aids

Dallas Buyers Club Review- Negative/Positive?

Sometimes it feels to me that every year a mainstream Hollywood film comes out that I can describe as such: it’s a solid overall film with a fantastic leading man performance, it’s just the main character is an unlikable douchebag. This perceived trend dates back as early as 2009, when the Michael Douglas vehicle Solitary Man premiered. Upon seeing it, I found myself recommending it, yet at the same time wondering how I could have enjoyed spending an hour-and-half of my time watcing a vile 54-year-old sexual predator. After giving it some thought, I decided it had to rest solely on Michael Douglas’ winning performance, and I took it as a mark that he was one of the few actors in Hollywood that could carry such a film. Soon after, along came Greenberg, and Flight which featured two other big Hollywood names (Ben Stiller and Denzel Washington respectively) playing central characters that were reprehensible in a similar fashion. Once again, I did find myself liking these movies, and pressing on that it must have took truly adept acting in order to make these films work. Now, 2013’s addition to this canon would appear to be Dallas Buyers Club, and I would say it is actually quite a bit better than the previous ones. It could have to do with the fact that it holds weight for being a true story, or that it’s subject matter on AIDs and health-care is very relevant. Still, it hard for me to shake off that once again this is a film that rests on a great leading man performance, and star Matthew McConaughey might just be the most fascinating one in Hollywood right now.

Set in 1986, the film reiterates the true story of Ron Woodroof, a Texan rodeo employee, whose past-times include heavy drinking, cocaine, and promiscuous sex. After a freak accident at work lands him in the hospital, his doctors tell him that after doing some blood tests on him they did indeed discover him to be HIV-positive, and also estimate that he only has about 30 days to live. At first Woodroof scoffs at these claims, but then after having a few unexpected blackouts, and putting into account how rough his lifestyle is, he finally realizes that he must indeed have the virus. At first he takes the doctor regulated drug AZT, which is the only legalized drug for HIV available in the U.S., and nearly dies from it. Upon taking anti-viral medication from outside the states, however, Woodroof finds his condition only betters, and he does indeed survive the 30 days. Soon after, with the help of his doctor (Jennifer Garner) and a fellow patient (Jared Leto), Woodroof starts the Dallas Buyers Club, a business dedicated to giving AIDs victims affordable and efficient medical options, all while combating the powerful pharmaceutical companies of America.

It’s certainly a fascinating subject to carry out in a film, as I feel a lot of people have forgotten how scary the advent of AIDs was on the generation of the supposed sexual revolution. It’s just, it’s a bit difficult to get behind Ron Woodroof character at first as Woofroof is homophobic, self-abusive, and more than a little bit lecherous, so he’s basically the last person anyone would ever expect to carry on the label as being a hero. Fact is that the guy was just bringing drugs into the states to help his own ass initially, and then only begins to sell them for his own financial gain. Only near the film’s end does it seem that he did have any sort of empathy for other AIDs survivors. The film’s message about healthcare in America could have come off as muddled through Woodroof, as he’s really not the most exemplary person, but there’s also something just so compulsively viewable in him too.

As of this moment, I can’t really think of another American actor that’s had a career revival as stark and eyes-widening as that as Matthew McConaughey’s. Due to his good looks and charisma, the actor found himself miscast in generic romantic comedies throughout the 2000s, but in recent years we’ve seen him take great strides to reclaim the dexterity he established in his earlier films like Dazed and Confused. His recent work in good movies like Killer Joe and Mud showed that he really is more than a pack of abs and a southern accent, but his performance as Woodroof might be his best yet. He’s a dirty man with a dirty mouth, but McConaughey handles it all do delicately with every movement and syllable. He’s so smooth as Woodroof, that in the film’s more comical scenes (such as when Woodroof dresses up as a priest so that he can get through U.S. customs), that we actually find ourselves seeing the character as a bit more affable as he had been beforehand. It truly took a lot of dedication on McConaughey’s part to portray this character, both on a mental and physical level. Those that have been reading entertainment news sources have likely already heard that Matthew McConaughey slimmed down a whopping 47 pounds for this role. Right now, I’m thinking McConaughey is gonna be the actor to beat for best actor come Oscar season.

