Michael Aksten

09/03/2026

📬 I am incredibly proud to share that my article, “Making It Matter,” has officially been published in the September 2026 print issue of POZ Magazine!

🔗 Read “Making It Matter” here:
🌈 https://www.poz.com/article/making-matter

Seeing something I wrote appear in the pages of POZ carries a significance that is difficult for me to put into words.

“Making It Matter” is about taking lived experience and turning it into something larger: advocacy, leadership, systems change, and a voice for others. It reflects a journey that has taken me from being a person navigating HIV care and the systems surrounding it to having opportunities to help shape those very systems.

That journey has taught me that lived experience is not simply something we bring to the table as a personal story. It is knowledge. It is expertise. And when people with lived experience are meaningfully included in advocacy, policy, healthcare governance, and decision making, we make those systems stronger.

Having this story published by POZ Magazine, a publication that has documented the lives, struggles, victories, and extraordinary resilience of the HIV community for decades, makes this especially meaningful to me.

There is also something pretty surreal about knowing that somewhere out there, people can now pick up the September issue of POZ, turn the page, and find my words in print.

I am deeply grateful to POZ for giving me the opportunity to share this part of my story and, hopefully, to demonstrate what can happen when lived experience is given the opportunity to become leadership.

From lived experience to advocacy.

From advocacy to leadership.

And from leadership to meaningful change.

That is what making it matter means to me.

❤️ 🩷 🧡 💛 💚 💙 🩵 💜

After surviving AIDS, Michael Aksten is committed to action against HIV.

09/03/2026

What If a Friend Tells You That They Have HIV?

More than a million people in the United States have HIV, so you may know someone with the virus. If your friend, family member, or co-worker has had HIV for some time and has just told you, here’s how you can be supportive:

Acknowledge. If someone has disclosed their HIV status to you, thank them for trusting you with their private health information.

Ask. If appropriate, ask if there’s anything that you can do to help them. One reason they may have chosen to disclose their status to you is that they need an ally or advocate, or they may need help with a particular issue or challenge. Some people are public with this information; other people keep it very private. Ask whether other people know this information, and how private they are about their HIV status.

Reassure. Let the person know, through your words or actions, that their HIV status does not change your relationship and that you will keep this information private if they want you to.

Learn. Educate yourself about HIV. Today, people living with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed can get and keep an undetectable viral load, stay healthy, and will not transmit HIV to their sexual partners. Don’t make assumptions and look to your friend for guidance.

09/03/2026

? In 2024, Black individuals represented 39% of those living with , despite comprising just 12% of the U.S. population.

Differential access to social factors continues to contribute to disparities in health outcomes for people living with or at risk for HIV. Addressing social determinants of health is paramount to achieving health equity and ending the HIV epidemic.

Explore the latest data and resources from here: https://aidsvu.org/resources/toolkits/annual-launch-toolkit-2026/

AIDSVu released its annual update of interactive maps and data visualizations, highlighting the latest national, state, and local insights into the HIV epidemic. The 2024 HIV surveillance data updates include state- and county-level figures on new diagnoses, prevalence, mortality, and care outcomes,...

09/02/2026

Paid Market Research Study - HIV Treatments ‼️

Opinions Link Research is looking for individuals living with HIV to participate in a paid market research study. Participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences, perspectives, and feedback on a digital health experience designed to help people living with HIV identify their needs, access relevant resources, and engage more confidently with their healthcare team.



🌟Study link: https://surveys.opinionslink.com/r/wmDqak

🌟Feel free to contact them for any questions: [email protected]

09/01/2026

With Harbor Care – I just made it onto their weekly engagement list by being one of their top engagers 🎉

09/01/2026

There are some experiences in advocacy that are difficult.

Then there are experiences for which “difficult” and “painful” don't even begin to cover it.

Using Your Story: Pre Obituary Training.

A training from SERO and the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus about using pre obituaries and other forms of creative writing to call out funding cuts.

I knew what I was signing up for.

I understood the purpose.

I understood why this kind of advocacy could be powerful.

And still...

Holy fu***ng s**t.

Calling this painful doesn't even hit it.

There is something almost indescribable about being asked, as a person living with HIV, to approach your own life through the framework of an obituary while you are still very much alive.

To think about your life in the past tense.

To think about what would be written after you were gone.

To think about what you fought through to still be here.

And then to confront the possibility that programs people depend upon to remain healthy, housed, medicated, insured, supported, and connected to care could be cut.

That isn't simply “telling your story.”

