Television

Fasten your seat belts and start your engines Squirrels! Another season of RuPaul’s Drag Race has hit the Boob Tube. Yes, indeedy, Season 8 started with a new crew of a dozen Drag Queens vying for the title of The Next Drag Superstar.   The first episode not only introduced the new cast of characters but also marked the 100th episode and 100th Drag Queen to sashay into the limelight and into our mindsets. Adding to the jubilation was the return of the previous season winners who participa

The Normal Heart is a 2014 HBO film written by Larry Kramer based on his 1985 play of that name and directed by Ryan Murphy. The cast includes Julia Roberts, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Alfred Molina, Jonathan Groff and also Joe Mantello, who starred in the original theatre production.  The movie portrays the rise of the AIDS epidemic in New York between 1981 and 1984 and rages against the forces that failed to act or even speak up during the epidemic’s early years. A generation of young gay

Many of you have likely heard the announcement from Charlie Sheen that he is HIV-positive.  When I first saw #CharlieSheen as a top trend on Twitter, I immediately wondered what ridiculous statement he had made this time. When I clicked the hashtag and saw the news, I immediately felt two things: first, compassion. It’s not easy news to get, and it’s certainly not easy news to share. Second, I felt a sense of panic; I felt panicked because this is what people will be talking about. The w

Seeing clips of Danny Pintauro on "The View" and hearing holier than thou, judgemental comments from clueless host Candace Bure , I knew HIV still had stigma surrounding it. Danny kept his cool. He carried himself with grace and kept his head held high. Not only openly gay, but publicly open with his HIV status, I wanted to know how someone in the public eye could face scrutinity  and be judged unfairly. I wanted to know more about the man, rather than the entertainer or "former child star"

My discomfort began as I sat in front of my web cam, waiting to join Danny Pintauro in a segment on Huffington Post Live. Danny had recently announced on an Oprah special that he was living with HIV, which was big news for fans of “Who’s the Boss?” and those who loved the precocious little boy Danny played. Before my virtual entrance, Danny was telling host Nancy Redd how he was infected with HIV.  He wanted to explore “rougher sides” of his sexuality, he explained. And wouldn’t

I love watching TV In fact I’m a Netflix addict. Fall is an exciting time of year for the televised series junkie as all the new and returning show’s seasons premiere! One of my returning favourites is How To Get Away With Murder, or HTGAWM for those of you who love acronyms. The plot takes more twists and turns than the mountainous roads that took Princess Grace's life. Google her. Hint - Monaco. The show focuses around a group of defence law students and their professor who, big surpr

"Merce, is about a middle aged, HIV+ guy living in NYC, and it's a musical comedy! And here's the subversive part: it's not sad and no one dies. As an HIV+ man, I've been starving for a story about HIV that isn't sad. The show is bright, colorful, campy and fun. Each episode is less than 10 minutes long, and each has an original musical number. The goal of the show is to present a fresh idea of what a person with HIV looks like, and to add some humor into the conversation about HIV. After all

I may be a stereotypical cynical New Yorker, but I think the people in LA are a little too nice. Even the crazy homeless people looked like they lived off of organic kale smoothies and pure sunshine.  It freaked me out. Wait, let me back up a bit…  When I started my blog, one of the first things I wrote about was how there are very few depictions of people living with HIV from this century on TV or film. Things are changing, like the Eddie on Looking, but mainly if we see anyone on TV or

On December 10, 1989 ACT UP demonstrated both inside and outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, the building a bastion of Catholicism. Five thousand people, says ACT UP’s website, protested the Roman Catholic Archdiocese's public stand against AIDS education and condom distribution, and its opposition to a women's right to abortion.   As protesters jostled with police outside, a few dozen entered the cathedral, interrupted Mass, chanted slogans or lay down in the aisles. One pr

The lobby of the Melbourne convention center at the international AIDS conference last July was packed with scientists, community educators, and activists. I was busy wrangling interviews for my daily video blogs.  Across the room I spotted JoAnne Keatley and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, two of the most visible transgender women in the world and experts on transgender issues. I scurried up to them for a sound bite on their thoughts about the conference. “This has been quite a year for trans pe

The music industry is all abuzz because of last Sunday's Grammys ceremony. From performances that reminded us why we love Annie Lennox to history repeating itself with Kanye West storming the stage to disagree with an outcome at the awards…..people are definitely talking. There were a few surprises. Katy Perry really impressed me with her song "By The Grace Of God" and Rihanna was in great voice for her performance of her new single "FourFiveSeconds" with Kanye and Paul McCarthy. And of cou

This article by Mathew Rodriguez first appeared  in TheBody.com  here.  The hit HBO dramedy “Looking” follows the lives of three gay men living in San Francisco. And, in a move that shows that the writers are staying on top of real conversations in the gay world, they will be writing a major plotline regarding the use of the anti-HIV medication Truvada (tenofovir/FTC) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Actor Frankie J. Alvarez gave an interview to the LGBT website Queerty, in which he

“Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme Der Wächter sehr hoch auf der Zinne, Wach auf, du Stadt Jerusalem!...”  “Sleepers wake, the voice is calling us Of the watchmen in the high, high tower; Wake up, you city of Jerusalem!...” J.S. Bach Cantata 140  I recently watched The Normal Heart, and while the waterworks were on and off for various reasons (anger, sadness, despair, remembering…) I started to think what messages the film had for poz people these days.  It’s a powerful mo

This article by Mathew Rodriguez first appeared on TheBody.com here. Joan Rivers, legendary comedienne, self-proclaimed feminist, and icon, passed away at the age of 81 on Thursday, Sept. 4, after throat surgery. She was "surrounded by family and close friends," according to a statement from her daughter, Melissa Rivers. "[Joan's] greatest joy in life was to make people laugh. Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon." And thu

Charles Sanchez skips a lot. It is a natural, vivacious skip, an outpouring of unabashed joy that melds the cheerfulness of The Sound of Music with the bliss of the Pharrell Williams “Happy” video. Nothing stands in the way of his delight. Not even life with HIV. It is that joyful vibrancy that makes Merce, the web series in development by Charles and his production partner Tyne Firmin, feel so refreshing. Considering that characters living with HIV on television are few and far between