FROM THE EDITOR ORIOL R. GUTIERREZ JR. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JENNIFER MORTON MANAGING EDITOR
KATE FERGUSON TRENTON STRAUBE SENIOR EDITORS
BENJAMIN RYAN EDITOR-AT-LARGE
DORIOT KIM
ART DIRECTOR
MICHAEL HALLIDAY
ART PRODUCTION MANAGER
SHANITA EALEY CASEY HALTER INTERNS
SEAN O’BRIEN STRUB FOUNDER
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
TOMIKA ANDERSON, SHAWN DECKER, AUNDARAY GUESS, MARK S. KING, MARK LEYDORF, TIM MURPHY, RITA RUBIN CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
JOAN LOBIS BROWN, BLAKE LITTLE, JEFF SINGER, JONATHAN TIMMES, TOKY, BILL WADMAN POZ NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
A. CORNELIUS BAKER, GUILLERMO CHACON, NEIL GIULIANO, KATHIE HIERS, MARJORIE HILL, TIM HORN, PAUL KAWATA, NAINA KHANNA, DAVID MUNAR, DANIEL TIETZ, MITCHELL WARREN, PHILL WILSON
SMART + STRONG IAN E. ANDERSON PRESIDENT
MEGAN STRUB
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER
DENNIS DANIEL COMPTROLLER
JONATHAN GASKELL
INTEGRATED ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
ANDREJ JECHROPOV
DIRECTOR, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
CDM PUBLISHING, LLC JEREMY GRAYZEL, CEO
(GUTIERREZ) STEVE MORRISON; (WATERCOLOR) ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/COLE VINEYARD
SALES OFFICE
212.242.2163; 212.675.8505 (FAX) SALES@POZ.COM PRESS REQUESTS
NEWS@POZ.COM SUBSCRIPTIONS
HTTP://ORDER.POZ.COM UNITED STATES: 800.973.2376 CANADA, MEXICO AND OVERSEAS: 212.242.2163 SUBSCRIPTION@POZ.COM SEND LETTERS TO: POZ, 462 SEVENTH AVE., 19TH FLOOR, NY, NY 10018 FAX: 212.675.8505 EMAIL: EDITOR-IN-CHIEF@POZ.COM OR VISIT POZ.COM
JOIN POZ
POZ.COM/FACEBOOK
POZ.COM/YOUTUBE
POZ.COM/TWITTER
POZ.COM/FLICKR
We Are Family
I
‘VE NEVER BEEN THE KIND OF person who wraps himself up in the flag—any flag, whether it be the stars and stripes of the United States, the scarlet, gray and gold of the Marine Corps, or the bright colors of the rainbow flag. That said, I am happy to be an American, to have served my country in uniform and to be a gay man. I’ve just never been comfortable wearing those things on my sleeve. I do, however, feel more than comfortable seeing those flags displayed—I feel a sense of pride and camaraderie. At their best, flags are symbols that unite an otherwise disparate group of people under an idea, such as citizenship, service or equality. The big difference among these flags is that the U.S. flag and the Marine Corps flag when displayed send a message of love of country, but the rainbow flag when it’s displayed sends a message of love of self: “You are welcome here.” I’ll never forget how accepted I felt seeing all the rainbow flags waving at my first LGBT pride parade. It is this sense of acceptance—or rather, the lack of it—that is so dissonant when it comes to HIV stigma among gay men. An essay on page 34 by Mark S. King—an AIDS advocate, an author and a blogger living with HIV since 1985—explores why it persists. Our Q&A with Paul Semugoma, MD, on page 10 reveals not only a lack of acceptance, but also an abundance of intolerance for LGBT people, especially gay men with HIV, in his native Uganda. Case in point: He hasn’t gone home since he came out as gay in a speech in Washington, DC, during the XIX International AIDS Conference last year. Such circumstances are reminiscent of a time not so long ago in the United States when our AIDS epidemic started to take hold. Not only was there a lack of empathy
for gay men dying of this disease, but there was even outright hate from some parts of society who believed that we had it coming. Such sentiments continue, but our humanity has turned the tide. The emotion of that time was expressed in many ways, but perhaps no medium was a better outlet than art. Visual AIDS—the creators of the Day Without Art and the Red Ribbon—helped harness that creative explosion into a focused weapon in the war against the virus. Go to page 38 to find out how 25 years later the group still arms HIV-positive artists. Happy Pride Month!
ORIOL R. GUTIERREZ JR. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF editor-in-chief@poz.com
Want to read more from Oriol? Follow him on Twitter @oriolgutierrez and check out blogs.poz.com/oriol.
poz.com JUNE 2013 POZ 5