When filmmaker Jennie Livingston stumbled upon drag ball culture in the late 1980s, they had no idea how much the resulting film would resonate. Released in 1990, Livingston’s first documentary Paris Is Burning showcases drag balls during the late 1980s in Harlem, New York City, and features interviews with numerous queer and trans Black and Latinx performers who comprised the various “houses” in competition at the balls. Decades later, the film continues to resonate.
Tag: AIDS
A Forgotten Pioneer: The Two-Spirit Activism of Barbara Cameron
Barbara Cameron was an extraordinary woman. A Hunkpapa Lakota, lesbian, Two-Spirit leader, AIDS activist, and pioneer social organizer in San Francisco’s Native American community. Cameron embraced the term Two-Spirit to make Two-Spirit people visible to all Americans. Although it has only been 20 years since her passing, pioneering figures like Cameron are largely forgotten.
Ukraine’s Ticking Time Bomb: Women, War and HIV
The catastrophic destruction triggered by the Russian invasion has rapidly escalated the risk of HIV infection and concomitant violence for women in Ukraine.
COVID-19: A Black, Queer, Feminist Grounding and Call for Self and Community Care
“I believe in us. I believe in you. I believe in myself. While, I don’t know how, and I don’t know when; I know—just like my ancestors knew—that we will find a way through: as long as we remember who we are and what we are capable of.”
Five Lessons the AIDS Epidemic Can Teach Us About COVID-19
We can do what we can today to mitigate this crisis—but unless we continue to address the deep inequalities in our country, the groundwork for the next epidemic, and the one after, has already been laid.
Data is Driving Success in Life-Saving Interventions for Women and Girls—Why Isn’t it Driving Policy?
An HIV/AIDS-reduction program saving the lives of women and girls worldwide is at risk under Trump’s Global Gag Rule—and serves as a testament to the ground we can lose when data doesn’t drive drive policymaking.
Donald Trump’s HIV/AIDS Advisory Council Members Resigned Because of His Policies
“We hope the members of Congress who have the power to affect healthcare reform will engage with us and other advocates in a way that the Trump Administration apparently will not.”
HIV Will Not Stop Me: Girls Speak Out on World AIDS Day
It’s been 32 years since HIV was first discovered. Since then, it’s fair to say that we have come a long way. Just slightly more than 2 million people were infected with HIV in 2013, down from more than 3.6 million in 1997, the epidemic’s height. Currently, approximately 15 million people are taking anti-retroviral drugs […]
“Safe” Sex with IUDs Is Not Safe Enough
An innovative study on birth control, published in the New England Journal of Medicine Oct. 2, was reported with such headlines as, “Free, long-acting contraceptives may greatly reduce teen pregnancy rate.” The three-year study of 1,400 teenage women who were offered various contraceptives at no cost showed that those who chose birth control pills, patches or rings were 22 times more […]
A New Generation of HIV/AIDS Activists is Born
I’m at the 20th International HIV/AIDS Conference in Melbourne this week. It brings together people from all around the world to join hands in continuing and expanding the fight against HIV/AIDS. For me, the conference has been a complete eye opener into a world I hadn’t previously known much about. I was born in 1996, the […]