

Seek legal and medical advice.

Look for somebody to talk to. demand to see their documentation.

“You can’t even go out on the street freely,” Onwa says. “You’re now scared of, maybe, running across police. When you meet an officer, you don’t know if they’re going to hold you, you don’t know what is going to happen the next day. So, it’s a very scary situation. You have to live your daily life in fear. And these are things that most of us, especially in the LGBTQ community, experience in our country… you’re constantly living in fear, you’re constantly persecuted because of who you choose to love, and you come here hoping that you’ll be free and it seems like the situation is still the same thing, nothing’s

really changing. … So, people have to live by support from friends, or maybe within the LGBTQ community, that someone might help or support you financially— clothing, food, and all those things. It’s a crazy situation.”

Onwa still doesn’t have a date set for his asylum interview, but that hasn’t stopped him from using his voice to demand action.

“I’m very optimistic that in the next five years, there will be a lot of positive change in the immigration system,” he says. “Really, this administration has made everything so difficult, even the way the visa is processed. Right now, people getting visas from other countries to the U.S. is like a visa to heaven, you know? It’s so difficult right now to get a visa. People have been trying but it’s so, so very difficult and it’s because of this administration. I’m optimistic things will change. Maybe the government [will create] new policies that support more on helping immigrants and not locking people up in a jail, granting people asylum and not denying people and deporting people, and also open up the U.S. border.”

“The U.S. is like a home for all, it’s like a home for everybody,” Onwa adds. “So many people have a lot of hope for the U.S., but with these [policies], people are not seeing that. I’m hoping in the next five years that hope will be restored [and] people can actually feel comfortable to come to the U.S. to seek refuge.

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TV writer and producer NEAL BAER has spent his career telling HIV and LGBTQ stories.

Now he’s expanding it, thanks to Netflix.

B Y D AV I D A R TAV I A

Neal Baer, showrunner of the Netflix series Designated Survivor, creates groundbreaking TV storylines.

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Baer’s ER character, Jeanie Boulet (played by Gloria Reuben, top left) was one of the first poz characters on TV who didn’t die. Now, Baer is continuing the HIV narrative with Dontae Evans (Benjamin Charles, middle and bottom with Eltony Williams) in Designated Survivor on Netflix.

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probably shouldn’t call Neal Baer a late bloomer.

In 2014, while in his 50s, the television writer and producer came out as gay, but he already had nearly 25 years of preparation behind the scenes. A pediatrician by trade, the Harvard Medical School graduate is credited with writing some of the first queer and HIV narratives in television history, all of which, he says, “gave me a platform to do in fiction what I struggled to do in my own life: to come out.”

Baer was instrumental in creating the storyline for ER’s Jeanie Boulet, one of the first nonstigmatized HIV-positive characters on television (who wasn’t eventually killed off). He also wrote the episode where Laura Innes’s character, Dr. Kerry Weaver, came out as a lesbian. During his tenure as showrunner of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, not only did he give Ice-T’s character a gay son, but he also created the first storyline of a young trans teen who takes hormone blockers. His work on Under the Dome also broke ground as one of the first shows to introduce a biracial lesbian couple, played by Aisha Hinds and Samantha Mathis.

Baer’s evolution as a writer beautifully reflects his own journey. He’s continuing to blaze a trail on Designated Survivor, which premiered on ABC and ran on there for two seasons before transferring to Netflix.

This season, Baer is determined to tell the story of Dontae Evans (played by Benjamin Charles), a young Black man who is HIV-positive but undetectable. In the arc, Dontae chooses not to disclose his status to his partner, Troy, until after they have sex.

For the writer, discussing HIV disclosure requires more than simply talking about what undetectable means to a mainstream audience—it’s about tapping into deeply ethical questions.

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In the episode, Troy is furious with Dontae, even though Dontae points out that they used a condom and that there’s never been a case reported of transmission from someone who is undetectable. The stigma that Dontae feared is realized when Troy says he’s “clean,” to which Dontae angrily responds, “And what, I’m dirty because I’m positive?”

