Stephen Gendin

Stephen Gendin
Stephen Gendin
Born(1966-02-20)February 20, 1966
Ypsilanti, Michigan
DiedJuly 19, 2000(2000-07-19) (aged 34)
New York City, United States
Alma materBrown University
Known forAIDS activism
Notable workI was a teenage HIV prevention activist

Stephen Gendin (February 20, 1966 – July 19, 2000) was an American AIDS activist in the late 1980s and the 1990s, whose advocacy is credited with having promoted changes in government policy that improved the lives of HIV positive people.[1] He was involved with the ACT UP, ActUp/RI, Sex Panic!, the Community Prescription Service, POZ Magazine and the Radical Faeries.[2] HIV positive himself, he dedicated the last fifteen years of his life to helping care for those also living with HIV/AIDS.[1] He was a founder and the chief executive of the Community Prescription Service, an organization that distributes information designed to help people with HIV and AIDS as well as supplying medication via mail order.[1]

Early life

Gendin was raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He was Valedictorian of his high school and then attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he learned that he was HIV positive as a first-year student in 1985. He aggressively experimented with new medications for HIV and maintained a healthy and active lifestyle for many years until his death.

AIDS Activism

Gendin was a recognized genius who was offered membership of Mensa.[3] Gendin was a founding member of ACT UP/NY, and helped found ActUp/RI.

Journalism

Gendin was a regular contributor to the magazine POZ. He used his column to discuss in graphic detail the toll that AIDS took on his body, as well as sharing his fantasies of political assassination and the deeply conflicted feelings of guilt and pleasure that he experienced after having unprotected sex.[1] Although his confession of his sometimes reckless behavior caused outrage among many gay men at the time,[1] after his death, many recognized that his controversial disclosures provoked life-saving awareness among gay men of the risks involved in increasingly widespread but rarely discussed practices of unprotected intercourse.[3]

Death and legacy

Gendin died on July 19, 2000, at the age of 34, from AIDS-induced lymphoma.[4] In the summer of 2000, he was eulogized in a widely reprinted speech by Larry Kramer.[5] The chemotherapy he was receiving to treat the disease put him into cardiac arrest.[6] His activism was pivotal in reforming the FDA drug approval process to expedite HIV and AIDS patients' access to more effective anti-retroviral treatments.[3] Because of his efforts, some people living with HIV today believe that Gendin was a "superhero".[3]

Publications

Book Chapter

  • "I Was a Teenage HIV Prevention Activist"[7]

POZ Magazine Articles

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Obituary: Stephen Gendin, 34, Advocate And Writer for AIDS Causes". The New York Times. July 22, 2000. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b Gendin, Stephen; McDowell, Kyle (November 1999), "Both Sides Now", POZ, retrieved 26 March 2010
  3. ^ a b c d "Remembering Stephen Gendin". Youtube.com. poz10110's channel. 16 August 2010. Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  4. ^ Lugliani, Greg (2000-09-01). "In Memoriam: Stephen Gendin: Activist and Writer Dies of AIDS at Age 34". The Body: The Complete HIV/AIDS Resource. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  5. ^ Kramer, Larry (2000-10-01). "Be Very Afraid". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  6. ^ "Stephen Gendin, 34, Advocate and Writer for AIDS Causes". The New York Times. 22 July 2000.
  7. ^ Dangerous Bedfellows (1996). Policing Public Sex. Boston: South End Press. pp. 105–114. ISBN 0-89608-549-X.
  8. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1996-11-01). "Jesse Helms Must Die". POZ Magazine.
  9. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1997-05-01). "Riding Bareback". POZ Magazine.
  10. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1997-06-01). "Membership has its Privileges". POZ Magazine.
  11. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1998-02-01). "At the End of my Rope". POZ Magazine.
  12. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1998-07-01). "AIDS is Over". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  13. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1998-08-01). "You Can't Take it with You". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  14. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1998-09-01). "Confessions of a Jerk". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  15. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1998-11-01). "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  16. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1998-12-01). "How Am I?". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  17. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1999-01-01). "Bad News Bear". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  18. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1999-02-01). "They Shoot Barebackers, Don't They?". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  19. ^ Gendin, Stephen (1999-04-01). "The Seven Year Itch". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  20. ^ Gendin, Stephen (2000-04-01). "On the Runs". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  21. ^ Gendin, Stephen (2000-07-01). "The Lost Day". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  22. ^ Gendin, Stephen (2000-08-01). "The Hole Truth". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  23. ^ Gendin, Stephen (2000-10-01). "Last Word". POZ Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
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