Last week I got a new roommate here in rehab. She’s recovering from some pretty major surgery and really isn’t “alert and oriented”. Her husband has been coming here every day and sitting with her for ten to twelve hours a day. He clearly loves her very much and wants to do all he can…
Tag: health
All I Want for Hannukah is to Keep a Little Oil in the Tank
Some parts of this piece have been percolating for a bit. There are a lot of things here that are just always gnawing at the back of my mind, waiting for the right story to come together for me to share. In fact, I even thought about writing it last week, but the truth is,…
Writer’s Notebook: Year in Review
“Hi,” he said. “How’s it going? Has the world ended yet?” Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch It’s kind of been feeling like that lately. At least for me. And probably a little bit for Adam, too, who has to edit all of my work before it’s posted…
World AIDS Day, Part 2: Stories
Missing the World AIDS Day Gatherings With the COVID pandemic in its third year, most people are starting to meet in person again. That means that people who want to honor and celebrate those we lost to AIDS can do so in person. Carefully and with many precautions, perhaps even more than usual to protect…
Socioeconomic Status and Food: The Conversation Begins at Home
Poverty is one of the biggest predictors of academic success for students. Teachers today are keenly aware of this. Hungry children don’t learn, so we have free-lunch programs, and teachers keep extra apples and crackers in our classrooms in a basket for whoever needs them. We have annual trainings to look out for students who…
After “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop Woke”
It’s October. We’re celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month. Two weeks ago we celebrated National Coming Out Day. We’re finally starting to feel as though autumn isn’t too far off. And kids have been back in school for a month or two already. They’re well on the way to thinking about their grades–report cards, tests, essays. Everything…
National Coming Out Day: Advice to my Younger Self
October 11 is National Coming Out Day. (We’ve also got World Mental Health Day on October 10 and, on October 14, the forty fifth anniversary of Anita Bryant, singer and notorious homophobe, getting hit in the face with a pie.) National Coming Out Day is sort of contemporary take on second wave feminism’s mantra “the…
PrEP Under Threat
A judge in Texas recently ruled that a company with a religious founder does not have to pay (through its choice of insurance plans) for its employees to use Truvada or Descovy as PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis against HIV). This is obviously part of a long list of recent legislative and judicial attacks on the rights…
The AIDS Epidemic: Fortieth Anniversary
Forty years ago today, the first reports of the “pneumonia” that we would eventually know was AIDS broke. I felt so strongly that I couldn’t just let this anniversary pass without acknowleging it in some way. HIV has cast shadows in my life for so long, as a Gen Xer, as a queer person. And…