When Teammates Are Gay

College football season is just around the corner. It's never too early to remind its athletes: Lighten Up on Your Gay Teammates!

How To Love Someone with AIDS

When I tell someone I'm living with HIV/AIDS, more often than not, that someone immediately dismisses me as a potential lover, boyfriend, sex partner or friend with benefits.

I'm sorry, some tell me, as if I'm already dead.

I am here to tell the world: you can love me! You can really, really love me! You can touch me, kiss me, lick me, tickle me, hug me, poke me, play with me, even have sex with me, and not become infected with HIV.

It's called safe sex. It's the thing that prevents all people from acquiring all kinds of diseases. If you have safe sex with your sex partners, presto! ... no HIV!

"Catch up, America! Science has a better grip on AIDS than cancer."

Only ignorance, fear and prejudice prevents you from loving people with HIV/AIDS. It's not gonna rub off. It's not gonna leap outta my blood cells and into your blood cells. It's not gonna infect your mind, either, although, judging by the way most people treat me, perhaps your mind is already infected.

To those minds not infected with ignorance, fear and prejudice: imagine all the wonderful things you can do with anyone living with HIV/AIDS, male or female. From massage to masturbation to so much more, you too can be intimate with someone living with HIV/AIDS.

The age of AIDS = sickness, dying and what-the-fuck-is-this?! is over. The AIDS Panic is over. Catch up, America! Science has a better grip on AIDS than cancer. The poz people are alive and well and among you. You can love us (safely) just as you can love whomever you're loving tonight (safely).

There is no longer a need to discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS when it comes to choosing one's partners for intimacy. Perhaps that need existed during the AIDS Panic (1981-1996), but no more. That great scientific discovery, safe sex, now allows Americans to their rocks off and not get HIV!

So how exactly do you get said rocks off and not acquire HIV? First step: find out How to Stay HIV-Negative in an HIV-Positive World.

Walt Loves the Bearcat (and Changes History)

Walt Loves the Bearcat is the epic sports novel that dares to dream.

A lifelong romance between a black college cheerleader and a white college quarterback changes sports history forever when the QB becomes the first superstar athlete to admit his love for another man while in the prime of his pro football career.

Too good to be true? Not if you believe in love, miracles and flying football stadiums.

A 721-page, adventure-filled odyssey where serious issues like homophobia, racism and AIDS exist right alongside fantastical characters like Hail Larry, Evil Announcer Guy and the Emergency Wife. Big fun!

Walt Loves the Bearcat ... your ticket is your imagination.

A Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Best Romance

Get Walt Loves the Bearcat at Amazon.com
More about Walt Loves the Bearcat
About author Randy Boyd

Reviews

"A madcap whirl, Walt Loves the Bearcat is first and forever a love story, one written with a roller-coaster brio and a magical intensity that demand and deserve the reader’s perseverance."
SF Bay Times (Read full review).

"Warm-spirited ... resonates with soulful queries into the nature of love and life." Bay Area Reporter (Read full review).

Excerpts

Read your choice of eight excerpts from Walt Loves the Bearcat

Blogposts featuring excerpts from Walt Loves the Bearcat:
No Longer a Homo
The “Out” Pro Athlete Dream
Homo QB Wins the Big One, But at What Price?
Dear Oprah: Please Read "Walt Loves the Bearcat"
What's My Lifestyle?
So I Thought I Could Dance
Infatuations: The Most Perfect, Perfect

Also on the Net:
Where Taboos Are Broken: Outsports Interview with Randy Boyd
In Profile: Randy Boyd in HIVPlus Magazine

The Trikke: Joyride of the 21st Century

Gotta get a bike. Gotta get a bike. Gotta get a bike. Gotta exercise more. Gotta get fit, stay fit, lose the gut, build muscle mass, strive to be healthier, better, stronger, fitter, especially now that my 50s are around the corner. But how? Gotta get a bike, gotta get a bike, gotta get a bike.

For months, “Gotta Get a Bike” was at the top of the charts on the soundtrack in the back of my brain, you know, the same brain that tries to manage eating right, exercising right, living well, oh, and the rest of life.

