Cover of the Condom Educators’ Guide, Version Two, ca. 1994; Beowulf Thorne Papers (2003-10), GLBT Historical Society.
What about sex? The AIDS epidemic transformed the way that members of the LGBTQ community—and indeed people around the globe—discussed and practiced sexual activity. Technology has radically changed the ways that people meet. And now, COVID-19.
A panel of sex educators, activists and a historian will consider how we find connection, sex and love in the era of coronavirus, applying lessons learned from HIV/AIDS prevention efforts to help strategize safer-sex options in the present. Some questions to be considered include: What does the pandemic mean for single queers or people in open or polyamorous relationships? What is the future of hookup culture and phone apps? What about bars? How is the pandemic affecting sex workers?
Our “Fighting Back” series is an intergenerational discussion that brings together community leaders, experts, historians and activists to explore lessons from the past that might be useful in formulating “resistance” efforts today.
SPEAKERS
Terry Beswick (moderator) has served as executive director of the GLBT Historical Society since 2016. At the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, he was a founding member of the local ACT UP and was the first national coordinator of ACT NOW, the national AIDS activist network. He advocated for HIV/AIDS research and treatment with Project Inform, the Human Rights Campaign and the White House Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. After the advent of effective treatments for HIV, Beswick worked as a journalist for the Bay Area Reporter and other LGBTQ community publications. More recently, he spearheaded a successful campaign to save and renovate the Castro Country Club for the queer recovery community and co-founded the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. He holds an MFA in playwriting from San Francisco State University. Beswick has been named a Community Grand Marshal for the 50th Anniversary San Francisco LGBTQ Pride Parade and Celebration in 2020.
Race Bannon has been an organizer, writer, educator, speaker and activist in the LGBTQ, leather/kink, polyamory and HIV/STI prevention realms since 1973. He’s authored two books, been published extensively, spoken to hundreds of audiences, created the world's largest kink-friendly psychotherapist and medical referral service, was a leader of The DSM Project that led to a beneficial change in the way psychotherapy views BDSM, founded a groundbreaking alternative sexuality publishing company, been an internet radio sex talk show host, received national and local awards, appeared in numerous documentaries, and currently also writes for the Bay Area Reporter.
Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ culture and politics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. His debut book about Frank Kameny and the American homophile movement, The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in June 2020.
Luis Gutierrez-Mock, M.P.H, M.A., is a queer Chicano/white trans man from the Bay Area who has worked in the fields of trans health and HIV prevention for 20 years. He currently directs the Triunfo/TRIUMPH project at the University of California San Francisco Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, a trans PrEP demonstration project.
Celestina Pearl a.k.a. The Van Lady, is an artist and longtime sex worker with many years experience in many facets of the sex industry. She currently is the outreach manager for St James Infirmary and drives a van around San Francisco serving the health and occupational needs of folks working and living on the streets, trains medical students to perform sensitive, competent pelvic exams and is raising a brilliant child.
Brenden Shucart is a writer, actor, political organizer and advocate for people living with HIV. His writing on issues of HIV-related health and stigma have been called "humanizing and heartbreaking" and "beautiful, honest, and important." These days Brenden devotes most of his time and energy to the never-boring world of San Francisco politics, where he works to advance progressive causes and candidates and sits on the boards of both the Sex Positive Dems and Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
This event will take place online. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link and instructions on how to join the Zoom webinar as an attendee. The event will also be livestreamed, and then archived, on our YouTube page at https://bit.ly/2UyGVbG.
ADMISSION
Free | Suggested donation of $5.00
Register online here: https://bit.ly/3cVvvF8
The event is limited to 500 attendees.
JOIN THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Become a member of the GLBT Historical Society for free museum and program admission, discounts in the museum shop and other perks: www.glbthistory.org/memberships