Oriol R. Gutierrez Jr.

born: February 29, 1972
died: November 11, 1994

"As gay young people, we are marginalized. As young people who are HIV positive and have AIDS, we are totally written off."
-Pedro Zamora

Pedro Zamora is an official honoree today for LGBT History Month 2011.

Zamora was born in Havana, Cuba. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift when he was 8 years old.

They settled in Hialeah, Florida, which still remains a heavily Cuban-American part of the Greater Miami region.

Zamora became an AIDS activist when he tested HIV positive, which he discovered after donating blood. In 1993, he testified before Congress urging more AIDS education.

In 1994, he joined the cast of The Real World: San Francisco on MTV. The day after the final episode aired, Zamora died of AIDS-related complications.

Also in 1994, Zamora was featured on the cover of the recently launched POZ magazine. His life was made into a movie in 2008.

Not only do Zamora and I share a Cuban heritage, I was newly diagnosed HIV positive in 1992. I received much encouragement from seeing him live his life as an openly gay, openly HIV-positive person on television.

Sadly, Zamora didn't benefit from the HIV drugs that saved so many of us only a few years after his death. It would have been amazing to see what more he could have achieved.

Click here to read the 1994 POZ cover story featuring Zamora.

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Public Health Solutions (PHS) is a nonprofit organization that addresses critical public health needs in New York City, including HIV/AIDS care and prevention. "HIV Big Deal" is one of their most exciting HIV initiatives, a series of unique HIV prevention videos.

In 2006, PHS launched the first video. "The Morning After" tells the story of Josh, a gay man who believes he needs to get an HIV test. A PHS study showed that the video had an impact on behavior among at-risk men who have sex with men.

As a result, PHS launched the second video in 2008. "The Test" follows Josh on his HIV test journey.

Now, PHS has just launched the third video in the series. "Ask Me, Tell Me" follows Josh as he wrestles with issues of disclosure and safer sex.

Watch the video:


Watch a Spanish-language excerpt:


For full disclosure, I was asked to offer and did offer my advice during the development of these new videos. I am pleased with the results and I hope they encourage discussion.

Go to "HIV Big Deal" for more information.


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It's not every day that one gets to be part of a media campaign to promote AIDS research, especially the need for a cure. Today happens to be that day for me.

"Making AIDS History" is an initiative of amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. Here's a description from the MakingAIDSHistory.org website:

"Here at MakingAIDSHistory.org, you'll see how advances in AIDS research are transforming lives and shaping dreams. The 30-year struggle against AIDS is the sum of 50 million personal stories of heartache, courage, and triumph over adversity. Stories of men, women, and children from every walk of life. The stories collected here remind us how far we've come and affirm our collective commitment to making AIDS history."

Watch the PSA:

And watch my story:

The HIV/AIDS pandemic will never end without a cure. Thankfully, the science is finally offering real hope on the horizon for a true end to HIV/AIDS.

I am both humbled and proud to be included in this project. My fellow participants all have incredibly compelling stories to share, so I encourage everyone to also watch their stories (warning, you might want to keep some Kleenex handy).

Go to MakingAIDSHistory.org to watch their stories, to learn more about the inspiring AIDS research supported by amfAR and to help amfAR continue its mission to end AIDS.

--

P.S. POZ also has told the stories of some of the folks (including yours truly) involved in this project, so check them out. Click here to read the story of the Stirling-Meredith family (Yonas, their youngest son, is the kid holding the clapperboard above), click here to read more about David Robertson and click here to read my story.


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A Roman Catholic priest in Spain has been separated from his parish after a shirtless photo of him with a 28-year-old seminary student from Cuba has fueled rumors he is gay, according to The Huffington Post.

Andres Garcia Torres, 46, asserts he is heterosexual and is willing to prove it by having church officials measure his anus to verify whether it is dilated.

Although this video from Antena3 is in Spanish, you can get the gist. The woman crying is the mother of the priest. The other people are parishioners who support him.

To add the finishing touch to these sordid details, El Pais reports that church officials have ordered Torres to get an HIV test and get psychiatric treatment.