Buying a bicycle seemed like the only way to get more exercise and take advantage of my love of the great outdoors. It also seemed like a good alternative to running, which is not my thing, or joining another gym, which is not my thing anymore (after years of gym memberships).

"Trikke is the coolest invention since humans invented the wheel."

I was already walking and using resistance bands, but the fat around my gut (and my doctor and dietitian) were telling me that wasn't enough. I needed to kick the exercise routine into a higher gear, crank up the cardio, get the heart-rate going, get those endorphins rushing.

Gotta get a bike. Gotta get a bike. Gotta get a bike.

But I never got a bike, never got around to it, never went beyond pricing a few. Then I saw the Trikke. Life changed. One lone commercial and I fell in love. One single viewing and I was hooked. I ordered my Trikke ASAP. To date, I've never seen another commercial ad for this magnificent flying machine. It was love at first sight.

"... freedom like you've never experienced."

What is a Trikke? A Trikke is a human powered vehicle slash bike slash scooter slash roller-skateboard slash coolest invention since humans invented the wheel. The Trikke has three of them, wheels, that is, and the Trikke is three million times more fun than a bike, the cool invention of the 19th century.

With the Trikke, your arms, your legs, your entire body, or any combination thereof--all join the fun as you “ski” your way down the road. The geniuses at Trikke call this kind of carving “rocking and rolling.” I call it a never-ending joyride.

Each Trikke ride is different in the way each time you dance is different. You set the pace, the rhythm, the speed, the intensity. The Trikke gives you freedom like you've never experienced.

Simple and elegant, the Trikke is lightweight and portable. It folds and unfolds with ease and takes up very little space, less than that of a bike.

The Trikke puts the ordinary bike to shame in the fun department. A few days after learning how to ride my new toy, I kept asking myself questions, like, when's the last time I broke a sweat riding a bike? When's the last time I smiled riding a bike? When's the last time I had this much fun riding a bike?

Remember those days when, as a kid, you were content to merely go outside and play? The Trikke makes me feel like that kid again, a kid who loves going outside and riding his bike, er, Trikke, just for the fun of it. Best of all, when I ride my Trikke, I become a kid who doesn't want to stop playing, er, exercising. An hour workout turns into: ah, just twenty more minutes, then I'll go home and be a responsible adult again.

When's the last time anything, let alone a bike, made you feel that young?

The Trikke is a wonder drug. It's helping to reduce my blood pressure, body fat and stress level, all while increasing my muscle tone, self esteem and zest for life. Never have I felt more athletic, agile and passionate about exercising (just for fun). Can extreme sport trikking be far behind for me? lol

One does have to learn how to ride the Trikke (just as one must learn to ride a bike), but it's quite simple, and in my humble opinion, safer. With the help of the instructional DVD, in just a few short days, my brain went from “what in the world?” to “now I get it!”

Now riding a Trikke is as easy as riding a bike, only way more fun.

As recommend by the manufacturers, I purchased the “beginners” model with its front air tire and two rear polyurethane wheels. “Gives you the option of converting to rear air tires in the future,” noted the folks at Trikke. Boy, were they right.

SouthBay Trikke pimped my ride, and now I'm loving it even more! The poly wheels were good for training, but air tires took my Trikke from a dream machine to an even dreamier machine. Cue the old R&B hit “I Believe I Can Fly.”

SouthBay Trikke proved to be the best way to upgrade my wheels. Located in Torrance, CA, these guys are passionate about Trikkes the way you want your mechanic to be passionate about the kind of car you drive.

Like the best mechanics, Andy, an avid Trikker himself, put my Trikke through a series of tests to troubleshoot a problem I was having, then found the problem and fixed it. Then he tricked out my Trikke with new rear air tires. I left SouthBay Trikke even more in love with my new ride.

Thanks, Andy for the great service. I now recommend SouthBay Trikke to everyone who approaches me, curious about my “cool scooter.” I tell them about your demos, rides, lessons and all the different Trikke models at SouthBay Trikke, Southern California's local hub for all things Trikke. You guys rock! And roll!

