In the fall of 1987, at the age of 25, I went to be tested for HIV. In the elasticized lengthening of time between then and Halloween when I would get my results, I had convinced myself that my test would come back negative and that I would get on with my life.
I was unprepared to hear the words that I was HIV-positive and reacted with a sort of disassociative dance, as if I were watching all this from outside, shocked but disconnected. After a couple of cathartic phone calls to people close to me, I retreated into a certain level of denial and went three and a half years before seeking medical attention for HIV.
In 2007, I won the silver medal in Paris at the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics championships. I am running for the Board of Supervisors in 2010 in San Francisco. My goal is to make the US Olympic trials in swimming in 2012 (at 50).