NEW YORK, NY, November 1, 2005—The November issue of POZ, America’s leading AIDS magazine, gathers folks often banished from the holiday table—and asks a fearless Thanksgiving question: Has HIV actually improved their lives?  Over turkey and all the trimmings, you’ll meet a cross section of the pandemic: the first African American to win a national leather-fetish title; a Jersey girl from a self-proclaimed dysfunctional Italian family; a recovered drug-addict;  and her HIV-negative daughter. Their insights and confessions define what it means to be positive and thankful in 2005. Says one panelist: “[HIV] woke me up in so many different ways. It gave me my life back. I got me back.”  Pass the gravy.

PLUS…

What does John Roberts’ appointment as Chief Justice of the United States mean for people with HIV? POZ judges his record and the upcoming court docket to hand down a verdict.

A feisty 70-year-old positive grandmother, activist and HIV educator reveals how she talks sex to seventh-graders: “[The kids] look at me like I’m crazy, and I’ll say’ ‘Yes, your parents and grandparents are still having sex.’ And they’ll go, ‘Ew!’ But it’s true!”

California debates ditching anonymous testing and naming all in the state who test positive. Could the practice spur discrimination?

Is lipodystrophy—that fat-depositing med side effect—finally a thing of the past? How to beat the body-morphing results  of HIV meds—from what you eat to the latest facial injections. 

POZ can provide hard copies and PDFs of the issue and interviews with writers and editors upon request. For a full update on AIDS headlines and relevant links, check out POZ.com’s new daily News & Views at www.poz.com.

Launched in 1994, POZ is an award-winning national magazine with a monthly readership of 100,000. POZ offers clear, innovative and often surprising reflections of the complexities of life with HIV. POZ is published by Smart + Strong.