July 2009 Archives

It's definitely the worst picture of me ever taken, but how could I not post it?  Can't a blogger try to ride a media frenzy?  I would have posted it sooner, but it took me a while to find.

In 1998, I had a short chat with Michael Jackson, and the proof is above.  We were both at a small amfAR benefit in LA to honor Dr. Arnold Klein, Jackson's dermatologist (and possibly one of his drug suppliers, or the biological father of some Jackson children?).  I had never heard about Klein until this night, but apparently amfAR was founded in his LA home, and his website claims he's raised "over $300 million for HIV research and care."

But this isn't about Klein -- it's about Michael and me.  He came with his wife at the time, Debbie Rowe, but for an awkward moment, I saw him standing alone during the cocktail reception.  So I walked up and introduced myself.  I thanked him for his AIDS charity work, and told him I was amfAR's token HIV positive board member.  He was painfully shy.  I asked him what he was up to these days, and to be honest, I don't really remember his reply -- something about a casino project I think.

A few seconds later, the amfAR photographer asked for our shot, and my best buddy Michael put his arm around me, with his un-white-gloved hand on my shoulder, and smiled.


Addendum:  I just Googled "michael jackson casino," and it turns out my memory was pretty good -- he was planning to open one.

A great ACT UP veteran, and my boyfriend for most of 1988, died suddenly this weekend.  Robert Hilferty was a filmmaker, movie critic, and music critic, working in the last few years for Bloomberg News (you can read many of his music-related stories and interviews here).  The circumstances of his death have been posted by Michael Petrelis.  Other bloggers remember him here and here.  Robert is survived by his beautiful partner, Fabio Toblini.

As a filmmaker, he captured some of ACT UP's most memorable moments, including the action we worked on together putting a giant condom over Jesse Helms' house.  Robert's most famous work was Stop the Church, documenting ACT UP's December 1989 demo at St. Patrick's Cathedral.  In 1991, the film caused its own demonstrations and controversy when the head of PBS programming pulled it at the last moment from a national airing on the series P.O.V.  Various local PBS stations aired it in protest (see this NY Times story).

On a more personal level, he was the man that swept me off my feet at a moment in my life when I desperately needed someone strong and loving to hold me tight.  I had just quit my Wall Street trading job thinking I had only a year or two more to live, and came out publicly as HIV positive during an ACT UP demo.  Robert was HIV negative, and he helped me live and love without stigma.

In the picture below, he's meeting my family for Thanksgiving dinner.  He had a mischievous side I loved, and in this shot he's giving me the evil eye for dragging him way out of his comfort zone.  But the smile says "it's okay."

He always told me everything would be okay.


 

At about 3:00 A.M. this morning, New York State Senator Tom Duane kind of snapped.  He'd had enough of the backroom politics on a bill he supported that prevents people living with HIV or AIDS and receiving public assistance from having to pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent.  Duane, who is openly gay and HIV positive, took to the Senate floor and delivered an impassioned 22 minute speech.

All the pent-up rage from what people with AIDS lived through in the 1980's and early 90's, and even some of the shit we all live through today, can be heard in Tom's voice.  I've always felt we've never processed all the pain we went through back then.  And we're all capable of snapping from it -- letting it spill out at any moment.  There's a Tom Duane lurking deep down in all of us, waiting to be heard.

Thank you, Tom.

Oh, and as reported by the NY Daily News, the bill passed by a vote of 52 to 1.  You can watch how Tom did it below.