Philip Huang

Recently I was paging through the tome, Palm Springs Confidential, by Howard Johns, and it inspired me to take a weekend trip to Palm Springs, one of my fav destinations. The only frustrating part is the drive on I-10. Get off the friggin’ phone! I scream at one moron motorist. I wait for the day when cells are outlawed in cars. What is everyone yakking about?! Okay, I’ll stop with my motor-mouth and get on to more pleasant fare. Once in PS, I check out the Palm Springs Air Museum. What a treat—if you ever make it here, be sure to take the tour with docent, Peggy Ivey. Over the years, the museum has donated free admissions, group tours, and also has held AIDS benefits. In the tail of a WWII B-17, I begin talking with a lovely chap, Philip Huang, who resides in Berkeley, California. 

For seven years, Philip, twenty-nine, has been HIV and youth coordinator at Asian Health Services in Oakland, where he heads the Gay Men’s Health Program and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. Philip has published short stories and poems, and will be featured in the upcoming Fresh Men: Writings from New Gay Voices, edited by Edmund White. Laurie Toby Edison also photographed him for her 2003 book, Familiar Men, which has been used in self-esteem workshops for people living with AIDS, particularly those who are people of color.

After the tour, Philip and I stumble upon the Zundapp KS750 motorcycle that was used in the Cary Grant movie, I Was a Male War Bride. We trek outdoors, with the majestic San Jacinto Mountains in the near distance, and park our carcasses inside a C-47, a recent arrival from the Israeli Air Force.

Ruby Comer: So this is a paratrooper plane. Boy, these bench seats are hard, huh?! Hey Philip, when did you first hear about AIDS?

Philip Huang: [He sits facing me] I was ten. I think I’m the first generation who grew up in a world that didn’t not have AIDS in it. I didn’t have AIDS prevention in school though. I guess I was just on the cusp of that.

You must have been. What does AIDS mean to you?

That’s an interesting question. Working in the community, I see AIDS as a challenge being imposed on different levels: the world, Americans, the gay community, and individuals. Now after twenty years [of AIDS] I don’t think we’ve met the challenge of becoming a more open society. This disease could have been eradicated if we had taken a hard look at our values. [He pauses and briefly takes a look into the tiny cockpit.] Within the last seven to eight years, the gay community has certainly been brushed aside again, and I think the Bush administration is enforcing that. I think the federal government is simply pushing abstinence.

What do you think of that, and are you a condom user?

Yep, I wear condoms. [He says proudly.] I think abstinence is a great choice for some people, but it’s ridiculous to tell gay men to “wait till you’re married!” A couple of things have happened in the last ten years and one of them is that, for good or bad, HIV prevention workers have become institutionalized. In the eighties it was more grass-roots. There was a lot of great activism and taking care of each other. I think this is the paradox. Once the prevention movement got government support then the grass-roots community as a whole let go of its own responsibility to stop the epidemic. I think this is a shame.

A very interesting point of view, Philip. Tell me about what kinds of people you are seeing in your work?

I work in Oakland, and so many people I see are Latino and African-American. Among gay men, infections are occurring more in the over-thirty population. Though nationally, the majority of new HIV infections are among those twenty-five and under.

Are you getting through to these men?

We do outreach in bars and clubs and it’s been successful. Our program has tried really hard to instill a sense of community for gays, an environment that doesn’t lend itself to sex and drugs. We also try to reach gay men who tend to be more isolated on-line. A lot of younger gay men these days don’t feel a connection to the ones who came before. 

Hmm, very insightful.

I feel art and literature is an inheritance that we need to pass on, like the works of Paul Monette. He spoke about what it meant to be gay, that you have no choice but to get involved with advocacy and activism. He said AIDS is our burden to bear and we have a responsibility to insure that there is a legacy for future generations of gay men. I read those words when I came out at nineteen, and it really spoke to me. We need to pass these words on.

Learn more about Familiar Men by logging on to  www.candydarling.com/LTE.

Ruby Comer is an independent journalist from the Midwest who is happy to call Hollywood her home away from home. Reach her by e-mail at MsRubyComer@aol.com.

December 2004