#Charllie Pizzarello

[xtrablak674]

Charlie Pizzarello - GMHC's Young Hot & Safe '94 Photoshoot

I was a member of Gay Men's Health Crisis's - Young Adult Prevention Program for a few years and was amongst the team of young people who helped to develop this campaign. I also was a model at the photoshoot and had the good fortune to also end up in the final campaign that rode all over the MTA in the form of a subway poster that was posted all over the transit system in buses and subways.

This campaign was executed exactly thirty years ago, and I can recall how much fun I had at the photoshoot with folks I knew and a lot I didn't know, it felt like a plutonic orgy with all the mis-matching of couples to get as many varieties of pairings as possible for the final product.

Not that I am a person who attends reunions, it would be wonderful to have a reunion of the folks that participated in this campaign just to see who is still with us, and who isn't, and what they have all done with themselves since then. I am pictured with Timothy Fischetti above, who is no longer with us, I was so sad to hear he had departed because the last time we spoke he sounded so happy and content, an actualization of this campaign in my assessment. Modern society has always wanted to cast queers as sad and loathsome people. We were seeking to assert a more positive presentation of young queer folks, being beautiful and practicing safer sex.

This campaign was HIV/AIDS education with a sex positive harm reduction message targeted towards the sexually active and future active youth of New York City, being the early nineties there was media backlash to the campaign, I was pleased to stand with Councilman Tom Duane at the press conference for this campaign and give my own words about how important representation matters for young people in regards to AIDS education whether they be sexually active or not.

My father was an activist post-Vietnam until his death. There is a legacy of activism within my family and I was happy to spend over ten years focused on HIV/AIDS education in the queer communities. The messages have changed but activism is still necessary and hopefully the kids today are picking up the reigns and pushing the messages that need to be heard by the public and hopefully pushing the movement and conversation forward.

[Photos by Charlie Pizzarello]