David Wise's FIGHT BACK Returns March 19

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m a sucker for nostalgia -- however grim. That’s probably why Fight Back, David Wise’s immersive ACT UP meeting, stayed with me long after I walked back out onto West 13th Street.

In August, I wrote about being there and what it felt like to be dropped into an ACT UP New York meeting on March 13, 1989. There are no actors, no script and no audience -- just a room full of people asked to live, breathe and organize as if lives quite literally depended on it. Because at the time they did. From the moment you arrive at the New York LGBT Community Center, the clock rewinds, and suddenly you’re talking about Robert Mapplethorpe, Madonna, Jerome Robbins and Ed Koch’s deadly inaction as if it’s all unfolding right now. It’s unsettling, moving, occasionally frustrating and, at least for me, affecting.

So here’s the update: Fight Back is happening again, with the first 2026 event taking place Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. -- and you’re invited.

Remember: This is not theater in the traditional sense. It’s a carefully constructed experiment in empathy and collective memory. Every participant is assigned a real person who actually was -- or plausibly could have been -- at that 1989 ACT UP meeting. You decide, with guidance beforehand, how actively you want to participate. You don’t need to be an actor. You don’t need to speak at all. You just need to show up willing to step into the room and sit with the weight of that moment in history.

The meeting lasts about 2–3 hours and takes place at the Center, 208 W. 13th St., Manhattan. There’s a $19.89 required donation -- a thoughtful nod to the year at the heart of the experience -- with cost alternatives available when you sign up.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth your time, I found it an effective way to put today’s reality into perspective and to remember how much of it was fought for.

If you’ve already done Fight Back, consider coming again. If you haven’t, this is the moment. And if you know someone who should experience it, spread the word.

THURSDAY, MARCH 19 @ 7pm

at the Center (208 West 13th Street, Manhattan)

Read more and sign up HERE. 

Acting Out: No Anachronisms, Please!

If you've ever wondered what it was like to attend an ACT UP meeting during the height of the AIDS epidemic, then David Wise's "Fight Back" is the immersive outing for you. 

There are no actors and no script. Instead, each attendee is assigned a real-life persona ahead of time, whose level of participation you work out with David in the days leading up to the event.

From the second you arrive at the New York LGBT Community Center in the West Village, everyone is asked to live and breathe in character as if it's March 13, 1989 -- and we're all getting together to organize the next big protest of Mayor Ed Koch's impotent policies outside City Hall. 

Even your small talk has to be time-specific (suggested topics): 

"Did you hear that Robert Mapplethorpe died this week?" 

"Do you think Pepsi will pull Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' commercial because conservative groups are calling it blasphemous?" 

"Are you going to go see Jerome Robbins' Broadway?"

Though I chose not to speak, I felt fortunate that I was assigned to "embody" Andy Velez, who happened to have been close to an actual pal of mine. With the information I gleaned, I felt like I was paying homage to Andy as I participated in the night's proceedings, wearing two strings of his signature beads. (Typically you would just read up on them or watch videos if they're available online.) 

The meeting, for better or worse, is much like any gathering of eclectic people; some are great -- one man moved me to tears announcing the news that a fellow ACT UP member had succumbed to AIDS since the last meeting -- while others drive you nuts by repeatedly asking irrelevant questions or being so pedantic you want to punch them. So while it would be impossible to recreate the sense of urgency and despair that was happening at the time -- thank you, modern medicine -- one thing's for sure: the exercise will give you a fresh perspective on a dark time in gay history. A big thank-you to David for inviting us. Learn more about "Fight Back" HERE. 

P.S. Damian and I attended with our friend Tim Teeman, whose writeup you can read HERE.

(Photos by Hong-An Tran)

Positively Reckless

Well, this certainly isn’t something I would have ever seen coming -- especially having grown up in the era of HIV hysteria and shaming.

The famed Ethicist column in the New York Times actually told a reader that it was hunky dory for people living with HIV to not disclose their status to their sexual partners -- leaving out the fact that 25 states still have laws criminalizing people with HIV for not disclosing their status before sex, often even if they are undetectable and hence no HIV is transmitted. 

Educators and activists are calling on writer Kwame Anthony Appiah and the Gray Lady to correct this "grievous error," but so far this request has fallen on deaf ears.