There’s impressive acting from the people who don’t have alliterations for names as well. Jennifer Garner has seemed to be getting more attention for being Ben Affleck’s spouse in recent years, but here she does a commendable performance as doctor Eve Saks, and we can also be glad that she doesn’t play the love interest for Woodroof. Jared Leto, an actor who received plenty of acclaim from his earlier roles who then most put his career on hold upon the success of his band 30 Seconds to Mars, makes a sturdy come-back performance here. While it’s not unheard of for actors to make a jump-back into the acting game by coming right out the gate playing an eccentric character (and who more so than a drag-queen), but Leto does hold the screen, and it’s clear that he made an extensive physical transformation for the role. Also, while I would like to say something about Jean-Marc Vallée’s directing, I’m finding myself a bit amiss. While his directing is very capable (and reliant on close-ups), it’s just seems to be overshadowed by that of his actors. Dallas Buyers Club is an acting showcase first and foremost, and that’s absolutely fine.

Dallas Buyers Club may not exactly be a great movie. Yes, Woodroof isn’t exactly cute and cuddly, and plenty of people will be calling the film awards bait, as it does play it relatively safe by Oscar movie standards. What it is though is a strong film about an interesting real-life story, and it might be the final straw towards getting naysayers to shut up and admit that Matthew McCounaughey is a damn fine actor already (correction, make that a fucking phenomenal actor!). It’ll be interested to see how McCounaghey adapts to the television medium when we see him in HBO’s new series, True Detective, upon it’s premiere next year.

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Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on the City.

by Walter Reed

I am not a transsexual! There is nothing wrong with transitioning your spare parts. Nor is there any wrongdoing in using them on married men from New Jersey at the pier. However, it’s not my thing. I just like the clothes. On a Friday night after a couple of cocktails and sample sales, someone handed me a flyer stating:

Transexual wanted! A reality show producer seeks a transvestite, transgender or transexual person. $500+ a day….

What?! At $500 a day I could be! Where am I going to find some breasts? Perhaps, I could find someone who knows someone at the pier. Wait…let’s be clear, I am nobody’s tranny.

We live in an environment where dressing like our straight male counterparts is ideal. I meet so many of these cookie-cutter macho men dressed in wife-beaters and Timbs. They are closeted queens, getting poked by trannies in the alleys behind bars all over the city.

I choose not the suffocating anesthetic of street wear, but the electric jolt of designer skirts and dresses. Men’s fashion hasn’t changed much in the past 50 years. While menswear designers and consumers are content with those complacent concoctions, masquerading as fashion, I prefer to blend my genders to create new gender-bending silhouette: a juxtaposition of soft and hard.

Living in the city that never sleeps, you’ll find that the way we dress is not as gay as you think. In terms of what we wear, it’s a lot more closeted. Take our gay-borhoods or gay bars, you’ll find most gays dressed in t-shirts, jeans and fitted caps. No skirts, dresses or even short-shorts in 100-degree weather. When did we take the homo out of homosexual, and made it a homogenous decree for fellow gays to live by?

In the height of the sexual seventies before the age of AIDS; the city was swept with so many gays, parties and party favors. Although sex is usually on the table, in the bathroom, or in the doorway. A time when gays were so out it was in again. Now we have Splash closing and countless others before it, gay bashings and fake drugs. It was like the city’s insanity was wiped away with a giant sanitation napkin. Are we too afraid of the big disease that nearly destroyed the city three decades ago?

Before Paris was burning in underground clubs all over the city; it was on fire on the streets of Manhattan. Tales of sex, drugs and discotheques is like an urban legend compared with the status quo. Who gave New York City a Xanax?

The rise of Time Square and the fall of the twin towers put a damper on the edge of the city. The ho-stroll is filled with broke homeless hoes. The bars now cards and even the oldest male clientele have to show ID. Our first gay bar in the country, Stonewall, after four decades is now a museum for single women, the lesbians who love them, and random straight men who want to have sex with them all. The after-hours is in Atlanta, and the sex shops are empty. Barney’s Co-Op shut it’s doors in Chelsea for good, leaving little viable options to shop in the gay-borhood.

Our city is in a slump. We the gay people need to put our heterosexual self on the shelf next to the porn stash and take the homosexual back out of the closet.

