When I was a teenager in Oregon in the 1960s, I imagined the pope would one day name me a bishop. But I went even further. I expected to become a bishop in charge of dozens of parishes. I thought I could get the red hat and robes of a cardinal, an even higher ecclesiastical honor. I wanted to wear the robes, be a leader, and make a difference in a worldwide institution. (never interested in the (literal) trappings of Catholic clergy?  Google “cardinals in red robes.”)

Reality caught up with me, and I thought better of my grandiose crimson dreams.

I thought of all this today as I applauded a new brilliant but delicate golden bloom on my Bishop’s Cap (Astrophytum Myriostigma ) cactus. The shape mimics a “bishop’s hat,” also known as a mitre.

If you clicked on a recent blog post of mine, you probably received a security warning. We took care of that, signed up for enhanced protection, and Facebook confirmed there is no longer any risk. Go back and take a look at an exciting development of an HIV vaccine for African women.
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Coming Soon! 
A new biography of gay journalist Randy Shilts.  A new gay sex memoir. And magic mushrooms, anyone?  I follow Publisher’s Weekly to track what’s new in the book publishing world. Last week, I noticed a tempting, teasing list of new books expected in the next few months. I haven’t read any of these as advance copies, and I’m not reviewing them here, but you might want to be among the first to take a look at these titles.

First, San Francisco’s gay journalist Randy Shilts will receive the biographical treatment with When the Band Played On: The Life of Randy Shilts, America’s Trailblazing Gay Journalist by Michael G. Lee, Chicago Review Press, 320 pages, hardcover. Available October 8, 2024.

Shilts has been profiled before and after his death from AIDS in 1994, mostly in magazines and journals, but this is the second book-length biography of the much-applauded but controversial writer. I’m curious to read how this new book treats Shilts’  reporting style, the controversy over the fabrication of Patient Zero, and whether the book provides a meaningful look at Shilts' inner life.

Esteemed Author Edmund White Makes Sense of 60-Plus Years of Sex.  Not many men can compile more than sixty years of their gay sex lives, much less with the literary and popular reputation of gay writer Edmund White who does so at age 85. Yet we can look forward to White’s accounts next January 2025 with the publication of The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir, Edmund White, Bloomsbury (publisher), 246 pages.

I was slow to become an eager fan of each of White’s books – novels, fictional memoirs, and sagas of travel. Now, I’m ready to delve into his work with anticipation, especially at my own advanced age as I prepare my own memoir for publication. I’ll be signing up for one of his pre-release copies. How about you?

Magic Mushrooms Are Everywhere, right? I’m told that Colorado and Oregon are the two places to be for everything magic mushrooms. As a native Oregonian, I hear intriguing stories about the legalized but facilitated trips with psilocybin mushrooms. A new report by Grant Singer, a reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting counts 3500 clients who have taken a guided trip with psilocybin in Oregon.  

In October this year, look for the new “Have A Good Trip: Exploring the Magic Mushroom Experience,” by Eugenia Bone, Published by Flatiron Books, 352 pages. Tell us what you think.

Be contrary and jump to the last line of this important news in today’s New York Times. Usually, the news value of an article or report diminishes toward the end. Yet this major announcement about AIDS vaccine development nearly buries a goal pursued by women’s health and AIDS activists for decades.

The headline: New Drug Provides Total Protection from HIV in Trial of Young African Women (June 21, 2024). An incredible development. As one of the researchers quoted in the article, Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, noted, “After all our years of sadness, particularly over vaccines, this truly is surreal.” A drug trial found that a twice-a-year injection of a new compound, a drug named lenacapavir, gave young women protection, total protection, from HIV infection.

The last line: “Lenacapavir is also the first HIV prevention drug for which trial results have become available for women before men (emphasis mine); most are tested in gay men in industrialized countries before trials reach African women, long the most vulnerable population.”

African activists, buoyed by the demands in the Global North from groups like ACT UP, had demanded equity for women as participants in AIDS trials to little avail. In the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the heads of the National Institutes of Health, refused. The whole federal health bureaucracy in the early 1980s barred women from clinical trials of new drugs.

But this time, women were included. Not only that, but young women, ages 16-25 and pregnant and lactating women were among participants. Community health advocates accepted nothing less. They demanded that women and older adolescent girls who were sexually active must be included.

When I worked for the first U.S.-funded AIDS Communication Project, known as AIDSCOM, 1987-1993, that targeted Global South populations, we struggled to convince Ministries of Health and the U.S. State Department to employ the known AIDS prevention strategies targeting women. Today’s news merits sustained applause for the achievement by thousands of women worldwide ever since the early days of AIDS.

Note: Look for future posts on this blog as I complete my new memoir.