Subject: Stephen Gendin has died of AIDS in NYC
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 15:30:48 EDT

Subj:   Fwd: Stephen Gendin News Release 
Date:   7/20/00 11:58:16 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From:   Strubco
To: [email-masked]
CC: [email-masked], [email-masked]
CC: [email-masked], LGrinberg, [email-masked]
CC: [email-masked], Fenceberry, M Petrelis
CC: [email-masked], [email-masked]
CC: [email-masked], CWRobbins

Mark/Bill/Rex/Linda/Jesse/Mike/Dennis/Charles, et al:

I'm sending this to you guys who all have extensive distribution lists.  If 
you could forward it to your lists, I would be appreciative.  Thank you.

Sean

 Following is the news release we are issuing about Stephen Gendin's 
 death.  Please note that details for the memorial service -- taking 
 place next Thursday at 11:30 AM at the Center -- are included the end 
 of the document.  If you could distribute this as widely as possible, it 
would be appreciated.  If folks coming from out of town need housing, they 
should contact Tiffany Wolf or Chris Weigel at POZ ([email-masked], or 
[email-masked], or 212-242-2163), who will be coordinating housing requests.

 July 20, 2000
 For Immediate Release
 POZ Magazine
 Contact:
 Greg Lugliani (212) 242-2163/cell (917) 439-5101
 Walter Armstrong (212) 242-2163

 STEPHEN GENDIN, ACTIVIST AND WRITER, DIES OF AIDS AT 34
 
 Stephen Gendin, who was at the center of AIDS activism for 15 years 
 and whose provocative writing in POZ magazine as a gay man struggling 
 with HIV sparked community controversies, died on Wednesday, July 19, 
 at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, with his partner, Kyle "Hush" MacDowell at 
his side. He was 34. 

Gendin's death was caused by cardiac arrest while undergoing chemotherapy for 
 AIDS-related lymphoma. In addition to being a columnist and 
 contributing editor at POZ he was cofounder of Community Prescription 
Service, a 
 national mail-order pharmacy service for people with HIV.
 
 "I have never met a man I admired more," said POZ founder Sean Strub. 
 "Continued AIDS activism, in the absence of Stephen's integrity, 
 excruciating honesty and deep drive for meaning, at the moment, feels 
 impossible."
 
 Gendin, who served as the youngest member of the executive committee 
 of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, 
 learned he had HIV when he was an 18-year-old Brown University 
 freshman. From that day on he became a dedicated and outspoken 
 activist on behalf of PWAs, founding ACT UP/Rhode Island and helping 
 to launch the Rhode Island AIDS Project before graduating from Brown. 
 A member of ACT UP/New York's fundraising committee, he took part in 
 dozens of demos and civil disobedience actions, racking up a lengthy 
 rap sheet of arrests. In 1989, he launched ACT UP's "Treatment and 
 Data Digest," a pioneer PWA-empowering treatment newsletter. As CEO 
 of the nation's only HIV-positive-owned-and-operated mail-order 
 prescription service, founded in 1991, Gendin continued to provide 
 lifesaving medical information through newsletters, community forums 
 and other services to tens of thousands of people with HIV.
 
 Larry Kramer, founder of ACT UP, said: "I remember the first time I 
 saw Stephen at one of the first ACT UP meetings. He'd come all the 
 way down from Brown. And he did it weekly, just to be with us, 
 fighting. I remember the last time I saw him, just a week or so ago, 
 looking just as much the handsome fighter, having just come through 
 yet another awful close call, but standing straight, tall, with that 
 same determined expression he had that first day. I remember 
 thinking: He's going to make it through this after all."
 
 Gendin continued to distinguish himself as one of the few activists 
 to focus his energies on HIV prevention as well as treatment, long 
 past the heyday of ACT UP's militancy. In 1994, when gay men faced a 
 second wave of infections, he founded the AIDS Prevention Action 
 League to spearhead new models of community-based, sex-positive 
 prevention. Two years later, he co-founded Sex Panic! to combat 
 attacks on New York City's sexual culture.
 
 But it was as a POZ columnist that Gendin made his most controversial 
 contribution. Whether writing about the indignities of 
 HIV-drug-related diarrhea, his fantasy of assassinating Sen. Jesse 
 Helms or the conflicted pleasure to be had in barebacking and the 
 intense soul-searching that resulted, Gendin had the uncanny ability 
 to catalyze community discussion of complicated, contentious issues. 
 His pieces could also outrage a community of readers that prized 
 itself on being beyond outrage.
 
 Gendin showed early promise. He was a Boy Scout since the second 
 grade, and was president of the 35-member science and engineering 
 post #199 of the Wolverine Council, sponsored by Bechtel Power 
 Corporation (where he later secured an internship in the engineering 
 department  as a high school student).  He was a "National Explorer 
 Scout of the Year" (the Explorer Scouts are affiliated with the Boy Scouts 
of America).  As a high school student, Gendin was one of the first out gay 
activist teenagers in the country.
 
 Gendin was a graduate of Brown University with a bachelor's degree in 
 Religious Studies (1989) and attended the Union Theological Seminary, 
 completing two years toward his master's degree.
 
 Gendin is survived by his partner, Kyle "Hush" MacDowell, of New York 
 City; his father, Sidney Gendin, of Ypsilanti, Michigan; and his 
 sister Margo Hart, of Ionia, Michigan. His mother, Natalie Hauser 
 Gendin, died in 1990 with Stephen at her side.
 
 Contributions in memory of Stephen Gendin may be made to: Aid For 
 AIDS (212-337-8043; a group that distributes anti-HIV drugs to 
 developing countries), the Hetrick-Martin Institute (212-674-2400), 
 and GLSEN (the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network; 212-727-0135).
 
 A memorial service organized by Larry Kramer and other community 
 leaders will take place on Thursday, July 27, at 11:30 a.m. at the 
 Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, 1 Little West 12th Street, 
 New York, NY (212-620-7310).  Those wishing to honor Stephen are encouraged 
to attend and, if they choose, bring a photograph, memento or other artifact 
to be placed with a memorial alter to be assembled at the service.
 
 Editors: Photographs of Stephen Gendin (portrait and ACT UP protest 
 arrest scene) are available upon request.
 
 # # # #

Michael Petrelis
 <A HREF="http://www.aids-statistics.com/">Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS</A>
www.AIDS-statistics.com 
2215-R Market Street, #413
San Francisco, CA 94114