World AIDS Day 2013

 I spent World AIDS day painting my bathroom. Of course, that hardly means I ignored the day, even if I spent most of it painting my bathroom.

I won't get into who I've lost or why this cause is so important to me and many people I know and love. It shouldn't really matter. HIV/AIDS is still a global killer. AIDS doesn't care if you are straight or gay; black or white; Hispanic or Asian; African or American. The HIV virus works on the same imperatives we all do: live; feed; reproduce. That's all it cares about (not that a virus actually cares about anything). 

AIDS is NOT just a 'gay' disease. HIV doesn't care or know who it infects or kills. It simply wants to follow those imperatives, and it does so, quite well.

I have personally lost at least two friends (one of them an ex) to AIDS. Some folks I know have lost more.

I encourage all of my readers to give to AIDS-fighting charities like amFAR, The Hyacinth Foundation or even JTMF (or any organization dedicated to the eradication of this insidious virus. It is my dream to see a cure/virus in my lifetime. I hope you feel the same.

More, anon.
Prospero

A Painful, Personal Story

World AIDS Day 2011 is winding to a close, just as the JTMF Winter Event is about to begin. And while I am proud to be a part of the James Tolin Memorial Fund, I wish it never existed. 

James passed away in 2002, after a valiant 10-year fight against HIV/AIDS. I never knew the man, but from all accounts, we would have been great friends. And I have to mourn the loss of a potential friend, almost as much as I mourn the loss of dear, sweet Scott. When Scott passed away in 1986, there were no agencies to provide support for those afflicted. There were lots of scared people; nurses who wouldn't touch him; friends and family members who abandoned him and a President who didn't care.

About two weeks before Scott passed away, I went on my weekly visit to the hospital where I had watched him literally waste away before my eyes. I walked into the ward and had to take a breath - he was nearly skeletal, his skin covered in KS lesions and his hair almost gone. He saw me and started to cry. I walked over to his bed and kissed his forehead. "Why are crying?" I asked. 

"You're the only one..."

"What do you mean?"

"You're the only one who keeps coming back." 

Fighting back the tears, I just sat and held him for a while. When I realized he had stopped crying, I looked down and saw he had fallen asleep. I moved to the chair next to his bed and sat, watching him. It was one of the few times I'd seen him in a long time where his face wasn't wracked with pain. A nurse, wearing gloves and a mask came in and asked me if I wanted a mask. I said "No, thank you," and she woke Scott up to take a pill. After she left, he said "Why do still come? Aren't you afraid?"

"No," I said and he started to cry again.

I saw Scott twice more, after that. The first time, he'd had a bit of a rally and we spent most of the visit laughing and joking. The last time I saw him, he was in and out of consciousness; hallucinating and terrified, though he recognized me and seemed to calm down when I talked to him. When I went back the next week, his bed was empty and no one would tell me what had happened because I wasn't family. When I got home, I called his father, who hung up on me. His mother lived in Florida and I had no idea how to find her (this was before the Internet - yes, I am that old), but I finally managed to track down his sister who told me that Scott had indeed, died. He was cremated. There was no funeral; no obituary. They were too ashamed to acknowledge he'd even existed. 

I've never told this entire story to anyone. My family would have been appalled if they'd known I was visiting an AIDS ward every week. My father would have had a stroke. My sister was just too young to fully understand and my mother would have been afraid I would get sick. It was a terrible secret to keep, but I am glad I was there for Scott when no one else was.

It's been 30 years since AIDS was named, and 30 million people world-wide (gay and straight) have died from it. 30 million. 30,000,000. Think about that number.

AIDS diagnoses have been on the decline in the U.S., but continue to rise in Third World countries. President Obama gave a rather hopeful speech today, but the disease is still with us. People are still dying. I hope Mr. Obama is right and that this is the beginning of the end of AIDS. Too many wonderful, talented, loving and just plain good people have been lost. 