It forces you into an emotional place most people spend their lives trying not to visit.

And we're doing it because sometimes numbers aren't enough.

A funding reduction is a number.

An appropriations bill is a document.

A program elimination is a line item.

But somewhere underneath every one of those decisions is a human being.

Someone who fought to survive.

Someone who built a life.

Someone who still has plans.

Someone who expects there to be a tomorrow.

That is what makes this exercise so extraordinarily difficult.

And I want to be very clear about something:

My reaction isn't criticism of SERO or the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus for creating this training.

Quite the opposite.

The disturbing part is that the political circumstances surrounding HIV funding have made an advocacy tool like this relevant in the first place.

Think about that.

People living with HIV may have to write about their own deaths to make the consequences of funding cuts impossible to ignore.

There should be something deeply unsettling about that sentence.

Nobody should have to describe themselves in the past tense to convince policymakers that their future is worth funding.

Yet here we are.

I don't have some polished advocacy conclusion for this one.

I'm still processing it.

Because “painful” doesn't cover it.

“Difficult” doesn't cover it.

Even “devastating” doesn't quite cover it.

Sometimes all you're left with is:

Holy. Fu***ng. Sh*t.❤️‍🩹

09/01/2026

09/01/2026

On September 3 at 4:00 PM ET, Save HIV Funding, The SERO Project, and the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus are coming together for Using Your Story: Pre-Obituary Training.

This conversation will explore how pre-obituaries and other forms of creative writing can be used to tell our stories, document what is at stake, and call attention to funding cuts that have very real consequences for people living with HIV and the programs and communities that support us.

Featuring Kamaria Laffrey of The SERO Project and Malcolm Reid of the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus.

For those of us living with HIV, our stories are more than statistics, funding lines, or policy arguments. They are records of survival, resilience, loss, advocacy, community, and lives that deserve to be seen and valued.

Sometimes the most powerful advocacy begins with simply refusing to let someone else tell our story for us.

📅 September 3, 2026
⏰ 4:00 PM ET

Registration information and QR code are included in the graphic.

❤️ Our stories matter. Our lives matter. And our voices belong in the fight for our future.

08/31/2026

🏳️‍🌈 This one genuinely hurts.

I was incredibly saddened to learn that 603 Equality will be winding down operations.

603 Equality has been such an important presence in New Hampshire's LGBTQ+ community and in the fight to ensure that LGBTQ+ Granite Staters are seen, heard, protected, and represented.

Especially during a time when our community continues to face very real challenges, losing an organization and a familiar voice in that work is difficult. Organizations are more than their legal structures or names. They become part of the fabric of a community, built through the people who show up, organize, advocate, testify, educate, build relationships, and refuse to remain silent when our community needs them.

That is why this news makes me genuinely sad.

At the same time, I am grateful that this is not simply an ending.

I am encouraged to know that 603 Equality is working with NH Outright to help ensure that its advocacy and policy work continues, and that Aimee Terravechia will be joining NH Outright as its inaugural Director of Advocacy & Education.

There is comfort in knowing that the work, relationships, knowledge, and commitment built through 603 Equality will continue forward in a new form.

But I also think it is okay to acknowledge that transitions like this can still hurt.

You can be hopeful about what comes next while being sad about what we are losing.

To everyone who has been part of 603 Equality over the years — the staff, Board Members, volunteers, advocates, partners, supporters, and countless people who showed up when it mattered — thank you.

Thank you for standing up for our community.
Thank you for fighting.
Thank you for educating.
Thank you for organizing.
Thank you for making sure LGBTQ+ Granite Staters had a voice.

I am deeply grateful for everything 603 Equality has contributed to New Hampshire, and I am genuinely sorry to see this chapter come to an end.

I wish Aimee and everyone involved nothing but success as this work moves forward with NH Outright. Our community still needs strong advocates, strong organizations, and people willing to stand together — perhaps now more than ever.

Today, though, I'm just sad to see 603 Equality go. ❤️‍🩹🏳️‍🌈

Thank you for everything.

08/31/2026

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a decision in Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. Meritain Health, a lawsuit in which Gilead Sciences—makers of several HIV medications, including the most commonly prescribed medication, Biktarvy—accused Meritain Health, ProAct Inc., Rx Valet, Affordable Rx Meds, and Fetih Eczanesi (a Turkish pharmacy) of illegally importing foreign versions of their brand-name drugs not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (Lee et al., 2026).

For more information:

By: Marcus J. Hopkins , Health Policy Lead Consultant, ADAP Advocacy The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a decision in Gilea...