POZ

The Return of Spencer Cox

“Many of our friends and loved ones may today find themselves in the same place as Spencer. We don’t know nearly enough about an entire generation that lived through the Plague Years—the righteous, the joyful, the struggling as well as the thriving—and it’s time to hear from them and to address their issues.”

HIV and the Power of Escape

Health professor, Perry Halkitis reflects on why some long-term survivors have used sex and substances to cope in the AIDS Generation.

Wounded AIDS Warriors Suffering, Dying on Their Own by John Voelcker

The death of Spencer Cox prompts a cofounder of the Medius Institute for Gay Men’s Health to speak out.

The death of notable AIDS activist Spencer Cox last month, at age 44, was a wake-up call — a blaring alarm — that highlighted once again the critical need for mental health programs and studies of the powerful trauma experienced by gay men in their 40s through 70s who’ve lived through the loss and destruction of entire communities due to AIDS.

Read more… http://www.poz.com/articles/john_voelcker_spencer_cox_2676_23351.shtml

The Private War That Killed Spencer Cox

AIDS did not kill Spencer Cox in the first, bloodiest battles of the 1980’s. It spared him that.

The reprieve allowed Spencer’s brilliance as co-founder of the Treatment Action Group (TAG)  to forge new FDA guidelines for drug approval and help make effective HIV medications a reality, saving an untold number of lives.

Such triumph by a man still in his twenties might have signaled even greater achievements ahead. Instead, Spencer found himself adrift in the same personal crisis as many of his contemporaries, who struggled for a meaningful existence after years of combating the most frightening public health crisis of modern times.

Read more of Mark S. King’s blog: http://blogs.poz.com/marksking/2013/01/the_private_war_that.html

Eye of the Tiger: How To Survive A Plague

Watching the new and highly-acclaimed documentary How To Survive a Plague was very strange for me. I think that’s because the film’s story — the fierce battle against the AIDS epidemic that was fought in the late 1980s and early 90s by AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) and its offshoot the Treatment Action Group (TAG) — is my story.

http://blogs.poz.com/spencercox/2012/10/how_to_survive_a_plague.html

A blog by Spencer Cox