Positive Life NSW

Now in his mid-50s, Ross Duffin has been integrally involved in the politics of HIV/AIDS since news of the virus first broke in the early '80s. In this first part of a wide-ranging conversation, Ross speaks to Susan Ardill about his early days at ACON, the antibody-testing debate of the mid-1980s, the 'sero-divide' and the terrible years when the epidemic hit hard in Sydney.

A veteran of the 'Love Army', Greg Kelly tells his stories in a powerful and empowering digital story-telling project.

On a visit to New York, Leo Reid was lucky to catch the Broadway revival of one of the earliest pieces of AIDS theatre, The Normal Heart (soon to be made into a film by the co-creator of Glee, Ryan Murphy). Later Leo spoke to Wayne Harrison, who directed the Sydney production of the incendiary play in 1989.

Tobin Saunders joins the library - as one of the books. I was born and bred in Sydney, residing till the age of one at Milson's Point just across the Harbour Bridge. [I never quite understood that term 'born and bred'; it seems like a kooky anachronism.] Mum, Dad, my two brothers and I squeezed into a dark, red-brick Federation-style flat. Not that I have a visual memory of this time, but I do have photos.

For Peter Schlosser, the creative energy that surfaces through his art is a true life force. When I was three, so I'm told, I would often sit with Lego blocks or paper and pencils at the coffee table, chin in hand, elbow on table, in the classic pose of deep thought. Mum would smile and walk away. Ten minutes later she'd return and I wouldn't have moved.

At age 50, Stephen Berry collapsed with an AIDS-defining brain condition. Now approaching 60, he has recovered enough, against massive odds, to go rafting, scuba-diving and bungy jumping.

If you go electronic, will your health records stay private? Solicitor Brady from the HIV/AIDS Legal Centre outlines his concerns.

We Were Here, screening at Queer Doc in September, is a film about the experience of an epidemic that cut through the gay community with shocking swiftness. Thirty years on, five people who lived through the eye of that storm look back in calm reflection and in sorrow in David Weissman's documentary. Talkabout editor Susan Ardill gathered four positive Sydney men to discuss their responses to the film.