Tim Murphy writes: 

The really appalling thing is that other advocates have pointed this out to the Ethicist himself, his editors and NYT communications people SINCE EARLY FEBRUARY and they have not replied to anyone OR made a correction. Talk about not taking responsibility for an omission that could put people in grave danger.

The full story -- including how you can voice your concerns as well -- HERE.

Meanwhile: Andrew Spieldenner, head of the global nonprofit MPACT, talks to Tim about LGBT health rollbacks likely to happen in the U.S. -- and whether today's gays can meet this moment they way we did in the 1980s. Read HERE.

Remains of the Day (12/27)

NYP: Gee, I can hardly wait to fly into Phoenix for my (Maryland) brother's upcoming birthday gala with the family. (My former home won't be happy until it's gone full-on Florida.) 

Out: 20 LGBT shows that ended or got canceled in 2024

Matthew's Island: Will you settle for five men in jockstraps?

NYT Style Magazine: Stop the presses -- there are gay bookstores opening around the country!

Saturday 'Stache: Who wants to take a ride on Cheyenne Jackson?

Interview: “Tall blond with a big dick”: 18 men ask Edmund White some sexy questions

The Advocate: New York City man bleeds out in his husband's arms after fatal stabbing

The Gay Curmudgeon: Worst new year ever

BBC: The U.S. gay clubs dance style from 1970s headlining an Indian show

Greg in Hollywood: Looking forward to this mother-son film from Billy Eichner

THR: Hallmark star John Reardon is recovering from tonsil cancer

NBC News: Florida pizza delivery woman stabbed a pregnant customer 14 times over bad tip, authorities say

People: Alfa Anderson, singer with Chic, dies at 78

Buzzfeed: Gay man reflects on having child with straight friend

Speedo Sunday: Happy birthday to the man whose skimpy swimsuit on "WKRP in Cincinnati" hastened my homosexuality! 

Hot Cat of the Day: One of President Biden's favorite holiday tails

Gr8er Days: RIP to actor Geoffrey Deuel, 81

BriGuy: Dusting off some holiday favorites

AP: Depressing but not entirely surprising news from federal officials today: The U.S. saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country.

Sour note: My friend Mark reminded me today that Tiny Tim once recorded a song called "Santa Claus Has Got the AIDS This Year." (When it was finally released around 1986, it was paired with "She Left Me With the Herpes.") During a live show in 1994, Tim claimed he had written it in 1980 or '81 -- "not to make fun of anybody, not for humor" and before anyone knew about the severity of the situation -- when there was a diet supplement on the market called AYDS, which he found funny. But anyone familiar with the history of the epidemic can tell you the disease at that time was known as "gay cancer" or GRID -- gay-related immune deficiency -- and the first usage of the term "acquired immune deficiency syndrome" wasn't until late 1982 -- so something about this whitewashing doesn't add up. (If he sincerely meant no harm, why would he then release it in the mid-80s and still be performing at the height of the death toll, the year before the cocktail was made widely available?) 

P.S. I'm certainly not a prude -- this is just the kind of thing Howard Stern used to play for laughs. But here's at least hoping this Songtell entry was written by AI, because it seems to take Tim at his (false) word and I don't think the "meaning" jibes with the reality at all -- the insertion of the word "the" before AIDS being the most obvious tell.

'Next Stop,' Streaming?

I finally got to see Paul Mazursky’s hard-to-find “Next Stop, Greenwich Village” (1976), a film I first learned about decades ago from a poster hanging in my quasi-local pub (Julius’), where scenes from it were filmed. 

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Shelley Winters is sublime as the overprotective mother who’s absolutely beside herself because her adult son is moving a whopping 12 miles(!) away from home and might have had sex(!); Antonio Fargas, whom I grew up watching as Huggy Bear on my brother Bill’s beloved “Starsky & Hutch,” is notable for playing a 1950s gay black man; and the depiction of abortion at the time is revelatory. (Also fun to see mid-70s NYC dressed up as the mid-50s!)

Lenny Baker is sympathetic as our aspiring-actor protagonist -- although I could have done without the domestic violence scene that seemed to depict the victim as almost feeling as though she deserved it. (It’s loosely based on Mazursky’s life, so I fear to think how accurate that part was.)

