On January 17, 2009, I celebrated my 47th birthday. For the first 23 years of my life, I lived without HIV/AIDS. For the last 24 years, I've lived with HIV/AIDS. I've now spent more than half my life being what I once tabbed "my generation's worst nightmare" (death by AIDS).It's been over two decades since the day I found out I was HIV-positive in 1985 at the age of twenty-three (the same day as Rock Hudson's Sexual 9/11). As I celebrate birthdays I once thought I'd never live long enough to enjoy, so too do I celebrate the impossible dreams and miraculous accomplishments of men like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama.
In 1985, I never imagined living beyond the 12-18 months that was the life expectancy of a person with HIV. AIDS or no AIDS, I never imagined living long enough to see a black man elected President of the United States of America, let alone a black man five months my senior.
Thank you, Dr. King and President Barack Obama ... I'd also like to thank science, my family and friends, my dog, my doctors, my health care workers and America for your amazing, impossible-dream-come-true birthday gifts.
Happy MLK Inauguration 47th Birthday to me!
