What publishing this novel has taught me...

The publication of this Sally Field Can Play The Transsexual, Or I Was Cursed By Polly Holiday has taught me a lot. After an absence, I am returning to regular blogging to tell you about those lessons today. More is to come.

Mostly the experience has taught me that as far as we have come on Transgender rights in recent years, we still have a long way to go. On my tour, I learned that I live in a rarified bubble that surrounds transgender issues. In spite, of Chaz Bono, Laverne Cox, Caitlyn Jenner and hundred of other public Transgender figures, the seemingly collective celebration of their bravery, and the media’s portrayal of their journey as normal, there are more Americans than not who still have an incredible fear of trans topics.

Steve Anderson - More Sad Than Vile. Who Knew That Was Possible?

If I wasn’t too busy laughing at him, I might get really upset about Steve Anderson’s incredibly vile and homophobic remarks that suggest an AIDS-free America might be possible if all the gay people were murdered before Christmas. He has single handy given a whole new operational tact to the AIDS Free Generation movement.

politics, Community Debates, AIDS Free Generation, AIDSLeslie SmithDecember 4, 2014Homophobia, endaids, AIDS, Religion, Steve AndersonComment

Regarding the "End of AIDS" Debate

Have we looked deeply enough into our motives?

First, this blog entry is meant as an explanation of questions that have haunted me for many years. Even before the current "End of AIDS" debate began, I wondered about the questions I pose here. I skirted with the subject briefly in my novel, but I did not delve as deeply into it as I will here. I want to be very clear that this is an exploration of a personal fears, and some doubts I have about the motives behind much of the debates we see in our community. It is not a suggestion of any one individual's or movement's actual motives.

AIDS Free Generation, AIDS, Community DebatesLeslie SmithNovember 20, 2014MyFabDisease, AIDS, endaids, stophiv, zacheryquintoComment

How “The Lego Movie” Can Stop AIDS

And fix almost everything wrong with the world!

Last Friday, amongst the fears of what was unfolding regarding the disastrous fate the Malaysian Airlines flight headed for the World AIDS Conference, I stumbled across a guy named Robert Brandon Sandor via Social Media. Sandor’s website is dedicated to the mission of ending HIV through sero-sorting, a term that is used to describe the practice of negative and/or positive people limiting their sexual partners to people of the same status. He has a plan to reach out to youth to take a pledge, which made me laugh, because I grew up in a school with an abstinence club, whose leader was sleeping around and kept the position to fool her parents.

AIDS, MoviesLeslie SmithJuly 30, 2014AIDS, end aids, Leslie L. Smith, LegoMovie, AIdsConfrenceComment

On Being That Guy

Among the hardest parts of deciding to pursue Sally Field, and all its frank and honest subjects, was a nagging fear that if I put out a book like this, especially as my first novel, I would forever be that guy.

Leslie SmithMay 15, 2014HIV, AIDS, PrEP, PEP Comment

How to Sleep Soundly with HIV

Starting a blog for this book is a surreal feeling. After all, I feel as if I have been writing my book, Sally Field Can Play The Transsexual, in my mind for a decade and a half.

Leslie SmithMay 6, 2014PEP, Treatment, AIDS, HIV, PrEPComment

Among other things, Leslie sometimes writes thoughtful stuff!

Have we looked deeply enough into our motives?