Was also taken aback to read afterward that Baker died in 1982 at just 37, which as a gay man who was alive at that time immediately got my mind racing. Come to find out I am not the first, with Wikipedia including this tidbit about his demise:

Decades after Baker's death, commentator David Ehrenstein incorrectly speculated in LA Weekly that Baker had suffered from AIDS, then known as "gay-related immune deficiency" (GRID), for approximately two years before his death.

There is no reliable source to confirm that his illness was HIV-related, and HIV is not mentioned anywhere in Baker's death certificate. He died on April 12, 1982, at the Community Hospital of South Broward in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

Hmm. The entry doth protest too much, methinks. Pretty sure the human immunodeficiency virus wasn’t isolated  until the following year, so don’t think it could have been mentioned. (Don’t let anyone tell you shame doesn’t still exist around this disease.)

A big thank-you to the person who uploaded the film to YouTube four months ago. The music is occasionally muted to avoid copyright removal, but it’s still decent otherwise. Look for it before it gets taken down. (It’s not streaming anywhere -- I was more than happy to pay.) 

 (UPDATE: A friend found another upload with the music intact HERE.)

Julius's remembers one of its own

And last but not least, condolences to the friends, family and colleagues of sweet Julius’ bartender Adan Garcia, whose untimely death led me to the film on this rainy afternoon. May he rest in peace. 🙏

On Jan. 19, 2017, we toasted President Barack Obama for all he had done for LGBT Americans.

Read the 2003 L.A. Weekly article HERE.

40 Years of AIDS

 

Not a fond moment in "This day in history." How this pernicious virus decimated a community and inflicted deep psychological wounds on those of us who were lucky enough to escape death is something few can comprehend. And while it’s disheartening to hear so many young, ill-informed queer activists be so dismissive of the brave men and women who did the hard work before them, what’s important is knowing that no LGBT people will ever have to experience the fear and isolation the AIDS generation lived through before life-saving drugs were finally available. ❤️🌈🙏

Today Is World AIDS Day

 Let's take a moment to remember all of those we lost -- including my friends Walter, Mike and Mark -- and think of how many we saved and will prevent losing thanks to our vigilant fight for research and equality for all. xo

Mike Rosentreter 

On the Rag, Vol 621

A weekly look at what's making news in the gay magazines:

Get Out!: Brian Gibson stars as the young Hollywood bad boy of adult film

MetroWeekly: Mondaire Jones: ‘I’ve experienced more racism than homophobia on the campaign trail’

Dallas Voice: Fire destroyed two buildings AIDS Servies of Dallas planned to renovate. Now the agency plans to rebuild bigger and better.

The Advocate: LGBTQ+ interview with Joe Biden

Echo: Actor Joey Pollari is known for his mainstream queer roles and now, his music

Lavender: Reopening attractions

Q Salt Lake: Keiynan Lonsdale talks about 'Rainbow Boy' and embracing his black queer identity

Georgia Voice: The business of drag

San Francisco Bay Times: ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’ mural at Compton’s Cafeteria riot site for 54th anniversary

Metrosource Minis: Drag Out the Vote with Phi Phi O'Hara

On the Rag, Vol. 607

A weekly look at what's making news in the gay magazines:

A&U: HIV/AIDS advocates reflect on strategies to address a new pandemic

HotSpots!: Catching up with 'American Idol' alum David Hernandez

POZ: For long-term survivors, the key to embracing resilience is sticking together

Dallas Voice: An old-school movie option makes a campy comeback

Metro Weekly: Getting familiar with Harvey Guillén

How is the Youth Privilege Brigade going to disrupt Capital Pride this year if it's held online?

SF Bay Times: Paper's first cover featured Tom Ammiano, author of new memoir

Order "Kiss My (Gay) Ass"

Georgia Voice: Restaurants, stores continue to offer services amid pandemic

Creep of the week: Robert Jeffress

Lavender: Discovering the Twin Cities in the time of Covid

Q Salt Lake: June is (still) Pride month

Did the ‘Voices Carry' Hunk Die of AIDS 29 Years Ago?

