I’m awaiting delivery of my next two weeks’ worth of medications with a major change in the blister packs. Gone will be Norvir, Prezista, Truvada and Nevirapine, all taken twice… Read More
I can’t find too much going on to commemorate World AIDS Day in Toronto this year but it just so happens to be the day my Beyond Surviving group meets, so I guess that’s somethin… Read More
It’s October 11. In the United States, at least, it’s National Coming Out Day. I know of no such celebration in Canada but we’ve been ahead of the pack in most ways having… Read More
I was on my way for a hair-cut this morning when, at the corner of Sherbourne and Gerrard Streets, I momentarily took flight. Picture Peter Pan on his worst day. While still airborne I thoug… Read More
I’m feeling some anticipatory trauma, if there is such a thing, as we approach the tenth anniversary of the mishap which would, soon thereafter, take the life of my brother Craig. Mayb… Read More
https://archive.org/stream/bodypolitic127toro#page/16/mode/2up I wrote this article for the June, 1986 edition of “The Body Politic”, Pink Triangle Press’s forerunne… Read More
The Senate and the community of the United Theological College are honoured to recognize the leadership and ministry of two colleagues at our Spring 2017 Convocation. At 2pm on May 10… Read More
Originally posted on My journey with AIDS...and more!: There is tragic irony with the news that Canada has suffered our greatest single-day loss of troops in Afghanistan with the deaths of s… Read More
Originally posted on My journey with AIDS...and more!: “I brought a book I think you’ll find interesting,” my cousin said as we sat down for lunch recently, handing me a pa… Read More
“A Christian who happens to be a lesbian”, Susan Mabey’s is a name which has been more than incidental in the long struggle for LGBT inclusion in the United Church of Canad… Read More
This coming Thursday I am having a number of teeth and partial teeth extracted as my mouth make-over goes into high gear (This is the work that is more typically done by the fifth year… Read More
I once met Stuart McLean, the legendary Canadian broadcaster who died yesterday. It was both my brush with fame and utter modesty. The occasion was the aftermath of a very tragic time… Read More
It is a measure of self-compassion on this Bell Let’s Talk Day when I can slow down and remind myself of where I am and where I’ve come from. I have a long history of, and recove… Read More
I describe myself, rightly so I think, as a long-term survivor of AIDS and HIV. I offer as evidence my being diagnosed with HIV in 1989 and my long, slow recovery from AIDS-relate… Read More
Celina Caesar-Chavannes appeared tonight on CBC Power and Politics with host Rosemary Barton. She was there to discuss her experiences with depression, before and since becoming M… Read More
While we honour the memory of all victims of male violence against women everywhere, before and since, Canadians particularly recall today the names of the victims of the Montreal Massacre a… Read More
The blank page stares up at me, “World AIDS Day 2016”. That will be Thursday. It’s not like it used to be when life was much more urgent, desperate. I think of the dead. I… Read More
As heard on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning today Wood Haven Country Lodge in the Kawarthas opens its heart next weekend to women and children from area shelters, offering them a get-aw… Read More
Exciting news from the NIH! “Scientists from the National Institutes of Health have identified an antibody from an HIV-infected person that potently neutralized 98 percent of HIV isola… Read More
Originally posted on My journey with AIDS...and more!: Would it be much of a surprise, even to the casual reader, that I am a mental health client? I have been since soon after my conclusive… Read More
I don’t know who you all are, but the blog machine tells me there are 1,013 of you following me here. You can also find me, Kenn Chaplin, on Facebook. You’ll know that I ha… Read More
just an illustration🙂 I found it in the Yellow Pages, which I was checking out at the Toronto Coach Terminal on Bay Street. I had just arrived from Niagara College. It was 1979. I wa… Read More
It was my first visit to the west coast, that summer of 1996, and – given my fragile health – I was determined to make it the trip of a lifetime. I would fly to Vancouver and the… Read More
Bright and early this morning, before I could slip into dishonesty, I volunteered to my diabetes specialist that I was depressed. Actually it was more like joining in conversation with… Read More
just an illustration🙂 I found it in the Yellow Pages, which I was checking out at the Toronto Coach Terminal on Bay Street. I had just arrived from Niagara College. It was 1979. I wa… Read More
Facebook, with its at-best superficial ways of linking me to my world, has taken me away from greater reflection possible in this blog so…I’m back – on my journey here. Th… Read More
I am reminded of December 6, 1989 at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique. I am reminded of February 5, 1981 – Toronto’s bath house raids, the catalyst for my coming out. I am re… Read More
While showing me a graph, with the trajectory of my health over the past few months, my endocrinologist remarked, “I wouldn’t have sold you life insurance in January!&rdquo&hell…Read More
Reading something which noted that 1981 was 35 years ago jarred me into realizing that it was three-and-a-half decades ago this very month that I officially came out of the closet, by which… Read More
First there was the pre-Christmas illness. Then, while in Perth, I went for only one walk – to the pharmacy – in a town which normally calls out for long walks. I even felt… Read More
I spent the afternoon yesterday in the Emergency Department of Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital after a drug overdose, albeit accidental, when I tried to eliminate a “HI” rea… Read More
It was both an honour and a pleasure this past Monday to receive an award for 25 years of service at the AIDS Committee of Toronto’s Annual General Meeting. I must confess to fee… Read More
The assignment for this week (Sept. 28, 2015) at the Mount Sinai Narrative Writing Group was “Write a story about a decision you have observed or experienced.” May 9, 2007… Read More
The latest ambitious awareness campaign by the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT), #HIVnow, “asks big questions, puts forward honest answers and issues clear calls to action”. The … Read More
If I have learned nothing else about my bipolar II today, it is that I am certainly not the only one in similar circumstances who has found photography to be a healing past-tim… Read More
I’m very close to finishing the book Survivor – Auschwitz, The Death March and My Fight for Freedom by Sam Pivnik and some two-thirds of the way through I was jolted by this pass… Read More
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My journey with AIDS…and more! – – drama, di