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Biography
Infobox person|name = Michael Callen|image = Michael Callen.jpg|image_size = 240px|caption =|birth_date = birth date|1955|4|11|birth_place = Rising Sun, Indiana|Rising Sun , Indiana , United States |death_date = dda|1993|12|27|1955|4|11|death_place = Los Angeles , California , United States |death_cause = AIDS related complications|other_names =|known_for = Early AIDS Activist|occupation = Musician, Author, and AIDS activist|nationality = U. S. Citizen or North American Michael Callen (birth date|1955|4|11 - death date|1993|12|27) was a singing|singer , songwriter , composer , author , and AIDS activist. He was a significant architect of the response to the AIDS crisis in the United States .
First diagnosed with " Gay related immune deficiency " (GRID) in 1982, Callen quickly became a leader in the response to the epidemic. He was a founding member of the People With AIDS|People With AIDS Self-Empowerment Movement among other organizations, and he testified before the President's Commission on AIDS and both houses of the United StatesCongress .
Callen died of AIDS-related complications in Los Angeles , California , at the age of 38.
AIDS activist
In 1983, Callen co-authored the book How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach , which outlined the tenets of safe sex , developed in collaboration with Richard Berkowitz and Dr. Joseph Sonnabend . In 1990, he wrote Surviving AIDS , which received an Honorable Mention from the American Medical Writers Association.
He was frequently seen on television talking about AIDS. Appearances included Nightline (US news program)|Nightline , Good Morning America , 20/20 (US television show)|20/20 , and Phil Donahue|The Phil Donahue Show . He wrote for several newspapers and magazines, including the Village Voice , The New York Native , and Outweek ; some of his articles are collected in Surviving and Thriving with AIDS , published by the People with AIDS Coalition in 1988.
Callen openly questioned the HIV theory of AIDS and was especially critical of Zidovudine|AZT monotherapy when it was first introduced: "The HIV paradigm has produced nothing of value for my life and I actually believe that treatments based on the arrogant belief that HIV has proven to be the sole and sufficient cause of AIDS has hastened the deaths of many of my friends." http://www.immunity.org.uk/videos.html
Performer
In the early 1980s, Callen was in a gay and lesbian four-piece band called “Lowlife”, playing piano and keyboards, singing, yodeling , and twirling a baton.
He was a founding member of the gay male a cappella singing group The Flirtations (a cappella musical group)|The Flirtations , with whom he recorded two albums. He also had a solo album, Purple Heart , http://members.aol.com/sigothinc/mcmusic.htm which a review in The Advocate called "the most remarkable gay independent release of the past decade." During the last year of his life, Callen recorded over 40 songs; Legacy , a 2-CD album of 29 of them, was posthumously released by Significant Other Records in 1996.
In partnership with Academy Award|Oscar winner Peter Allen and Marsha Melamet, he wrote his most famous song, "Love Don't Need a Reason", which he sang frequently at gay pride and AIDS-related events around the country.
In 1993 he appeared in the films Philadelphia (film)|Philadelphia (as part of The Flirtations )Citation | title = Flirting with success | journal = Entertainment Weekly | date = 1994-02-04 | url = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,301005,00.html and Zero Patience (appearing in Drag (clothing)|drag as "Miss HIV", a singing virus).
See also
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center , an organization in New York City named for Michael Callen and Audre Lorde .
ACRIA - Started as Community Research Initiative, an organization co founded by Callen and Joseph Sonnabend.
References
reflist
External links
http://web.archive.org/web/20050318034318/ http://members.aol.com/sigothinc/whowas.htm Archive.org version of the posthumous home page of Michael Callen
http://www.thebody.com/gmhc/issues/feb_mar01/callen.html Remarks of Michael Callen to the New York congressional delegation 1983
http://home.cfl.rr.com/atbpo/ Photographs of the real people from Randy Shilts' history of the AIDS crisis "And the Band Played On"
DEFAULTSORT:Callen, Michael Category:1955 births Category:1993 deaths Category:American non-fiction writers Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni Category:Gay writers Category:American songwriters Category:American pop singers Category:American male singers Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:AIDS denialism Category:AIDS-related deaths in California Category:AIDS activists Category:American health activists Category:Gay musicians