“We all had an honest conversation about how we would feel if we had a partner who didn’t disclose his status to us until after we had sex,” Baer recalls of early discussions with the writers. “The room had a lively conversation, and there was disagreement among us about what we thought Dontae should have done. Neither he nor his partner asked the other about their status. If they had, we all agreed that Dontae would be ethically bound to tell the truth. But since there has been no case of transmission from someone who is undetectable, some of us thought it was not harmful or unethical not to volunteer one’s status, but others disagreed. We all agreed that it’s incumbent on each of us to take precautions to protect our own health—even though at times we don’t.”

Baer says these behind-the-scenes debates lead to better TV: “Disagreement over our characters making tough ethical decisions, I’ve found when writing and producing ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, always led to lively, complex shows that raised questions for the viewers and opened discussion.”

Baer’s interest in telling stories about HIV is twofold. As a physician, he’s well aware that a cure for HIV has yet to be achieved. Thanks to modern medicines, the virus has become a manageable condition, but in terms of the media, he says the nuances have been “woefully ignored not only by the press, but also by our government at all levels.”

“In Los Angeles, for instance, 40 percent of African-American men who have sex with men are HIV-positive; for Latinos, it’s 20 percent,” notes Baer. “With PrEP and [antiretrovirals] available, but too often at an outlandish price, we should have conquered transmission. And yet, for many reasons—including access, stigma, and cost—

people of color are still suffering from a disease that’s preventable and treatable. And as a gay man who’s personally had to deal with the fear of contracting HIV and the stigma it poses to those who are HIV-positive, I wanted to write, as they say, from the heart and tell our stories.”

“We all have struggles that are particular to our own circumstances,” Baer continues. “I hoped that telling Dontae’s story would dispel the misinformation and depict his success in overcoming stigma and shame that we still place on those who are HIV-positive. … If we’re fortunate enough to return for another season, I’m sure we’ll see Dontae and how this part of his life is continuing—successfully.”

In retrospect, even though Baer had been struggling to define his sexual identity since “about 4 or 5 years old,” he was comforted by writing characters who reflected his battles, eventually leading him to find the courage to come out in his 50s.

“My characters were honest, and I felt it was time for me to be honest with myself,” he confesses.

Baer credits Netflix with giving him the freedom to introduce three LGBTQ characters for season 3, including a storyline about President Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) coping with the political fallout after his opponent publicizes that he has a trans sister-in-law, played by Sense8’s Jamie Clayton.

The newfound creative freedom also helped Baer learn more about the many degrees of being LGBTQ. “I owe a lot of gratitude to Jamie Clayton for opening my eyes to trans issues and telling her character’s story with honesty and dignity,” says Baer, who makes it clear that his queer characters are not an attempt at “being PC” or “liberal,” but rather a targeted focus to achieve what his writing has always done: to tell real stories.

“Back in the days of writing and producing ER and when I was running SVU, we could take on topics like abortion, gun control, violence against the LGBTQ community in ways that I think aren’t as possible now,” he says. “That’s because streaming services like Netflix and Amazon offer a wide range of programming and are not dependent on advertising dollars. Broadcast networks need to recruit viewers. Streaming services need to recruit subscribers, and that makes a profound difference in the artistic chances streaming services take in the wider range of programming they offer.”

“It’s our attempt to present in a thoughtful and indepth way the broad spectrum of characters who often have not received attention on broadcast networks, but whose lives are very much a significant part of the fabric of our country,” he adds. “That our show is about an American president grappling with the struggles and social and cultural upheavals facing the world today makes it essential, we think, to tell stories about gay African-American men, trans individuals, as well as those struggling on the edge of society—particularly with opioid addictions. These stories are rich, complex, and pose tough ethical issues—and we’re fortunate to have a platform on Designated Survivor to tell them over 10 episodes.”

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treatment

HALF THE SKY More than 50 percent of people living with HIV in the world are women. How can we find a cure without them?

ith reports earlier this year purporting of a second person having achieved complete HIV eradication (although experts cautioned it is way too early to declare the subject “cured”), the global scientific community is working harder than ever to find a functional cure for the virus. In order to do so, researchers are beginning to realize they have to deal with a long-ignored demographic: women.