A friend just informed me that the sexy guy who played the disapproving boyfriend in the classic 'Til Tuesday video "Voices Carry" died back in 1991 at just 33. Although every New Wave homo secretly wished they had someone who looked like him telling them how to dress and act, I'm not sure any of us knew the first thing about him. Turns out his name was Cully Holland -- born Kevin Joseph Gallery, which is actually a better stage name -- and he was born on Oct. 22 , 1957, in San Francisco. His was one of six children, five boys and one girl. His parents were named Daniel and Sally. 

According to People Pill, the handsome young man was once an all-state high-school football player who went on to study accounting at the University of Washington in Seattle. While a student, he reportedly stumbled into the world of acting and modeling -- gee, I wonder how! -- and decided to drop out of college with a year remaining and move to New York to pursue a career in show business. He started off performing on stage. In 1982, he played the main role of Denver in Matt Creeger's gay comedy/drama "Naked Highway." The play was directed by Tim Kincaid (credited under his screen name Joe Gage). He also appeared on the soap "The Edge of Night," as well as in the off-off-Broadway show "And Not the Lark" at Studio R. Next he appeared as Edmund in Agatha Christie's "A Murder Is Announced" at the AATC Theatre. 

Then in 1985, he landed what would become his most (in)famous role, as punklite rocker Aimee Mann's hot-but-controlling Yuppie boyfriend in the epic video for 'Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry," which turned him into an overnight MTV celebrity. 

At some point after the video he must have headed west. The Los Angeles Times in early 1988 reviewed a play called “Vera Baxter” at a small theater in Santa Monica that featured Holland. The production was a revival of a 1977 French play by Marguerite Duras. Holland played one of the titular character’s lovers (natch).

Later that year he starred in his first feature film, the erotic Italian drama "Dirty Love” (“Amore Sporco"), in which Jeff Stryker (billed as Chuck Peyton) had a bit part. (If that set could talk!)

Cully was last seen as Marine Vince Costello in Ulli Lommel's 1989 action film "Warbirds." (He's also credited as being in the November 1989 "Cleveland Indian" episode of the NBC television series "Hardball," but not everyone is convinced his footage didn't wind up on the cutting-room floor.)

But it's what I learned next that really intrigued me. Although it's known that Cully died on June 29, 1991, the cause has apparently never been confirmed by his family -- yet People Pill definitively lists it as AIDS.

In 2018 while reviewing Sky Ferreira's cover of "Voices Carry," James St. James of the WoW Report reminisced about knowing Cully “back in the day,” writing that "he was dating a very good friend of mine at the time -- a MALE friend, dun dun dun -- and so I knew him raaaaather well. I used to torture him with that line reading ‘Why can’t you for ONCE do something for me?'"

I reached out to James last night to see if he knew what had claimed Cully's life and this is what he told me:

I knew him pretty well -- '85 and '86 mostly --  I knew he was positive but after we lost track of each other I don’t know how he died. I’ve heard both AIDS and suicide -- often in those days they went hand in hand -- when you got to a certain point you checked out. So maybe that’s what happened... ? He certainly was handsome though ...

TV Party reports that on a Facebook fan page of sorts devoted to Cully, a couple of people who claim to have been friends with the actor at one time weigh in on him.

One of them writes:

I met Cully in Evansville, Indiana, around the time “Voices Carry” was being released. Cully was dating a man named Perry. Cully and Perry visited my home a few times and we all did attend parties together. Cully was a beautiful man and very kind friend. I moved to Cincinnati [in the] late 80's and did not keep up with Cully or Perry. Sorry to hear of his passing. A truly talented man.

I contacted the poster and he told me that Perry was a waiter in a private club in Evansville who met Cully in New York City. He said Cully would visit Indiana regularly to see his beau.

Beyond that, the Cully Holland/Facebook account doesn't say much more. (It's set up as if it's Cully himself, but I think it might do better if it were converted to a fan page.)

Sitting here researching this man's tragic death has left me wistful, reliving the days when so many young men were cut down in their primes as we battle another global pandemic. If anyone knows more about the late actor, I would love to hear from you. I don't know if there's a way to search the AIDS Memorial Instagram account. But I am curious to know if any of his old friends or family members have ever written him up.

As my tipster friend (above) said to me: Belated RIP.