Charlie & Scotty- How an HIV Positive & Negative guy can find love

by Ryan Shea

Love comes in all kinds of shapes, sizes, ways and conditions. Yet if you are open, mature and strong enough you can look past what some others can’t and get to know your significant other as the one you love rather than the one that you see with so many red flags. This is the case with my two good friends Scotty Rage and Charlie Harding. I met Charlie a couple of months back at the Black Party Expo here in New York City. It was a quick exchange, but we started talking on Facebook and texting and I truly got to know him and what a fantastic guy he was and is.

Then I got to know Scotty, his partner, who just happens to be open about his HIV status. He is positive, Charlie is negative. This is something that quite frankly is taboo in the gay culture in that many men who are negative fear dating a man who is HIV positive for the obvious reasons (infection, health problems) and going beyond that (social stigma, embarrassment). What Scotty and Charlie want is for people to understand this disease and the risks of it, but at the core of it if you love someone you can be there for them and help them along the way without judgement. I sat down with them last week to discuss how they met, when Scottie was open about his status and ultimately what they are hopeful for with each other and the rest of their lives. Take a look.

How did you two meet?

Charlie- Actually an ex of mine that I had lost touch with for years said hi to me on Facebook. After chatting with him and becoming friends again, he suggested that I be-friend Scotty on Facebook. I did, Scotty and I started chatting and direct messaging and then that led to texting, and then a few phone calls and things progressed to where we became long-distance best friends. I was actually still in a past relationship that ended up to be very toxic and tragic, and Scotty was my confidant and shoulder to cry on when that one went bad. We were actually friends that had never met in person for the first almost 2 1/2 years that we knew each other.

Scotty- And once Charlie’s relationship had been over for about six months, I went out to visit him in Nashville. It was the first time we met in person, there were strong feelings for each other, and affection that led to sex and it just kept growing. A couple weeks later he came down to visit me in Atlanta and spent a few days. The visit went amazingly well, and we realized that we really, really, really liked each other. He went back to Nashville and a couple weeks later said he wanted to move out of Nashville maybe to Atlanta.

Charlie- Yep! So I packed everything up that I had in Nashville, and after working a bartending shift one night took off and drove to Atlanta, I moved in with Scotty. Literally the third time we met in person we shacked up together!

Scotty- Well actually, I suckered him into moving down to Atlanta and in with me under the pretense that he would be able to go find his own apartment. But once he moved in I wouldn’t let him leave!

Charlie- I didn’t want to…

What made you fall for each other?

Scotty- Charlie’s a hottie obviously, but he has an amazing aura about him. He is super intelligent, dynamic, extremely openhearted and genuine, and once he lets his guard down, he’s also very vulnerable and sensitive.

Charlie- Awe… Now he’s making me blush. For me Scotty was a breath of fresh air. He is one of the most energetic, positive thinking, happy to please and open minded people I’ve ever met in my life. Our personalities just meshed very easily, and the communication channels were so open that we felt like we could talk about anything.

How soon in the relationship did you tell Charlie about your HIV Status?

Scotty- To be honest I don’t remember exactly, but I know it was something that we discussed very early in the friendship stages. As we were introducing ourselves to each other via Facebook and texting.

Charlie- Yeah, I think it was within the first few weeks when we were kind of running through personal histories, and what we’ve done in our lives, challenges we faced and dreams of the future I think it came up in conversation. It wasn’t one of those big dramatic moments of disclosure that so many people it needs to be.

Charlie- Had you dated a guy who was poz before hand? If so, what was the experience like? If not, were you apprehensive?

Charlie- Not that I’m aware of. I mean, I’ve had lots of friends who are HIV-positive and I’m sure some sexual partners in there that were as well, whether they disclosed it correctly or not. But I didn’t really think of it as a concern when we realized we were going to start dating. It was just something else to educate myself on so that we could do what was appropriate. We discussed his medications, how long he had been undetectable, and I did tons of research as to what the risk factors of being with someone both sexually and just in your daily lives were. As an HIV negative person, I wanted to try to gain the best understanding I could of his situation, so that fear or ignorance wouldn’t be an issue in our relationship.

