Living

Sex continues to be a taboo subject for most people I know in my community in the United States. There's a lot of shame and embarrassment surrounding a topic that...

On September 18, 2013, Tez Anderson and others held the first of its kind town hall entitled The Definition of Brave. It was as a community-led town hall. The town...

Talking about sexual health is awkward. There are personal barriers that prevent friends and family from being that go-to person to talk to about issues affecting someone with HIV. So...

I would like to share a little bit about HIV criminalization. If you don’t know what that means: these are laws created to criminalize persons living with HIV who are...

I find that I am constantly bombarded with visual images from my television, phone, ipad, and computer. I feel constantly connected to work, friends, family and strangers through ‘timelines’, ‘likes’...

Too often, the media gets it wrong. HIV is portrayed as a diagnosis that ends life immediately—but this could not be farther from the truth. Today, many people with an...

From what we all know, the epidemic that was called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) in the early 1980s was causing deaths among gay men very rapidly. This term changed to...

There is not a single diagnosis out there that is easy to accept, and HIV is no different. Unfortunately, HIV can be difficult to live with since so many myths...

Wanting to fit in. Isn’t it something how everyone follows the holidays on the calendar and when those dates come around to celebrate, people get depressed, sad or upset because...

The spread of HIV has drastically improved over the last thirty years. As medications and therapies get better, less and less cases are becoming the norm and people living with...

Working out is one of the things that bring me joy. As a kid I disliked it quite a bit. I was that person in gym class that never liked...

It is amazing to have access to thousands of profiles with a glimpse of an individuals’ face and a little blurb about them. You are about to private message them...

There are about 12 HIV awareness days every year and they all have meaning to somebody for one reason or another. These awareness days are close to the hearts of...

Stigma has caused a lot of people diagnosed with HIV to be ashamed of disclosing their status in fear of how they will be treated or looked at. Scared to...

Religion is a tricky topic to talk about. Everyone has different experiences with it. I grew up in the Christian church in a mostly black neighborhood in Chicago. In my...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a medical term for the most common type of heart disease. It is the leading cause of death in the United States and around the...

Words matter. When we talk about certain things, people view another person differently by the choice of words someone else uses. Stigmatizing language changes how another is looked at, so...

Sex is a taboo subject for most Americans. It can get personal and emotional very quickly. Talking about gender and sexuality is vulnerable. These topics reveal who we are as...

I love being in community. I find that I am more alive, more creative, and truly in my element when I am around people. I’ve been wrestling with this for...

Most city dwellers, including myself, have no idea what it is like for someone living in rural middle and southern states in America. There is an overall lack of appreciation...