“For years, I experienced a peculiar kind of fame or infamy – depending on one’s perspective – for taking on the public face of sex without condoms. ... In the 1990s, I was called a murderer for talking about unprotected sex; now, public health workers call (barebacking between partners of the same HIV status) ‘serosorting’ and deem it a harm-reduction strategy. Imagine that.”

“You’re not really allowed to go to the USA if you’re HIV-positive. On the immigration forms it always says, ‘Do you have any contagious illnesses or diseases?’ and I just put ‘no’ because I think it’s not contagious unless you sleep with me, and we have unprotected sex. I’ve been stopped (by customs agents) before and they asked, ‘What are these?’ and I said, ‘My combination therapy,’ and they just let me go. ... As long as you’re courteous you’re going to be fine.”

“Any candidate for president in 2008 – to openly declare that he’s in favor of same-sex marriage ... I think that it would give people on the right a sort of handy club to wield and use gay marriage as a wedge issue. And so I accept it (that Obama didn’t). I mean, I hate that we live in a world where this is the case, but I’m perfectly willing to accept that this may be a necessary compromise to make. I wish people didn’t have to say, ‘I believe marriage is between a man and a woman’ when I think they obviously don’t believe that. But ya know, if that’s what it takes to get elected.”