David Dinkins, New York’s First Black Mayor, Early LGBTQ Rights C...

David Dinkins, who died at 93 on November 23, became mayor of New York in 1990 — a pro-gay Black man riding the desperate hopes of communities of color and LGBTQ people at a time of rac... Show more

unrest in the depths of the AIDS pandemic. As mayor, Dinkins advanced the rights of people in same-sex relationships, greatly enhanced AIDS services and education, and stood with the LGBTQ community in an epic conflict over the exclusion of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. All Dinkins ever seemed to want to be was Manhattan Borough president, an office the former city clerk and Harlem state assemblymember won in 1985 on his third try. Standing with Irish gays, promoting AIDS education, recognizing same-sex couples key among his achievements But in 1989, after 12 years of racial polarization under Mayor Ed Koch, progressives, LGBTQ people, people of color, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition of which he was a part turned to Dinkins — the highest-ranking Black official in the city —to challenge Koch in the Democratic primary. That campaign was managed by “the rumpled genius” Bill Lynch, who would become his deputy mayor. Many LGBTQ leaders and an AIDS movement radicalized by the emergence of ACT UP in 1987 worked hard to defeat Koch and elect Dinkins, the city’s first and, to date, only Black mayor. Dinkins bested Koch, Comptroller Jay Goldin, and civic leader Richard Ravitch in the primary, exceeding the 40 percent necessary to avoid a runoff. He then narrowly defeated federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani, the candidate of white grievance. At his inaug...

NYC AIDS Memorial Marks World AIDS Day with Audio, Video Projects

The New York City AIDS Memorial is observing World AIDS Day on December 1 with two projects, including a month-long nightly program at the site of the memorial that will also feature a ... Show more

hting display. The on-site audio project, dubbed “Hear Me: Voices of the Epidemic,” will bring poetry, speeches, news reports, and music to the memorial at St. Vincent’s Triangle in Manhattan. The hour-long soundtrack is slated to run every night in December beginning at 7 p.m., and is also available for streaming online. A group of activists, caregivers, friends, and people living with HIV/ AIDS, some for decades, recorded separate readings for each day of the month of more than 2,000 New Yorkers died of AIDS in each clip. The composite recording will run daily beginning at 10 a.m. throughout the month. Individuals are encouraged to experience the audio programs so long as they practice safe social distancing. Annual commemoration reimagined due to COVID, with in-person, virtual options available “In times of uncertainty, people look to the past for guidance,” New York City AIDS Memorial executive director Dave Harper said in a written statement. “Since our dedication on World AIDS Day in 2016, it has been the goal of the New York City AIDS Memorial to create a living and breathing tribute to the 100,000 New Yorkers lost to AIDS, and to the activists and caretakers who led the fight to end AIDS. This installation will connect the power of this place to the voices of the past, allowing visitors to learn and engage within our sacred space. We are thrilled to launch a new project that centers our organiz...

Coil: Sacred, Psychedelic, and Very Disciplined

While Coil’s roots lay in the industrial scene, their music quickly became more identifiable by its esoteric atmosphere than any genre ties. It conjures up a vibe of occult ritual, with... Show more

ne-too-subtle references to psychedelic drugs (take their album title “Love’s Secret Domain” or the fact that each of the four songs on “Main Themes” was named after a different substance) strewn around. Coil began as a solo project of singer/ producer John Balance, but his partner Peter Christopherson joined in 1982. A former member of Throbbing Gristle, the band who gave industrial music its name and much of its sound, Christopherson was also an accomplished photographer, designer, and music video director. “Musick to Play in the Dark” reissue has a hermetic, homemade feel Although Christopherson started off as a proud non-musician, he worked with a proto-sampler using tape loops before the instrument became widely available and affordable. Both Balance and Christopherson participated in Throbbing Gristle singer/ bassist Genesis P-Orridge’s band/ cult Psychic TV — P-Orridge started identifying publicly as a trans woman late in life — in its earliest manifestations, sharing her spiritual interests but growing disturbed at P-Orridge’s use of her growing Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth as a genuine control mechanism over her fans. Coil’s first decade occasionally flirted with the mainstream. Their pained, dirge-like cover of “Tainted Love,” released soon after Soft Cell’s version, was a benefit for the Terrence Higgins AIDS Trust, and its video (directed by Christopherson, with a cameo by Soft Cell singer ...

