“Somebody Has To Be The Memory”
Sean Strub, long-term AIDS survivor, was the subject of a feature in Sunday’s New York Times. Founder of POZ magazine, he mused over the last few decades, friends lost, priorities shifed. Now he’s returned to activism.
“So many contemporaries had died that, at 51, he now has friends who are mostly older or younger. Even sophisticated young men he would meet, like Matthew Vitemb, 21, a recent graduate of Bard College (who prefers “queer” to “gay,” which he considers an outdated boomer term), had never known an H.I.V.-positive person until he met Mr. Strub.
“While AIDS deaths in the United States are the lowest in 20 years — 14,497 in 2007, according to federal figures — and the most affected race has changed from white in 1995 to black today, the biggest single group dying is still gay men. “People don’t understand how easily it can happen again,” Mr. Strub said.
“Somebody has to be the memory, he said.”
See full feature here:
Posted: October 13th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
Tags: AIDS survivors, Matthew Vitemb, New York Times, POZ, Sean Strub