Although women make up just over half of the nearly 37 million people living with HIV worldwide, there is a noticeable lack of women involved in the research of potential treatments, cures, and vaccines, according to a recent in-depth report by The New York Times.

Globally, HIV is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. The epidemic continues in part because of new diagnoses among young women in Africa, parts of South America, and even the Southern United States.

Yet, a 2016 analysis by amfAR found that in trials of HIV cures, women accounted for only a median 11 percent of participants.

In trials of antiretroviral drugs, 19 percent of the participants were women. Vaccine studies were the closest to having equal gender representation, with 38 percent female participation.

“If we’re going to find a cure, it’s important that we find a cure that actually works for everybody,” Rowena Johnston, director of research at amfAR, told the Times.

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There are differences in the immune systems of men and women, including the response to HIV. Women’s immune systems often respond strongly to HIV at first, with strict control over the virus for five to seven years. But after that, women seem to progress faster to late-stage HIV (or AIDS) than men do and are at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes.

“There are all sorts of differences between men and women, probably mediated partially by hormonal effects,” Dr. Monica Gandhi, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told the paper. For example, estrogen, a hormone that women have higher levels of, appears to contribute to HIV dormancy, enabling the virus to hide from drugs and the immune system.

Gender differences have been observed even among prepubescent children. One study found that among 11 children who were “elite controllers”—those able to suppress HIV to undetectable levels without drugs—10 of them were girls.

Some drugs affect women and men differently. Children born to women taking dolutegravir, for instance, may have a higher risk of neural tube defects, while women taking nevirapine were much more likely to have a severe rash than men using the drug.

Yet, the Times report notes, “Men accounted for 85 percent of the trial subjects in which these drugs were tested.”

This may seem like it’s related to the apparent concentration of HIV among gay men (at least in the U.S.) but the truth is,

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these numbers reflect a widespread bias in medical research to accept the male body as the standard for testing and dosage recommendations.

Still, it is true that gay men in the U.S. have organized and fought to get into drug trials since the early 1980s, and are connected to support networks that share news of clinical trials. And they often live in the urban settings where most research happens.

Women with HIV usually have fewer connections and may be less likely to make demands to the health care system. Lack of child care or transportation or discomfort with male doctors may keep some from clinical trials, and trial sponsors don’t often make provisions to help more women participate.

For women of color, there are even more obstacles involved when navigating a health care system that has ignored and exploited them for decades. “[There’s] a lot of stigma still in our community around research,” Ublanca Adams, 60, a California woman living with HIV, told the Times.

“How information is given out to our community and our people is just not in a way to be inclusive nor is it inviting.”

Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration’s rules limit the testing of drugs on cisgender women of childbearing age due to the potential for unplanned pregnancies. No one wants to deal with how an investigational drug might impact a developing fetus.

The restrictions have led some researchers, including Dr. Eileen Scully, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, to recruit menopausal women. But because these participants have lower levels of circulating estrogen, the results may not be applicable to younger women.

Ultimately, most researchers take the easy way out and do drug trials on men. Information on how a drug affects women comes in only after the drug is on the market. An increasing number of studies include trans women, but they remain relatively rare.

In the past, trans women were often lumped in with gay men, even though their response to medications can also differ widely from that of cisgender men.

Two recent trials of long-acting injectable HIV drugs managed to recruit significant numbers of women (33 percent were female in one study, 23 percent in the other), most likely due to the promise of less frequent treatment—a big convenience for, say, an overwhelmed mother.

“Patients lined up outside the clinic,” said Dr. Kimberly Smith, head of research and development at ViiV Healthcare, which led the research. But trials in the U.S. generally have few female enrollees, Smith said, because about 75 percent of those living with the virus in this country are men.

