A pioneer

"The HIV paradigm has produced nothing of value for my life and I actually believe that treatments based on the arrogant belief that HIV has proven to be the sole and sufficient cause of AIDS has hastened the deaths of many of my friends."

An unusual one for me today - for this would have been the birthday of the late Michael Callen, one of the true heroes of AIDS activism.

Michael was one of the earliest diagnosed (in an era of real ignorance) with what was then known as "Gay-related immune deficiency syndrome", and famously outlived many of his contemporaries. In a decade of moral outrage, panic and misguided demands by the more radical members of the gay community (such as "Act-Up") to rush through the release of untested antiviral drugs onto the market, Michael's was a calm voice. He wrote books on living with "AIDS-related" symptoms, and introduced the concept of "safe sex" into the public domain.

Most radically - and from my own personal and intense study of the matter, he proved to be right - he always disputed the theory that a single virus was the cause of the illnesses people were succumbing to, and was particularly critical of the use of AZT, a dangerous and previously banned anti-cancer treatment which has subsequently been linked to more deaths of people than the "disease" ever killed.

In addition to being a wise and remarkably astute political campaigner - he was a spokesperson on behalf of the People With Aids (PWA) self-empowerment movement on several US government AIDS committees - Michael was also a talented singer and actor. My favourite of his roles was his appearance as "Miss HIV", the drag-wearing singing virus, in the fabulous "AIDS musical" Zero Patience! [I'm not making this up you know!]

RIP, a great hero of mine...

Here's Michael singing live:

Michael Callen - Where The Boys Are

And here he can be seen briefly (through the microscope) in this brilliant film:

Michael Callen - Miss HIV (from Zero Patience)

Michael Callen