AIDS Memorial Quilt Goes on Nationwide Virtual Tour

Due to restrictions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is embarking on a virtual nationwide tour in commemoration of World AIDS Day on December 1. The Natio... Show more

AIDS Memorial pieced together more than 10,000 quilt panels representing every state as well as US territories as part of the virtual project, which is intended to give folks an opportunity to view the world-famous quilt in a safe manner during the COVID era. The National AIDS Memorial’s quilt team typically creates more than 1,000 displays of quilts nationwide at a wide range of locations, though those plans had to be changed this year. National AIDS Memorial temporarily alters annual plans due to COVID pandemic “World AIDS Day is taking on new meaning this year, as COVID-19 has brought an enormous loss of life and grief to millions of people,” John Cunningham, the executive director of the National AIDS Memorial, said in a written statement. “During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, the quilt was a source of immense comfort, inspiration and used as a tool for social activism to open the eyes of the nation to injustice and to help survivors grieve and heal. Through this exhibition, we hope the power and beauty of the quilt can serve that same purpose for those who are experiencing loss and grief due to COVID-19.” Individuals lost to AIDS are represented on quilt panels at the National Building Museum in Washington.FLICKR/ Tedeytan The virtual plans come one year after the quilt was moved from Atlanta to the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with the purpose of preserving it...

Healthcare Providers Warn of Looming Changes to Drug Discount Pro...

A federal program requiring drug manufacturers to distribute medication to certain providers at discounted prices could undergo sweeping changes here in New York, prompting local nonpro... Show more

s to raise concerns about the looming impact those changes could have on vulnerable populations — including individuals living with HIV/ AIDS as well as homeless folks. Under the 340B program — named after Section 340B of the Public Health Service Act — pharmaceutical companies participating in Medicaid sell discounted drugs to managed care providers with underserved clients, which allows the providers to then utilize remaining funds to facilitate other services. The organizations that benefit from the program include community health non-profits, homeless shelter providers, and safety net hospitals, which serve patients regardless of their ability to pay. However, those crucial organizations are fearing the worst after the state passed a budget in April calling for the program to be carved out on April 1 of next year in such a way that would divert the savings from providers serving vulnerable populations to the state as part of a fee-for-service model. Nonprofits say altering 340B could hinder efforts to end the HIV/ AIDS epidemic in New York “The state is saying, ‘No, we’re going to take it,’” Matt Bernardo, the president of Housing Works, told Gay City News in an interview. Housing Works serves many New York City residents living with HIV/ AIDS and experiencing homelessness, and the organization is among the groups slated to be impacted by the changes. “It’s something that is not just an administrat...

Keeping HIV Screening on the Radar During COVID Crisis

With COVID cases surging to staggeringly unprecedented levels nationwide and New York City facing the risk of a sustained second wave of infections, a study of the HIV testing protocols... Show more

a hospital emergency room at the University of Chicago demonstrates the feasibility and the value of encouraging such testing even in the face of a crushing pandemic. The university’s emergency room has prioritized routine HIV testing since 2011 because it represents an ideal location for identifying HIV diagnoses separate from those discovered in more targeted outreach efforts. Efforts to end HIV/ AIDS as an epidemic, such as that undertaken by New York State and the city since 2015, rely, in part, on early diagnoses of the virus so that those infected can quickly begin treatment to reduce their viral load to the point where they cannot infect others even through condom-less anal sex contacts. University of Chicago study demonstrates feasibility, value of capturing population visiting emergency rooms The study, pub lished by the peer-reviewed journal AIDS and Behavior and covering the early weeks of the COVID outbreak in Chicago, noted that identifying individuals newly-infected with HIV, during which time they experience an initial acute infection stage where their virus is highly transmissible, is particularly important. Patients in emergency rooms — arriving with serious symptoms they’ve never experienced before — are an important population to reach with HIV testing since the symptoms could indicate infection and, separate from such an ER visit, they might be unlikely to seek out regular medical c...