The ignorance and intolerance from the church and from the priest himself is deep. That said, church officials are within their rights to punish Torres for his alleged homosexuality.

Ordering the priest to get an HIV test reeks of AIDS stigma. When will people cease to automatically equate being gay with being HIV positive?


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In an exceptional article to be published in The New York Times Magazine, Jose Antonio Vargas comes out twice--as gay and as an undocumented immigrant.

The renowned journalist won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team of reporters at The Washington Post covering the Virginia Tech shootings and wrote a series of articles for that newspaper on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington, DC, which were the basis for the documentary The Other City.

He made numerous appearances at screenings to support The Other City. Click here to watch Vargas at one of those screenings and to watch producer Sheila Johnson discuss the making of the documentary.

In 1993 at the age of 12, his mother sent him from the Philippines to live with her parents in San Francisco, who were here legally. Not until he was 16 years old did Vargas find out that he was here illegally.

Vargas says he was inspired to disclose his legal status now by four students who walked from Miami to Washington to lobby for the Dream Act, which would give undocumented young people who have been educated in this country a path to legal permanent residency.

Here's Vargas in his own words:

On the surface, I've created a good life. I've lived the American dream. But I am still an undocumented immigrant. And that means living a different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being found out ... This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn't think of me as one of its own.

His sexual orientation complicated things:

My history class watched a documentary on Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco city official who was assassinated. This was 1999, just six months after Matthew Shepard's body was found tied to a fence in Wyoming. During the discussion, I raised my hand and said something like: "I'm sorry Harvey Milk got killed for being gay. . . . I've been meaning to say this. . . . I'm gay."

I hadn't planned on coming out that morning, though I had known that I was gay for several years. With that announcement, I became the only openly gay student at school, and it caused turmoil with my grandparents. Lolo kicked me out of the house for a few weeks. Though we eventually reconciled, I had disappointed him on two fronts. First, as a Catholic, he considered homosexuality a sin and was embarrassed about having "ang apo na bakla" ("a grandson who is gay"). Even worse, I was making matters more difficult for myself, he said. I needed to marry an American woman in order to gain a green card.

Tough as it was, coming out about being gay seemed less daunting than coming out about my legal status. I kept my other secret mostly hidden.

That last sentence should be a revelation to all who read it. Coming out about his legal status was more of a burden to him than coming out about being gay.

Such is the stigma of being undocumented. I felt the same way about coming out about my HIV-positive status, which was much more difficult for me than coming out about being gay.

I was born in the United States and he wasn't, but here we both are, proudly American. Neither of us had a choice in being born here or coming here. Why should either of us be denied the challenges and opportunities of living in the United States?

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of undocumented immigrants, I can't understand why anyone would stand in the way of the Dream Act.

Vargas may yet face serious consequences for his disclosure, but I'm sure he believes the price of lifting such a heavy burden from his shoulders will be worth it.

Watch an excerpt from his interview with ABC News:

In furthering the national conversation about immigration reform, Vargas has launched a new website. Go to DefineAmerican.org for more details.


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The Latino Commission on AIDS has released the theme of the 2011 National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD).

In English: "Latinos stand together! Let's stay healthy! Get tested for HIV"

In Spanish: "¡Latinos unidos y saludables! Hay que hacerse la prueba del VIH"

This year's theme was selected to underscore the importance of health and wellness in general for Latinos, in addition to HIV/AIDS.

Commemorated annually on October 15 (the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month), NLAAD spotlights the HIV/AIDS epidemic among Latinos.

More than 75,000 people across the country have been tested for HIV as a result of NLAAD events in the past eight years.


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The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was on The Colbert Report on Tuesday, March 29.

Stephen Colbert did a great job at setting up questions for Fauci to knock down. And Fauci did a great job at setting up punchlines for Colbert.

Here are some excerpts:

Colbert: Why aren't we talking about it [AIDS] if it's still a big deal?
Fauci: Well, people get used to it being around, they get complacent about it...

Colbert: Why are so many still people getting it, because we have abstinence education--
Fauci: That rarely works, that rarely works...

[Fauci explains that African Americans are disproportionately affected.]