There are efforts to address the male-female disparity overseas. Dr. Bruce Walker and his colleagues at the Massachusetts-based Ragon Institute have set up a group in South Africa called Fresh, bringing nearly 2,000 young women in for HIV testing twice a week. The researchers provide preventive therapy and track diagnoses, and they plan to test potential cures in the group.

MIGHTY MOUSE A new study shows that HIV can be eliminated in mice. Is a cure for humans far behind?

Findings from researchers at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center recently published in Nature Communications appear to show that HIV could be functionally cured in mice.

“These data provide proof-of-concept that permanent viral elimination is possible,” notes the study abstract. Nearly 37 million people in the world are living with HIV, scientists estimate, with over 5,000 contracting the virus each day.

Today’s medications can successfully suppress the replication of HIV in humans to undetectable levels, which makes it impossible to contract the virus. But there’s no clear way to remove HIV entirely or cure it in humans.

To date, there’s been one person who has managed to remain virally suppressed without continuing treatment for a decade following a bone marrow transplant, but those results have yet to be replicated.

The new research on mice, though, shows promising results. Scientists developed a long-acting, slowrelease antiretroviral therapy, using fatty-acidmodified prodrugs that were synthesized as prodrugs for dolutegravir, lamivudine, and abacavir “by esterification with myristic acid,” according to Nature Communications. These drugs were able to suppress the replication of the virus in HIV-positive mice. As Kamel Khalili, the coauthor of the study, told CNN, scientists used a gene editing tool to remove the remaining virus.

Overall, researchers were able to eliminate the virus in nine out of 23 test subjects. Although that means only 39 percent of the mice were functionally cured, this is a huge step forward, and the work provides early evidence of what may be achievable in humans.

Still, it took years to confirm the virus was eliminated, and Howard Gendelman at the University of Nebraska said it will take additional years to replicate results and develop a similar technique using the human genome. He is already studying similar techniques with primates.

“We’re landing on the moon,” Gendelman told CNN. “It doesn’t mean you made it to Mars yet.

—JACOB OGLES

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TREATMENT

BETTER THAN ASPIRIN This drug could prevent cardiovascular events in people living with HIV.

A recent study by Mount Sinai Health System researchers published in Science Advances discovered that the blood thinner drug clopidogrel is more potent in reducing the formation of blood clots than aspirin among those living with HIV. Juan Badimon, professor of cardiology and director of the Atherothrombosis Research Unit at the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai; Dr. Judith Aberg, the Dr. George Baehr Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine; and Mohammad Urooj Zafar, a clinical researcher at the medical school, investigated the anti-inflammatory and antiplatelet effects (the ability to prevent blood clots from forming) of two of the most commonly used antiplatelet drugs, aspirin and clopidogrel, in people living with HIV. Despite wide use of antiretroviral therapy and improved quality of life, people living with HIV remain at risk of earlier onset of age-related comorbities. Studies also show that poz folks suffer higher rates of cardiovascular events like heart failure, stroke, and heart attacks.

What the studies don’t show, however, is why that is.

While doctors have long recommended aspirin therapy for 44

those at high risk of heart problems, these findings indicate that clopidogrel is more effective for those with HIV. “Clopidogrel not only has a more potent antithrombotic activity but also a significant anti-inflammatory effect as compared with aspirin in HIV patients,” Badimon explained when the findings were announced.

(Antithrombotics prevent the formation of or treat blood clots within a blood vessel.)

As people with HIV live longer and cardiovascular issues continue to surpass AIDS-related complications as a leading cause of death, this finding could make a significant impact in reducing those deaths.

The study also found that inflammatory and immune activation markers—in addition to a higher propensity to develop blood clots—could be contributing to the higher cardiovascular disease rates among HIV-positive people.

“These results suggest that thrombus formation may be a contributing factor to the increased incidence of cardiovascular events reported among persons with HIV,” said Aberg.

These preliminary observations indicate a larger clinical trial could be warranted.

RAWPIXEL/PIXABAY

BY DONALD PADGETT

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WHAT’S UP, DOC?

The message that those who are undetectable cannot transmit HIV isn’t spreading fast enough—and doctors are partly to blame.

