|
From Serodiscordant Dating, the Air Force Closet, and Enlisting in an HIV Vaccine Clinical Trial, Reichen Lehmkuhl Talks to A&U’s B. Andrew Plant About How His Experiences Helped Shape His Fight Against AIDS
Reichen Lehmkuhl first came to public prominence as a contestant on—and eventual winner of—CBS’s The Amazing Race competition and reality show in its fourth season. He has remained in the public eye as an actor, model, author and gay rights advocate.
And, while international modeling gigs and movie and television roles might be more glamorous, it’s his role as an advocate for a repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that seems to fuel the handsome thirty-three year-old. Reichen showed the same kind of enthusiasm in our interview about the AIDS pandemic.
We sat down together when he was in Atlanta for a speaking engagement with the Atlanta Executive Network. It was near the end of his book tour, but he showed no fatigue. The book, Here’s What We’ll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out and the U.S. Air Force Academy, had been out since the fall of 2006 and solid reviews meant many appearances and demands on the former Air Force Captain’s time.
We started by talking about the beginning: When Reichen first became aware of AIDS.
“It wasn’t until my eighth-grade year [in school] that I became aware,” he says. “We had a teacher stop class and give an entire lesson on HIV and AIDS, and what we had to do.
“Then, in ninth grade we had a man who came and talked about his own HIV-positive status,” Reichen tells me. “Even with the good information we had gotten the previous year, I guess I still thought anybody with HIV was going to die; this was the first time I realized you could live with it. I clearly remember seeing him up there.”
The kids in the audience were most interested in how the man acquired HIV, Reichen says. “That’s what they were asking; he told them that that didn’t matter, and I thought that was a great lesson for me at that time: It was great to hear an HIV-positive person say that we needed to be focusing on prevention, on treatment and on [education], rather than on…blame.”
Reichen says this was a moment of clarity. “That’s when I understood that what mattered was that people were going to die and something had to be done about it,” he says. While it would be a few more years before he truly joined the battle against AIDS, these formative lessons certainly stuck with the young man.
Fast forward a few years to 1996; Reichen has graduated from the Air Force Academy and was stationed at the Los Angeles Air Force Base.
“I had just been introduced to gay bars [in Los Angeles] and met a guy I really wanted to date,” he says. “We started talking and two to three hours later he told me he was HIV-positive. I dated him for about four months; it’s one of the more brave things I have ever done. [Being serodiscordant] was always an issue, but it was never the issue with us.”
The two eventually broke it off for other reasons. Since then, Reichen says he has not dated anyone who is HIV-positive, but not as a calculated strategy—just by happenstance.
In Reichen’s frank and well-written Here’s What We’ll Say, he recalls cadets regularly “hooking up” for sex—both homosexual and heterosexual—at the Air Force Academy. It was an eye-opener for me; apparently a lot more sex goes on at the academy than I would have imagined. Naturally, I asked if safe sex was on the radar screen of these young men and women.
“Ten years ago the landscape was a lot different,” Reichen says. “I don’t think we gave that a lot of thought. All of the cadets are tested [initially] and continually tested at yearly physicals, and we were not allowed to leave the base, so it was not a sure thing, but much more of a safe environment [in regards to being a closed, HIV-negative environment]. I think safe sex was one of the last things on the minds of cadets at that time.”
Interestingly, Reichen says he does not know what the policy was, had a cadet been found to be HIV-positive, though he indicates he assumes they would have been discharged. Of course, he says he can’t speak for the current environment in the academy or in the Air Force.
Ironically, some of the first work he did in support of people with HIV/AIDS was while he was in the Air Force. “We actually had a lot of opportunities to volunteer,” Reichen says, “so we worked in soup kitchens and clothing drives for people who were HIV, who had AIDS….”
As a civilian Reichen has run in the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s fundraising triathlon. He also ran in a fundraising race benefiting St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital; that led to a bit of a personal epiphany for Reichen.
“We visited [St. Jude’s] scientists who showed us the whole thing on technology, and we talked about their work toward a [viable] HIV vaccine,” Reichen tells me excitedly. That eventually led him to become involved in a clinical trial. “I am one of the test subjects!”
He describes how, to be part of an AIDS vaccine clinical trial, you have to be “completely honest about risk behavior. They keep testing [you] over the years, look at risk patterns. The whole crux of the study is that, hopefully, everyone who has had the vaccine will come out completely okay.”
Of course, he reiterates that study participants are told to not heighten their risks in any way, “because you may not have the vaccine in you; some will have placebo,” he says.
“[A viable AIDS vaccine] is being held up in clinical trials—by the [federal] government; by the [Food and Drug Administration],” Reichen says. Still, he says it’s an unavoidable part of the process (of finding a workable vaccine) and, thus, encourages anyone who can to become involved in a clinical trial.