Colbert: Is their a vaccine?
Fauci: Not yet.
Colbert: Sounds to me like the vaccine is to be a rich white person.

Colbert: Let's go over some of the basics. I know you can transmit AIDS through sex. What about kissing?
Fauci: No.
Colbert: And crying?
Fauci: No. You're OK, you can kiss and cry.
Colbert: That's good, because I also do those during sex.

Jokes aside, not once (at least in the edited version that appeared on air) was "HIV" uttered. I'm sure that wasn't deliberate, but I'm disappointed.

Making the distinction between HIV and AIDS is necessary for people to understand the disease. What a missed opportunity.

That said, the segment did shed some much-needed light on a topic that doesn't get anywhere near the kind of media attention it used to get.

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When it comes to TV watching, I have a varied diet. Serious stuff like The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC and not-so-serious stuff like Star Trek: The Next Generation, on both BBC America and SyFy, are in heavy rotation on my screen.

When it comes to gay-specific programming, I find that I don't watch as much of it as I used to. However, my curiosity got the better of me when the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race on Logo premiered recently.

The usual mayhem and revelry were in full swing. Obviously RuPaul has not lost touch with the masses. I hesitate to comment further on the actual content of the show because it's not my bailiwick.

I do feel more comfortable discussing what was on air during the commercials. I couldn't help but notice a lot of commercials for HIV drugs during the season premiere. Subsequent episodes have continued to air the spots.

My initial reaction was, "Gee, it's great to see HIV awareness on TV!" My follow up reaction was, "Gee, that's a lot of HIV advertising!" My follow up reaction to my follow up reaction was, "Gee, why are they doing so much HIV advertising?"

I'm not alone in noticing. My admittedly anecdotal, nonscientific poll of friends and colleagues had all taken note of the HIV ads.

Let's break it down: Logo is a basic cable network intended for LGBT viewers and their admirers. RuPaul's Drag Race features gay men and transgender people. The audience presumably for this show also features gay men and transgender people. These groups are at high risk for HIV. So, HIV ads air during the show.

I get that logic and I don't necessarily reject that line of thinking completely. But, a gnawing feeling in my stomach tells me there may be more to the story.

The logic I spelled out above would make more sense to me if I saw HIV ads dispersed more evenly throughout the programming on Logo. Aren't there gay men and transgender people watching all the shows on Logo?

The only conclusion I can come to is that the advertisers believe the audience for this show in particular is of special value to them. Who do they believe is watching this show more than other shows on Logo? This is where I start to get uneasy.

On the one hand, it seems reasonable to assume that perhaps there might be more "harder-to-reach" gay men and transgender people watching this show. After all, the show features many contestants from these "harder-to-reach" communities.

On the other hand, that's a stereotypical mindset. I put "harder-to-reach" in quotes in the last paragraph because it's a loaded phrase often used to describe folks who HIV prevention and treatment folks have difficulty reaching with their messaging. Are they really harder to reach or do they just need messaging they can relate to?

And is RuPaul's Drag Race the best backdrop for these HIV ads? The "even if I just reach one person" mantra does not answer this question. Drug makers--and most advertisers--want to reach lots of people.

Are the viewers of this show in a frame of mind to absorb the HIV messaging they are watching as the advertisers intended? Or are they instead in a frame of mind that may actually result in them being further repelled by such HIV messaging?

Lots of questions, not many answers. At least we can all agree RuPaul can still work it!

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"Catch VD" is the new ad campaign promoting the new season of The Vampire Diaries on The CW.

Apparently, this is phase one of the campaign with the next step showing the cast in sexy poses.

Whether intentionally or not, The CW has created quite a stir in the blogosphere (hat tip to dlisted).

Advocating people deliberately get a sexually transmitted infection cannot be what they mean, right?

I know that I thought "venereal disease" when I saw this ad. And I also know I'm not alone. However, The CW thinks otherwise.

This is their statement in response to the controversy: "VD simply stands for Vampire Diaries, and anyone who thinks otherwise should probably get themselves checked out."

I admit that, despite my obsession with all things vampires, I have not seen The Vampire Diaries. I guess I'll have to check it out.


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