PUBLIC DOMAIN PICTURES/PIXABAY

BY DAVID ARTAVIA

Researchers are demanding that health care providers do more to promote the undetectable equals untransmittable consensus by informing those living with HIV that they cannot transmit the virus to a sexual partner when their viral load is suppressed to undetectable levels.

“Providers caring for patients with HIV should universally inform their patients about U=U as part of their routine care,” Dr. Sarah Calabrese of George Washington University and Kenneth Mayer of the Harvard Medical School and Fenway Institute write in The Lancet HIV. “Conveying benefits and risks surrounding any treatment is fundamental to patients’ decision-

making, and this HIV treatment benefit should be no exception.”

Calabrese and Mayer’s testimony points to four studies involving serodiscordant couples (in which one is poz and the other isn’t), all of which have failed to find a single confirmed case of sexual transmission when the HIV-positive partner is on antiretroviral therapy and has a stable undetectable viral load.

Knowing that they cannot transmit HIV while undetectable can be life-changing for many people living with the virus, and publicizing the information about U=U can combat HIV stigma.

“With evidence supporting undetectable equals untransmittable now overwhelming, providers should be routinely communicating the message to all of their patients living with HIV,” Calabrese and Mayer argue.

The U=U consensus has been supported by numerous government agencies and HIV organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and over 750 organizations worldwide. Yet many doctors fail to share the significant findings with patients who are living with HIV.

As reported by NAM’s AIDSMap, an international survey involving more than 1,000 providers found that only 77 percent of infectious disease specialists and 42 percent of primary care physicians pass along the U=U message when telling folks that their viral load is undetectable.

The reasons doctors fail to disclose the information include disbelief in the U=U findings, the perception that promoting the undetectable equals untransmittable message could undermine personal responsibility, and concerns about patients not correctly understanding the findings and therefore engaging in risky behavior while assuming they cannot transmit the virus.

As the authors note, sharing the U=U message has numerous benefits, including encouragement for people to start and adhere to antiretroviral therapy in order to reach and maintain an undetectable viral load; psychosocial advantages such as enabling those living with HIV to have sexual relationships without fear, reducing internalized stigma, and alleviating anxiety about the possibility of transmission; helping to reduce HIV transmission by giving people more reasons to learn their status and start HIV treatment; and accelerating reforms in government policy and the law, especially concerning the criminalization of HIV exposure and nondisclosure (earlier this year, for example, Sanjay Johnson, who had been accused of exposing a sexual partner to HIV, was able to use his undetectable viral load to defend himself in court).

Communities most affected by HIV are often misinformed about the undetectable equals untransmittable consensus. And the authors worry, “Whether consciously or not, providers’ biases about the type of patient whose personal responsibility, behavior, and capacity for understanding is in question might manifest in their decisions about whom to educate about U=U. This presents the opportunity for clinical practices to exacerbate existing HIV disparities.”

Increasing knowledge and understanding of U=U could reduce HIVrelated stigma in the broader world, encourage testing and treatment, and lessen anxiety about acquiring HIV. As the authors conclude, “For the U=U message to be withheld from any person living with HIV is inexcusable, particularly in settings where treatment is accessible.”

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When Umana started college, he wasn’t informed about sex or the working ways of the real world. Outside of church, he had no life experience, so moving to New York City was a culture shock. When he made the decision to come out and start living in his truth, he first identified as bisexual. Being at AMDA was Umana’s first time around out gay people his age, drag queens, and people who lived in a world where it was “cool to be gay.” Being immediately exposed to this world was electrifying for Umana, and he knew he wanted in. Fast.

When Umana was 19 years old, he had only been with two people sexually. When he got tested for HIV, he tested positive. His whole life changed. He remembered asking the question, “How long do I have to live?” He was linked to care quickly, but it took about a year of living down in the dumps before close friends advised that he needed to pick himself up and live his life to the fullest instead of letting HIV stop him. That’s when everything changed.