Scotty- We talked about it I remember, but like everything else that we talked about it was just open communication and discussion. It was never brought up as an ending factor for the potential relationship, or something big and dramatic. It was just another thing that added to the facets of our relationship and dynamic.

For both- What has been the challenges in the relationship that one is poz and one is negative?

Scotty- Well being the one who is HIV-positive, my concern is obviously to keep myself healthy, and protect the health of my partner. There’s always that chance even though I’ve been undetectable for 14 years, that I could infect him. So we discussed it, take the risks that were comfortable with, and go in with an understanding that it is extremely unlikely, but possible.

Charlie- The key thing for me was to be educated on what HIV-positive, undetectable means. That eliminates the big scary fear and reduces it to just a medical condition that needs to be dealt with.

Scotty- Have you dealt with any judgment from the gay community regarding your status and if so how do you deal with that?

Scotty- The gay community just like all of society is a big mix of people. Some are open-minded and willing to educate themselves on issues before forming opinions and others not so much. So of course certain people have judged or negatively responded when they find out that I’m HIV-positive, but the majority of folks out there it’s a non- issue. Let’s put it this way: if someone being HIV-positive would be a factor in your decision to be friends with that person, chances are we wouldn’t get along. From a sexual side, there are definitely folks who are not comfortable “hooking up” with somebody who is HIV-positive. And that’s ok. While it hurts to know that folks still feel that way, I would never ask someone to do something they were uncomfortable with. So you learn to work around it.

Charlie- Same question as Scotty.

Charlie- Well given my adult film work, one of the most surprising things that I found out was that a lot of folks assumed that I was HIV-positive. I had actually heard jokes saying “aren’t all porn guys Poz?” So I felt some negativity in that respect. Further being an HIV negative person who is coupled with an HIV-positive person opens up other questions in certain peoples minds. Some of the more close minded folks, for example those typically less educated on the subject of HIV and what undetectable means, asked me if I was a bug chaser. Evidently some folks can’t believe that you can love somebody for being themselves and not let an illness get in the way? But right now I will officially go on the record and say, “I am an HIV negative man who is in love with an HIV-positive man, I’m not with him because he’s positive, I’m with him because he’s the most amazing and loving person I have ever met. His poz-undetectable status is just one small part of the whole human being.”

Scottie, Being Poz yourself, what is your opinion with the prevalence of barebacking in the porn industry and outside of it?

Scotty- That seems to be a big discussion in the adult film industry right now: the use of condoms or the lack there of. I think the thing to remember when watching porn is that this is a fantasy. Porn scenes, television shows, movies and even fiction writing all portray fantasies. These are all ways to escape the reality situation that we live in. So what you see, hear and read are not set up to be realistic in your real life. Anyone who would watch porn, and then use those scenes as a comparable for real-life sexual situations is being unrealistic.

Charlie- Bareback sex versus condom sex is a very personal decision. From a professional standpoint performers have to decide what they want to portray on film, and what they’re comfortable with doing publicly. In your personal life it’s the same scenario. You weigh out your risk factors and act in a manner that is acceptable to you. My place is to decide what works for me, Scotty and I should decide what works for us. What everyone else does, is none of our damn business.

For both- What is the biggest misconception with men who are poz?

Charlie- I want to answer this two ways. I think the biggest misconception that I see that HIV-positive men have of themselves is that they’re somehow tarnished or broken. The other big misconception that I see in the general population is that HIV-positive men are all irresponsible. I know plenty of people who contracted HIV who were not drug users, who were not wild party people and who were not overly sexually promiscuous. HIV can affect everyone.

Scotty- I agree with what Charlie said on both fronts. When you poz your reality changes, and you question yourself worth. It takes a while to adjust and adapt to the fact that you have something that a lot of the world sees as an extremely negative illness. I also agree that a big misconception is that only the slutty, party guys are at risk.

For both- What does the future hold for the both of you?

Scotty- What were planning on getting married in the next six months, we have plans to retire to Florida at some point in the future and there’s been talk about possibly having a baby…

Charlie- Yeah I would like to actually have a child that’s my genetics. So it’s surrogate an artificial insemination maybe in our future! The main thing would be just looking forward to experiencing everything we can, live your lives to the fullest together, and hopefully celebrating the day when some one HIV status won’t be an issue because HIV will be no more.

