The Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic Illness

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Hi and thanks for stopping by.

I’m a longtime queer and trans health care activist, writer and strategist living with multiple chronic illnesses, including fibromyalgia, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Most recently, I served as director of strategic communications and senior editor for The Body, which focuses on HIV and sexual health.

And I’ve got some information and ideas to share, and I want to hear yours.

To live our best lives, those of us with chronic conditions need clear, accurate information and compassionate connection, ideally with some humor and finesse.  But essential, honest and practical advice and support can be hard to find, even as we face a deluge of online information and ads that follow us everywhere we go (especially if there’s expensive drugs to treat one or more of our diagnoses).

So that’s why I’m working on The Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic Illness. I’m re-working the self-help health book -- powered by queer sensibilities and lived experiences -- and bridging journalism, memoir, self-help and spiritual approaches, to invite you to join me as an illder: a wise elder of any age who turn the demands of living with chronic conditions into opportunities for self-knowledge, growth and connection.

My perspectives are shaped by decades bridging health education, medical & research advocacy (including alongside or up against NIH and CDC scientists), social movement strategies, game-changing street protests in the HIV and LGBTQ movements, and worldviews shaped by emergent strategies, spiritual practices and justice struggles.

As I get going on this endeavor, I’m setting up this newsletter to give you updates, get your input and tell you some stories. Will you tell me yours?

You’ll be hearing more from me soon - if you subscribe. It’s free!

Thanks.

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