Umana left AMDA at 20, and he quickly hustled his way to the top. After working several odd jobs for a few years, his life took a sudden turn. Kinky Boots was opening on Broadway, and Umana, at 25, got the call. In the middle of previews, an actor broke his ankle and Umana was invited to replace him. But after a two-week boot camp, he didn’t get the job.

After the disappointment, he made sure to perfect all the dancing in the show so that by the time Kinky Boots asked him to come back, a year later, he booked it—and ended up getting a large fan base from the show.

Immediately following his run in Kinky Boots, Umana opened the first national tour of School of Rock and traveled North America with the show, while building his CBD business at the same time. Being a part of this highlevel artistic world was a life lesson for Umana in learning how to separate business from everything else. “I think that’s why I’m a good business person,” he says now.

Because of his childhood, Umana’s gut reaction is to live out and proud. He doesn’t want anyone else to feel shame for who they are.

“Coming out, and being as loud and proud as I am, it stems [from my upbringing in] the Catholic Church,” he says. “I want to do the complete opposite of what they’re doing. I want to challenge them.”

The day after he came out as poz last year, he drew 4,000 more followers on Instagram.

Reports and news articles about his social media post were all over the Internet, and he received floods of phone calls, texts, and messages from family, friends, and strangers all over world. This gave him a double-edged feeling that he will never forget. He recalls 46

thinking how blessed and loved he felt by everyone around the world who expressed support—even celebrities like actor Alan Cumming and Olympian Gus Kenworthy.

At the same time, he learned another life lesson: Be mindful about what you post online.

He never gave consent to the news sources that reported his coming out. He learned in that moment that whatever you put online, wherever you put it, no matter who you are, is up for scrutiny, support, discourse, or debate.

Nonetheless, Umana has rebranded himself as an HIV activist online and has since been featured in a national U=U campaign and publications such as Esquire. He will also be seen this fall at the United States Conference on AIDS, as a social media fellow.

The sky’s the limit for this actor, entrepreneur, and activist. The biggest life lesson of all? For Umana, feeling empowered enough to be the first in his family to break away from the church and pave a road designed specifically for him.

“I just think everyone needs to follow their own moral compass, and that’s it,” he says. “And if there is a God, at the end of the day, I hope that I am judged for truly living by the best judgment I could have made for myself.”

Umana at The Cast Broadway Talent Agency Launch Party at W Hotel Times Square last year.

SANTIAGO FELIPE

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B AC K TA L K

BY MARK S. KING

THANK YOU, SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER? CATCHING UP WITH ONE THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS LEATHERMEN, WHO HAPPENS TO BE LIVING WITH HIV. just won the 2019 International Mr. Leather competition, is utterly transparent about all that he is, to a disarming degree. He’s biracial. He’s queer. He’s transgender. He’s extremely kinky—depending on what scale you use to measure such things— and he’s living with HIV. His speech at the competition (“You are enough”) laid bare all of his identities and became an instant viral meme.

Leather clubs are typically known as inclusive, safe spaces for trans people. But no out trans man of color had taken the International Mr. Leather title before. (In 2010, Tyler McCormick became the first transgender Mr. Leather as well as the first to use a wheelchair.)

Just hours after Thompson’s historic IML win, the leader of a regional leather association known as Craig MrCode posted on Facebook, “I am happy for the winner, BUT it is International MR. Leather. He identifies as a man. But not born a man. I feel that the decision is politically motivated. Now this is just my opinion.” The post was later defended by MrCode, making things worse, followed by calls for his ouster as leader of the leather association. He was removed within a couple of days.

Over breakfast in Baltimore with HIV activist and creator of the award-winning blog My Fabulous Disease, Mark S. King, the new king of kink discussed coming out, sex, drugs, HIV—and the reaction to the transphobic social media post that nearly eclipsed the drama of his IML win.

JAC K T H O M P S O N , W H O

I went to IML once, because I wanted to strut around in a harness. That’s 90 percent of the people who go to IML.

ROY VOLANTI, JR.

Your husband, Geoff Millard, was first runner-up for Mr. Bootblack this year. His was first runner-up for Mr. IML in 2017, too.

