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Dear Peter, I feel very connected to your active voice in the community. I started an NGO for people living with HIV to engage international service,Volunteer Positive. What I have realized, now that the term has been coined, is that I was designing something that impacts Aids Survival Syndrome directly. I have seen amazing transformations in the lives of the volunteers who have traveled with me. I am planning on meeting Tez Anderson of Letskickass.org and was hoping to meet you as well, or at least have a phone conversation/interview. POZ Magazine did a wonderful article/interview written by Oriol in 2011, the same year Volunteer Positive made their top 100 list. It helped launch my work. This month I became involved with a social innovation project at Portland State University as a community professional where my work is going to be put in a development accelerator. I am thrilled, but part of my work is to expand my connection to others leading the way, and I feel like you are surely one such person. I would be sharing my talk with you, and your insights, with the social accelerator community here in Portland. Would you do me the honor of an interview? www.volunteerpositive.org Please feel free to reach out. Carlton Email: carlton@volunteerpositive.org
You are an inspiration. My wife just had me watch "How To Survive A Plague". I looked at her after and told her I wonder what Peter Staley thinks about the fact that gay men are still becoming infected. I personally have 2 friends living with HIV. This prompted me to look you up. Thank you for continuing to fight. I can only imagine how hard it must be to have lost so many loved ones. But they are all looking at you and smiling. Diana
See table 11b, page 42: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/statistics_2011_HIV_Surveillance_Report_vol_23.pdf#Page=42
Where are you getting the 7,000 figure? What source or sources?
My thanks to you and others who worked so hard comes very late. I am a 30+ year survivor. My body and mind are not what they should be for a 54 year old guy but I AM STILL HERE! I will be forever in debt to those of you who saved my life.
I just saw the documentary and was moved by your determination. As a straight man, I've never given much thought to aids. I'm surprised by how much your struggles moved me. Having fought in 2 needless wars, and serving an intolerant government, your comment on returning was poignant. Keep fighting!
Wow, thanks Sam!
Carlene Byron
Peter: Your movement does still have work to do. At the same time, you have accomplished huge things. Today, the annual death rate from HIV/AIDS in the US is less than the death rate from homicide and 1/4 the death rate from suicide. That's mostly because of what you all accomplished over several decades. I've thought the mental health movement had important things to learn from your community ever since I read John D'Emilio's "Sexual Politics ..." Like you, stigma is one of our largest battlegrounds. Our status is close to 1950s gay community -- don't tell if you want to keep your job. But I've started to think that suicide will become our HIV/AIDS. It is among top 5 causes of death for ages 10-54, with military veterans representing 20 percent of annual suicides. Now I'm seeing that you face the same kind of rising stigma and internal stigma that we do, also seemingly as a result of effective available treatment. This makes me really want to talk. Can we connect?
October 15, 2014