During our conversation about the literal and figurative trials for an AIDS vaccine, Reichen tells me that, during the run of his television show, the eponymous Reichen Show on the now-defunct Q Television, he focused on HIV/AIDS topics a lot. In fact, he wanted to have as a guest one of those St. Jude’s researchers, but, because competition is so intense among entities developing vaccines, she had to decline.
“The rest of my [community] work has been for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network,” he says. The Task Force’s mission “is to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.” SLDN is a national, nonprofit legal services, watchdog, and policy organization dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel affected by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and related forms of intolerance.
“The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy is so contradictory to what the Air Force and [all the armed forces] stand for,” Reichen says. “They say they are all about honor, integrity, and honesty but they force you to lie in order to serve your country.” He says it was the contradiction inherent in this policy which ultimately led him to opt out of the Air Force once he completed his commitment.
As a man of many talents and myriad business interests, but also a man of his convictions, Reichen partnered with designer Udi Behr to create the FLY NAKED with Reichen (jewelry) Collection for LoveandPride.com, which bills itself as the first high-end jewelry collection created especially for the gay community. Ten percent of Love and Pride revenue is donated to nonprofit organizations that support LGBT equality.
The Reichen-branded titanium jewelry collection was introduced in May; ten percent of all FLY NAKED purchases go to SLDN. Interestingly, jewelry designer Behr is a former soldier in the Israeli army, which allows gays and lesbians to serve openly. As indicated by its name, Reichen’s jewelry is aviation-inspired, as a nod to both his Air Force service time and his civilian work as a pilot.
It seems this pilot-model-actor-author-activist will remain busy. He continues to hone his acting skills, says he “loves, loves, loves” acting and regularly goes on auditions. “It’s not just work for me. It’s also fun,” he says of acting. “When it’s not fun anymore, I’ll stop doing it.”
He also is writing another book, this one picking up where the other left off—graduation from the Air Force Academy. “This will cover the homophobia I witnessed, gay experiences I had in the Air Force, and will end with either my leaving the Air Force or maybe with my experience winning Amazing Race with Chip [referring to Chip Arndt—his then-life and race partner],” Reichen says. The primary purpose of another book, he says, is to continue to push to end the ban on gays in the military.
The first book still has life left in it too, even though the book tour has concluded: Reichen tells me that Here’s What We’ll Say “is slated to be a movie or a series on an American cable channel.” The book’s paperback edition is due out next month.
A casual exchange between Reichen and his publicist during our interview may provide a hint about another upcoming project. “Can I talk about music yet?” The dutiful publicist answers, “Probably not yet.” In any case, you heard it here first.
We’ve gone far afield and the gentlemanly Reichen is the one who gets us back on topic. “But we’re here to talk about HIV and AIDS,” he says.
I ask what he would tell kids about HIV, given that he learned of the pandemic in school. “The first thing is [HIV/AIDS] history, how it started, how society reacts to it, blame scenarios and how incredible that was [the early days of AIDS],” Reichen says. “I would let them know there has been a huge and positive evolution. I would tell them what’s currently happening—like with the clinical trials. I would tell them I hope we keep moving on this so they will never have to worry about it.”
Reichen notes that he is appreciative of “anyone who is out in the open in making sure that the world knows there is a great spread of people who are gay,” and I ask him to connect gay and AIDS for me.
“When the HIV/AIDS epidemic first happened, it was the gay community that had to ignore all that [blame issues and scare tactics] and came together and educate itself and other people and pass out condoms and…,” he trails off, then gets another characteristic burst of energy.
“We have a rich history of fighting this disease by being visible,” Reichen says. “I am really proud of that. I am so proud of how far we have come. We deserve a pat on the back…and let’s just keep fighting together.”
As for what we need to do to “keep fighting together,” he refers again to clinical trials. “I would like to ask everyone to join a clinical trial. You cannot become HIV-positive from being in a clinical trial.”
After another thoughtful pause, Reichen says, “The research is getting more and more expensive. The need to raise money for [HIV/AIDS] is not over. That’s another very obvious way we can all help. Every
bit counts.”
As we wind down our interview, he says, “pictures; you wanted photos—right? Let’s do it. This is what I am here for.” It was a nice moment, given his many projects and the fact we usually hear more about celebrity sightings of him than his work.
Just as Reichen gives his all to so many other projects, he was enthusiastic about the role we can all play in ending AIDS.
Contact photographer Robin Henson by visiting www.RobinHenson.com. Make-up and hair by Richie Arpino: www.ArpinoSalon.com.
B. Andrew Plant is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and is Editor at Large of A&U. He interviewed Dr. Helene Gayle for the April issue.
September 2007
|