I believe in Trikke. It's great fun for everybody, old and young.

If I were looking for a job, I'd work for Trikke and be passionate about it. Trikkes should replace those little scooters so popular with children. Their little bodies will thank them for years to come. Trikkes should replace bikes globally. The world would be a much happier, healthier place.

Trikke on, America!

• Photography by Jeri Thompson

The Most Important Thing AIDS Has Taught Me

For most of my life, the only death I had to worry about was mine own. My parents were relatively young, my three siblings even more so. If anything, I, the baby of the family, was going to die first.

That was because the baby of the family acquired HIV in 1985, when living with HIV/AIDS meant living for another 12-18 months, as witnessed in the thousands of frail, dying men, women and children in America.

I was 23 years-old and a UCLA grad of one month when I began living with HIV/AIDS. I told my mother in 1988, a few minutes after the doctor made official what I already knew. I told the rest of my family shortly thereafter. Thankfully, they've known relatively good health. Thankfully, I've been living with HIV/AIDS for 24 years and counting.

But life can't go on forever for any of my family, myself included. We've all got to die eventually. Now, at age 47, I'm like any American who's concerned about the health and welfare of his elderly parents, his middle-aged siblings, and his own middle-aged body, which is still susceptible to middle-age health challenges.

Then there's my dog. For years, I didn't get a pet for fear of dying on him. In the late 90s, effective AIDS medications emerged. I took a leap of faith and adopted a six-month old puppy from the Indiana Humane Society. Boomer is 11-years-old now and still going strong, but I'm assuming he's not gonna cheat death either.

I see him aging. I see my family aging. I see myself aging.

For most of my life, I assumed I'd be the first in my family to die and be spared all the grieving one has to endure living a long life.

I'm no longer off the hook for grief, but as a veteran of a 24-year medical journey that once seemed utterly impossible, I'll keep reminding us all of the single most important thing I've learned during that seemingly impossible medical journey:

Never take any one test result, or diagnosis, or single day at the doctor (or visit to the hospital for that matter) as the final verdict and determiner of your life. Anything can happen. You're not guaranteed to die of (fill in the blank).

Simple as that.

See life from my point of view in the blocks labeled HIV-P.O.V., now and forever at Randy Boyd's Blocks:

Would You Say That to Ryan White?
Half a Life with AIDS: Randy Boyd in Poz Magazine
AIDS Is More Than a Deadly Disease
Randy Boyd in HIV Positive! Magazine
UCLA Cheerleader Sacked by Rose Bowl
Update from the Unlovable Nigger Faggot
Stop Calling Me Dirty and Disease-Ridden!

America's Next Top Dog Model

Great looks, great body, great talents, great personality. This dog's got it all. Can you say, Boom Baby?!!

Boomer's one great dog model on set, especially if the photographer remembers: treats! This golden mutt is very cooperative, polite and normally quite patient (helps to burn off juuuuuust a little energy before the shoot).

Boomer Boyd, aka Phat Dog, is a much better model with less instruction by his instructors and less handling by his handlers. Call to set this former shelter dog (with treats!), engage him, stroke him in the right places (belly, back, under the chin), smile at him and take the picture!

Of course, life and photo shoots don't always work out as dreamed. Thankfully, Boomer's had 11 years of dealing with an impatient, manhandling, insistent, sometimes cranky photographer (who often forgets the treats!), which translates to 77 human years as a professional supermodel, or something like that.

Then there are those accidental moments when the golden one is merely being his adorable self, wandering his way through his world, passing by while the photographer sits on the can, fussing with the camera. The dog model sniffs the lens just as the camera does its magic.

Boomer backs away and disappears. The photo (top) reveals a contemplative dog in extreme close up, a fellow mammal who almost seems ... human.

The photographer smiles and imagines the supermodel dog thinking something, like, let's see what you can do with this beauty shot.

Boomer Dino Boyd, you are America's Next Top Dog Model.

Note 2 Self: Post more photos of my supermodel dog in this installment of When In Doubt, Pet the Dog, a periodic memoir or blog feature or journal thingy, now and forever at Randy Boyd's Blocks (.com).