C’est meme chose…
Michael Yoder on the difference between long term survivors and those newly diagnosed with HIV and finds there is - little. “Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said...
View ArticleBatteries not included…
Michael Yoder on the deterioration he sees in the “AIDS industry" which he says is a symptom of less community involvement, more bureaucracy and “professionalism.” “I’ll get you! And your little dog,...
View ArticleShiny, happy people…
Michael Yoder asks are the faces we see in anti-stigmas campaigns representative of all people living with HIV? He thinks not. “Everybody hurts sometimes…” R.E.M. I know I’m walking on thin ice with...
View ArticleRemembrance of things past
Michael Yoder says "This coming weekend is the Annual AIDS Memorial and I’ve been asked to speak – mostly on the historical part of HIV in Victoria (the bad old days).Quite frankly, I have not a clue...
View ArticleJabberwocky - the world of AIDS jargon
Michael Yoder says AIDS jargon, like “undetectable” or “serodiscordant”, is insider language than few outside - and many inside - the HIV community won’t understand but can be useful if it doesn’t...
View ArticleWhen the bubble bursts
Michael Yoder asks “do we live in a bubble?” And says "the downing of flight MH17 brought close to home that events in other countries can clearly impact those of us living with HIV." “I am not...
View ArticleA house is not a home
Michael Yoder talks about the importance of affordable, accessible housing to people living with HIV. But is it “housing” we need - or a home? There’s a difference he says. “There’s no place like...
View ArticleA bridge to nowhere
Michael Yoder on the Denver Principles and how people living with HIV are doing in relation to GIPA/MIPA and their “nothing about us without us” sentiments. “Do you know where you’re going to? Do you...
View ArticleLarry Kramer doesn’t live here anymore…
Michael Yoder says that the raging against complacency in the 80s which was a central thread of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart could apply to those of us living with HIV today “Wachet auf, ruft uns...
View ArticleBlood work blues
Michael Yoder says of his HIV “From the time of my diagnosis some 20 years ago, I’ve been tested and tested, medicated and re-medicated and honestly, I’m just tired of it.” “Resistance is futile.”...
View ArticleHumbug
Michael Yoder with a seasonal view of the HIV community It was a strange figure – like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man… Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We are not Charlie
The dangers of speaking out. Michael Yoder on how free speech is curtailed in the AIDS movement by rules which ban advocacy work for those receiving government funding “The Emperor has no clothes!”...
View ArticleBeige…
Michael Yoder sees “a beige pall descending over the AIDS industry. Down to zero, Stop AIDS, Treatment as Prevention and other campaigns that focus on the mechanics of HIV seem to have robbed us of...
View ArticleSelf care: easier said than done?
Burnt out? Michael Yoder says “we are very skilled at talking to others about the importance of self care, while we burn out like the last remnants of a candle.” “You cannot serve from an empty...
View ArticleSero-sorting in tiny town
Michael Yoder says that in small towns, the chances of meeting openly poz guys are few and far between. Sero-sorting remains, for him, an elusive but attractive theory. “much of a muchness…” Unknown...
View ArticleWhen nothing is better than something
Michael Yoder on the potential for a viral divide between those living with HIV whose viral load is undetectable and those whose isn’t “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to...
View ArticleTerrifying dragons
On younger and older activists working together, self-proclaimed dinosaur Michael Yoder says "grasping the power of the old dragons and passing on that power to the younger dragons can enliven the...
View ArticleSmoke and mirrors
Michael Yoder says those of us who do HIV work often hide our true feelings. For him “we hide our insecurities under the masks we wear and plug along – the emptiness and loneliness and sense of...
View ArticleGuinea pigs
What do we know about long term side effects? Michael Yoder is switching up HIV treatment and says people with HIV have been guinea pigs since the bad old days of AZT monotherapy and we continue to be...
View ArticleX marks the spot
Poz votes count. B.C.'s Michael Yoder says there are lots of national issues poz voters might want action on from the government they elect “I either want less corruption, or more chance to...
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