World AIDS Day

Accepted Readers,

Today is World AIDS Day, a day to spread awareness for HIV and AIDS and its impact on the world. The stigma that comes along with just mentioning this virus is hard to bare. In most cases the people who have the virus are severely discriminated against and sometimes even feared. Many people think that HIV and AIDS is only a "queer" disease, meaning that only the gays, lesbians, bi-sexual, or transgender people get it. THIS IS NOT TRUE, ANYONE can contract this deadly disease. 

Today is the day to spread awareness, to commemorate those who have died and those who have been affected by this disease, to fight for/beside them to let them know they are not alone. Take the time today to learn about HIV and AIDS because knowledge is power. It is in our ignorance where our fears and discrimination form. Let's take a stand and promote love, acceptance, understanding, hope, and prevention. Together we can make a difference. 

Authors and Gay Right Advocates 
Speak Out

In honor of World AIDS Day, Open Road Integrated Media, asked celebrated authors and gay rights advocates, including Martin Duberman and Christopher Bram, to discuss the impact of AIDS on their personal lives as well as their writing. 

For more on these authors and to browse their AIDS in Literature collection, visit openroadmedia.com/LGBT

I will be reading and reviewing Someone Was Here sometime during the month of December. Check back soon for my review.

Amidst the political, medical, and statistical aspects of AIDS are the human beings whose lives are being taken. Gay novelist Whitmore, himself diagnosed with AIDS, returns to his journalistic roots to document the tragedy on an intimate level. He presents dramatized profiles based on interviews: Jim Sharp, his lover Dennis, and his buddy Edward in Greenwich Village; Mike Rocha reunited with his mother Nellie in Greeley, Colorado; and Jimmy Sanchez, nursed by Carmen Baez at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. The result is "something more like snapshots taken from a speeding train" than a panoramic essay. This is an admirable, personal attempt at bringing the abstract horrors of the epidemic to an inescapable reality.

Interested in reading or reviewing Someone Was Here by author and activist George Whitmore? You can request it from NetGalley. 

Become Educated

According to statistics 1 out of 5 people with HIV and AIDS are NOT aware that they have it, prevention is key to stopping this deadly virus. Get tested.

To find a testing facility:

 National HIV and STD Testing Sites 

 Learn more about HIV AND AIDS:

(RED) 

FaceBook | Website

AIDS.Gov