He’s the first person to place in both events.

I think of International Mr. Leather as being for big dominant guys and Mr. Bootblack for submissive ones. Unless you are running for a “Boy” title or a “Master” title, you can identify as anything you want. I identify as a submissive. My husband identifies as a daddy. But a lot of people have that idea, that you compete for IML and put on that leather cap, and you are the domest dom in all of Dom Town.

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Every single part of who I am is so mixed up. My gender, my sexuality, my size. Everyone in this community has felt like a deviant, which is why the trans controversy hurt so much.

How long have you been living with HIV? Three or four years.

We tend to stigmatize people who test positive. How was it for you? I had just started working as an HIV tester and counselor at an organization. I got sick, like with a bad flu.

I got my diagnosis at a clinic when I went in for that. I did testing and counseling after that, but it was triggering, so I took some time off.

Do you have regrets about not having been on PrEP? PrEP hadn’t really taken off. I think if it had been a year later, I probably would have been on it.

Af ter a long, hard road, there’s been an explosion of trans awareness over the last few years. I came out as trans when I was 15 [living in the San Francisco Bay Area]. That was 18 years ago. And it was exploding because there were a lot of hate crimes going on.

I know some trans men who thought they were lesbians, before they realized they were trans. It’s a perfect example of the difference between gender and sexuality.

I didn’t even start dating men until I met my husband. I still am attracted to women. It gets very deep very fast between us, with women. I just got out of a long relationship with a woman about a year ago. And I don’t have the capacity to get into something that deep with someone else. I have my husband. He’s my port in the storm right now, with all this craziness.

Speaking of crazy, what was your reaction to Craig MrCode’s transphobic response to your win? I understand that the world doesn’t deal with trans issues. If you are someone who doesn’t have many trans friends, it is easy to not understand. I am all about educating.… I was expecting, actually, way worse of a response.

It wasn’t that bad, and the response of the community was 150 percent better than I thought.

Do you think someone like that is teachable? I’m all about teachable moments.

People tried to educate him and he just doubled down. At that point I’m like, “OK, it’s your own funeral then.” I hope there’s a lesson learned for the general community. I would be so happy if he did some learning and came back and did something about it.

Your speech at IML, available on YouTube, was so universal with its message of “You are enough.” What queer kid hasn’t felt like they were not enough? You struck to the heart of that. I’ve had that feeling for so many reasons.

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You provide so many reasons to reject you!

[Laughs] Yes. What on the menu of reasons do you not want to sleep with me [for]?

I’ve found that if I have to become an HIV educator with someone, then we are not going to fuck. I don’t mind doing a little bit of that. But if I’m just hooking up with you, you’re probably not even giving me your real name, so why am I giving you a lecture? This is no longer sexy. But I will do some initial steps to educate.

Do people fetishize you as a trans man? Oh, yeah. People fetishize everything. I mean, you’re fetishizing that guy over there because he goes to the gym every day. So why is it bad for them to fetishize you for whatever reason? Of course, people from marginalized communities have been fetishized for things over the years and there’s a lot of history and shame— Black men as sexual objects— Yes. I have a thing for big, bearded daddies. That’s my type.

Our fetishes play into our hookups. It depends on how you do it. If someone comes at me and they’re all like, “Oh, you’re a man with a pussy,” and there’s this big thing about it, it’s not about me anymore. It’s about a part of me. I don’t have patience for that. It’s about people having no tact.

What’s your message during your reign as International Mr. Leather? I’m proud of a community that is now officially proud of me.

This year is going to be amazing, but it’s not about me. It’s about people seeing a message that we will not stand for transphobia in our spaces.

Read the full interview on HIVPlusMag.com.

MARK S. KING

OFF STAGE (Above): Nothing says “kinky” like a Baltimore diner and Mr. Leather.

Are you undetectable? Yes, I have been since the beginning. When I hop on Grindr, there are a lot of people who still don’t know what these things are, like U=U and PrEP. HIV is in my profile. I’m used to guys hitting on me and then rejecting me.

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