History and profile
The magazine was founded in 1994 [2] by Sean Strub, an HIV-positive and openly gay businessman and activist. Before launching POZ, Strub was involved with numerous social issues, including politics, environmentalism, civil rights, LGBT rights, and HIV/AIDS. He is now executive director of the Sero Project, which focuses on ending inappropriate criminal prosecutions of people with HIV. [3]
POZ is published by Smart + Strong, which also publishes AIDSmeds.com, a website for HIV/AIDS treatment information; Real Health, a magazine and website for African-American health; Tu Salud, a magazine and website for Latino health; Sane, a website for mental wellness; Hep, a website for hepatitis information, and Cancer Health, a website for cancer information.
In 2004, Strub sold Smart + Strong to CDM Publishing, LLC. [4] Jeremy Grayzel is CEO of CDM Publishing and Smart + Strong. He was president of VNU eMedia (now known as Nielsen Business Media). Ian Anderson is president of Smart + Strong. He was director of product development at VNU eMedia. Diane Anderson is vice president of integrated sales. She joined POZ in 2018.
In 2006, Regan Hofmann [5] became editor-in-chief of POZ. She was the writer of the magazine's “Anonymous” column. Previously, Hofmann was editor-in-chief of New Jersey Life and founded Poets, Artists & Madmen. She is now a consultant focused on strategy, communications and change in the field of global health. [6]
In 2012, Oriol R. Gutierrez Jr. [7] became editor-in-chief of POZ. He was deputy editor since 2008. Previously, Gutierrez was managing editor of DiversityInc, as well as cofounder, publisher and editor-in-chief of LGNY Latino.
Partners In Health (PIH) is an international nonprofit public health organization founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Jim Yong Kim.
Following infection with HIV-1, the rate of clinical disease progression varies between individuals. Factors such as host susceptibility, genetics and immune function, health care and co-infections as well as viral genetic variability may affect the rate of progression to the point of needing to take medication in order not to develop AIDS.
LeRoy Whitfield was an African-American freelance journalist who chronicled his personal experience with HIV infection and AIDS. He was hailed by many as one of the nation's leading journalists reporting on AIDS in the African-American community.
Mark de Solla Price is an author, journalist, public speaker, civil rights activist, and HIV/AIDS educator. Price is a long-time Greenwich Village resident and a Unitarian Universalist, and the author of the book Living Positively in a World with HIV/AIDS. He was a featured subject in the HBO documentary Positively Naked with Spencer Tunick.
Joseph Adolph Sonnabend was a South African physician, scientist and HIV/AIDS researcher, notable for pioneering community-based research, the propagation of safe sex to prevent infection, and an early multifactorial model of AIDS.
Stephen Gendin was an American AIDS activist in the late 1980s and the 1990s, whose advocacy is credited with having promoted changes in government policy that improved the lives of HIV positive people. He was involved with the ACT UP, ActUp/RI, Sex Panic!, the Community Prescription Service, POZ Magazine and the Radical Faeries. HIV positive himself, he dedicated the last fifteen years of his life to helping care for those also living with HIV/AIDS. He was a founder and the chief executive of the Community Prescription Service, an organization that distributes information designed to help people with HIV and AIDS as well as supplying medication via mail order.
Sean O'Brien Strub is an American writer, activist, politician and entrepreneur. He is a pioneer expert in mass-marketed fundraising for LGBT equality.
Michael Shernoff was an openly gay psychotherapist who specialized in serving the mental health needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people and was author of several influential publications on the topics of HIV/AIDS prevention and the mental health concerns of gay men.
Marvelyn Brown is an African-American author and AIDS activist. She is the founder of Marvelous Connections, an HIV/AIDS organization founded in 2006. She wrote the autobiography The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive, which tells her story as a young heterosexual woman living with HIV. She has delivered public speeches and made public appearances in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, South Africa, Tanzania, and Rwanda.
An anal Pap smear is the anal counterpart of the cervical Pap smear. It is used for the early detection of anal cancer. Some types of human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause anal cancer. Other HPV types cause anogenital warts. Cigarette smokers, men who have sex with men, individuals with a history of immunosuppression and women with a history of cervical, vaginal and vulval cancer are at increased risk of getting anal cancer. Vaccination against HPV before initial sexual exposure can reduce the risk of anal cancer.
POP THE PIXEL is a graphic design & web design creative studio based in Los Angeles, California. Founded by Adam Lyons in 2011, POP THE PIXEL is a company that assists clients with branding small businesses and creating client websites, and is owned by Adam Lyons.
Peter Staley is an American political activist, known primarily for his work in HIV/AIDS activism. As an early and influential member of ACT UP, New York, he founded both the Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the educational website AIDSmeds.com. Staley is a primary figure in the Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague.
Diseased Pariah News (DPN) was a zine published "by, for and about" people with HIV and AIDS in the 1990s. The publication used black humor and shock humor to address many of the issues that affected people who had been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS.
Deepsouth is a 2012 American documentary film about the neglected HIV/AIDS crisis in the rural American South. Beneath layers of history, poverty, and soaring HIV infections, three Americans redefine traditional Southern values to create their own solutions to survive.
The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit, public-interest law firm that provides free legal service to individuals living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. Founded in 1988, it is the only public interest law firm in the nation that is exclusively dedicated to helping those with HIV and AIDS. AIDS Law Project is headquartered in Philadelphia with an additional office in Southern New Jersey.
Kenyon Farrow is an American writer, activist, director, and educator focused on progressive racial and economic justice issues related to the LGBTQ community. He served as the executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, policy institute fellow with National LGBTQ Task Force, U.S. & Global Health Policy Director of Treatment Action Group, public education and communications coordinator for the New York State Black Gay Network, senior editor with TheBody.com and TheBodyPro.com, and co-executive director of Partners for Dignity and Rights. In 2021, Farrow joined PrEP4All as managing director of advocacy & organizing.
Sten H. Vermund is the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health, and former Dean (2017-2022) of the Yale School of Public Health, and also serves as a Professor in Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist focused on diseases of low and middle-income countries.
The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice is a health and reproductive rights organization representing the Latina community living in the United States. Previously the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the organization started as The Latina Initiative, which was created in direct response to the lack of Latina visibility on reproductive rights and health issues. Its mission is to ensure the fundamental human right to reproductive health for Latinas, their families and their communities through education, advocacy and coalition building.
Donja R. Love is an American playwright. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Love identifies himself as an Afro-Queer, HIV positive playwright and filmmaker. His work has been produced in multiple states around the United States, but he is mainly based in New York City and Philadelphia. He is best known for his 2019 play one in two based on the 2017 CDC study that found that one in two black gay or bisexual men will be diagnosed with HIV at some point in their life.