For both- What advice would you give to some of the younger men out there who have an active sex life?

Scotty- Be smart about your decisions, be smart about your partners But don’t be scared to enjoy yourself.

Charlie- Educate, educate, educate! If there’s something you don’t understand about HIV or what undetectable means, research it. Give yourself every bit of information that you can before you start making decisions as to what you are comfortable with doing. Talk to your doctor, talk to your friends and talk to your local Community centers and HIV outreach groups. You’ll find that you’ll get a lot of differing opinions, and different information. So what you have to do is wade through it all and decide what you think fits your situation the best. For example your read studies that were done in the US that say Truvada as a preventative for HIV HAS a 40 to 70% effectiveness rate, then you’ll read about a study that was done in Europe which claims a 99% effectiveness rate. Just like with anything else review it all and form your own opinions. Don’t do things you’re not comfortable with. Don’t be afraid of HIV simply because you don’t understand.

Love these two for how open and truly amazing they are. Want to know more about these guys? Check out Charlie’s FB page as well as Scotty’s which also details everything they have in the works for their booming business life. Everyone that reads this- learn from it, don’t judge it. Be mature and get to understand your surroundings.

Also check out:

Charlie’s Twitter

Scotty’s Twitter

Charles World Apparel!!! AWESOME STUFF!

Charlie Harding Presents

Pedro Zamora- Why his legacy remains important

by Ryan Shea

Credit to: Bunny's Victory — Credit to: Bunny’s Victory

Out of frustration that I was stuck home last night due to circumstances (babysitting my nephew. Cute yes, on a Saturday night not so much), I was flipping through my channels when I saw that MTV was doing a Real World marathon of their three biggest seasons (New York Season 1, San Fransisco Season 3 and Las Vegas Season 12). They hashtagged it with #retroMTV, and where as I don’t see Vegas being so retro the other two were and so much more. Vegas was on last night, and it was a great reminder of how great the show used to be yet somehow I see Vegas as the one that made that show “jump the shark” because they spent every season afterwards sexualizing the program as opposed to making it about 7 strangers who were trying to co-exist in one place. There is a difference there.

Today they are doing what is still considered by so many people as the best season of Real World- San Fransisco. The third season of this iconic show portrayed two of its most polarizing characters in Pedro Zamora, and David “Puck” Rainey. Two completely different men in so many ways yet made the show fascinating with their unique viewpoints and how they got to the life they had at that time in 1994. Puck was considered to be the zany outcast of the group, getting arrested on his way to going to the house and doing a number of unpredictable acts such as putting his fingers in the peanut butter as one. Something by that standards could be on Nick Junior today and no one would blink an eye, but twenty years ago this was considered ground breaking in a variety of ways.

Pedro Zamora on the other hand, couldn’t have been more of a stark opposite.

An avid educator on AIDS, he was shown throughout the show doing his lectures about his condition and how others can prevent it. Him and Sean Sasser also made headlines as one of the first gay couples to be seen on a national spotlight and in such a frank and open manner. They would up getting engaged and had a commitment ceremony in the loft that Zamora and his castmates were living in for the show.

Sadly, Zamora wound up passing away only a couple of months after filming ended on November 11th, 1994. Since his passing, he was acknowledged for his tireless efforts as an AIDS crusader by former President Bill Clinton and had several organizations named in his honor as well.

So why does he remain relevant today? It’s simple. To put it in terms only I can, Pedro stood up and spoke loud and clear about a disease that was killing millions when others cowarded and avoided the topic due to their own personal feelings about homosexuals and AIDS itself. He knew the uphill battle that he had to face and took it head on and instead of retreating and living out the rest of his life in silence he broke the mold and spoke his piece in a time where this disease was a major death sentence and viewed as globally in a terrible manner. He made people wake up and educate themselves, something that a lot of people are still having a hard time doing today.

Quite frankly, he should’ve been nominated and awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize that year. He brought a nation together and gave them an understanding of what he was going through so that each person themselves could get a better judgement on what the disease was and that beyond the disease there is a human being attached to that person. There is more to a person than HIV. He is and forever will be in people’s minds seen as a hero and he is one of mine as well for so many different reasons.

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