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Dealing with Shame can be a real Drag
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". March 15th, 2012. Dealing with Shame can be a Drag. We’re born naked and the rest is drag. — RuPaul. When I was nine years old, I took my parents’ album of the Broadway musical Damn Yankees and memorized every syllable of Gwen Verdon’s show stopper, Who’s Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo? Not a smart move, Mother, leaving Mark alone with the company. Mrs May, would you like to see me do a song? It is that boy, the cheerful but feminine performer, that I always feared ...
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The Visual AIDS Web Gallery "Proud to be Positive" - My Fabulous Disease
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". June 1st, 2015. The Visual AIDS Web Gallery “Proud to be Positive”. June is Pride Month in the LGBT community, and I was honored to be asked by Visual AIDS to curate a “web gallery”. On the topic. Immediately, I considered a question that I had once posed to readers. If living with HIV is nothing to be ashamed of, is it something to be proud of? It was a really interesting exercise to explore this question, and I hope you will head over to Visual AIDS. We must reject the...
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Five Activists Give the Ten Worst Offenses of AHF's Michael Weinstein - My Fabulous Disease
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". June 25th, 2015. Five Activists Give the Ten Worst Offenses of AHF’s Michael Weinstein. I was proud to join four fellow activists contributing to this story, which originally appeared on the site HIV Equal. If you have ever wondered what all the fuss is about — or think the conflicts activists have with AIDS Healthcare Foundation are just industry “inside baseball” — here are ten reasons to believe otherwise.). Of one man: Michael Weinstein. In the past 15 years, Weinste...
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What It Feels Like for a Mom - My Fabulous Disease
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". May 9th, 2015. What It Feels Like for a Mom. 8220;A boy’s best friend is his mother.”. 8212; Norman Bates,. I was standing at the ticket counter of the movie theater and couldn’t believe my ears. They were telling me that. With visions of decapitations fading like an old blood stain, I made the long walk back home and exposed my broken heart to Mother, who made one of the grandest gestures of my childhood: she took me back for the late show. On a school night. Did she be...
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The Odds of Love - My Fabulous Disease
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". May 25th, 2015. The Odds of Love. This post will never be as romantic as I would like it to be. And it could never be as romantic as the truth. On the evening of July 22, 2012, Michael Mitchell went to a mixer at Cobalt, a gay club in Washington, DC. The international AIDS conference was being held in town and Michael, a DC resident who had once served as director of an AIDS agency, decided on a whim to go check it out. And thought the name of the mixer —. I swallowed th...
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Five Reasons to Take the HIV Test Right Now - My Fabulous Disease
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". June 29th, 2015. Five Reasons to Take the HIV Test Right Now. Sometimes it’s helpful to get back to basics, and there is no more basic, effective tool to fight the HIV epidemic than to encourage testing. How long has it been for you, my friend? Here are five important facts about HIV testing that I hope will convince you to get busy and get tested — again. 1 You could be HIV positive and not even know it. If you test positive, you can take advantage of a variety of medic...
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Once, We Were Heroes
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". November 28th, 2010. Once, When We Were Heroes. My brother Richard smiles a lot. He has an easy laugh. But there was a time, years ago, when he held a poisonous drink in his hands and begged his dying lover not to swallow it. A time when Richard held the concoction they had prepared together and wept. Richard has a charming store in my hometown today, where he sells collectibles and does theater in his free time. The drink was consumed over twenty years ago. There is a s...
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HIV Positive Criminals: Have Sex, Go to Jail
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". December 29th, 2011. HIV Positive Criminals: Have Sex, Go to Jail. This may be the defining HIV issue of our time, and it is a true test of our compassion and understanding of both HIV stigma and the law. Please read this closely. Or simple “assault with a deadly weapon,” people with HIV who do not disclose their status to their sexual partners are risking arrest and prosecution. You’re already having a visceral response to this scenario, aren’t you? But the sad fact is,...
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The Stupid Question: "Are You Clean?"
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". June 21st, 2012. The Stupid Question: “Are You Clean? I took a shower this morning. I am clean. I might work out at the gym later, or maybe the trash bag will break on the way outside and I will scoop up coffee grounds and put them back into the bag. I will then be dirty. I will shower again. And I will be clean. Anyone who questions whether or not HIV stigma is on the rise need look no further than online profiles and hookup sites, in which Are you clean? The person bei...
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Category:My Fabulous Disease Archives - My Fabulous Disease
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Mark S. King. A Place Like This". August 22nd, 2016. LEAKED: Five Point Internal Memo to Chase Brexton CEO! TO: Richard Larison, CEO, Chase Brexton FROM: Your Executive Assistant RE: Five points about the recent unpleasantness Your Excellency, I know you’ve asked me not to disturb you when you are sealed in […]. August 17th, 2016. My Fabulous Disease Wins NLGJA ‘Best Blog’ Award. August 16th, 2016. The Human Toll of Chase Brexton’s Union-Busting Efforts. August 2nd, 2016. July 26th, 2016. July 18th, 2016.
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