This isn't the post I thought it would be. I didn't mean to bring you all down. There is hope. Research and education are the best defenses against this insidious disease and every little bit you can do, helps. I know times are tough. I know that Christmas is coming. But if you have a dollar or two to spare, please consider donating to an AIDS charity, There's still so much work to be done. Here's a list of a few charities dedicated to eradicating HIV/AIDS:

AMFAR

The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation

The Hyacinth Foundation

The James Tolin Memorial Fund

Please consider making a donation to any one of these or other organizations which are trying  to make AIDS an unfortunate footnote in human history.

More, anon.
Prospero

Finally, a Movie Worth Re-Making

In 1979, Disney was in trouble. After Walt died, the studio's standards had fallen and they hadn't had a hit in ages. In a desperate attempt to capitalize on the Sci-Fi craze that had been generated by Star Wars and Close Encounters of the The Third Kind, they assembled a crack team of B-List stars, a former sit-com director (whose only hit movie was the original Freaky Friday, starring the reason Reagan was shot) and a script from a couple of aging TV hacks. The plot revolves around the discovery of the USS Cygnus, missing for 20 years, now perched perilously close to the event horizon of the largest known black hole in the universe, mysteriously immune to the supposedly irresistible gravity. The crew of the rescue ship, The Palomino (lamest spaceship name ever!), boards the Cygnus to discover an army of very cheap-looking Stormtrooper-wannabe robots under the command of the only human on board, mad genius Dr. Hans Reinhardt, who believes his anti-gravity device will protect the Cygnus as he takes her (and the Palomino's crew) into the titular hole. The cast includes Maximilian Schell; Anthony Perkins; Robert Forster; Joseph Bottoms; Yvette Mimieux; Ernest Borgnine and the voices of Roddy McDowell and Slim Pickens as the C3PO and R2D2 of the movie. And of course, there was a "menacing" red, silent hoverbot also named Maximilian. Cheap, silly and loaded with some of Disney's worst dialogue, The Black Hole is a terrible movie:

Well, from those Sci-Fi geeks over at i09 comes the news that Disney has green-lighted a remake of the Black Hole from the team that is about to give us the long-awaited Tron sequel. Given that Disney had been in the business a lot longer than George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg, one might think they would have embraced the new technologies being created by folks like Douglas Trumball and Rick Baker. Instead, they skimped on bad physical effects and cartoonishly anthropomorphic robots. So, for the first time in a long time, comes happy news of a remake of a bad movie that should have better than it was. in the first place. It pleases me to say that I can get behind The Black Hole remake (it also makes me giggle 'cause it sounds so deliberately dirty, which it is). And trust me when I tell you how hard it was not to make more dirty jokes about this movie's title...

And since I went there (talk about segues), as I write this, there are 46 minutes left of World AIDS Day here on the East Coast. If you read me regularly, you know that I am a founding board member of the James Tolin Memorial Fund. We produce an annual benefit featuring a performance of an LGBT-themed comedy and a gala reception and silent auction to raise funds for local AIDS and Arts Education charities. And while it may be the "official" World AIDS Day, it saddens me to think that we need such a day. Every day should be "Stop Being a Selfish Prick and Do Something to Help Someone in Need Day."

Yes, the economy is bad. Yes, you all have bills to pay. So do I. I don't always have money to give. But I do have time. So skip the game next Sunday and deliver a meal to someone not only in need of food, but a smile and a friendly word or two. Attend a local fundraiser (you don't have to spend a whole lot of money) or start one of your own. Why should MLK Day be set aside as a Day of Service? If everyone did just one thing to help someone else, every day -- just one thing -- imagine how much nicer everyone's lives would be. At the risk of repeating myself: Think Globally; Act Locally. Donate. Volunteer. Take Action. Now.

Okay - the rant really is over, as is this day.

More, anon.

Prospero

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day

Never forget those we've lost. Never give up on those we love. Volunteer. Donate. Take Action. Now. Educate to Eradicate. Go here to help:

The James Tolin Memorial Fund

Amfar

The Elton John AIDS Foundation

God's Love, We Deliver

Or Google "HIV/AIDS+Charities+Agencies+(Your City)" to find out how to help in your own backyard. Think globally; act locally.

Rant over. Back to our regularly scheduled nonsense, anon.
Prospero