AIDS walked into Robert Neubert's life almost 30 years ago.

It was the mid-1980s and Neubert was the musical director for a traveling musical theatre tour. His good friend Paul, an actor in the company, was sick and needed further medical attention beyond what was available during a stop in Rockton, Ill. Doctors there were unable to help him and suggested he return home to seek an HIV specialist, Neubert said. In just over a year, he was dead of AIDS-related causes.

“That was the moment for me,” said Neubert, 58, director of catering sales at the Hilton Chicago. “I knew then that we were all on the road to something very unpleasant.”

Neubert would find a way to pay tribute. For the past decade, he has served on the board of directors for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). In those years, he has helped raise countless dollars through the production of events and charitable giving. In doing so, he has strengthened efforts to end the AIDS epidemic and to help HIV-positive Chicagoans live with integrity.

At AFC’s 2013 Annual Dinner on April 18 at the Hilton Chicago, Neubert will be honored with the Lori Kaufman Volunteer Award.

By Jim Pickett

The shocking truth is we don’t know much about the safety of sexual lubricants and whether or not they may actually contribute to the spread of HIV.

We know that using condoms with condom-compatible lube is an important HIV prevention intervention. But more than 30 years into the HIV pandemic, we don’t know whether sexual lubricants (lubes) increase, decrease or have no impact on the risk of acquiring HIV and STIs.

In fact, it is only quite recently that most advocates, HIV prevention workers, researchers and policy makers have even realized that we don’t know the answer to this fundamental question.

HIV advocates pose in the State House rotunda before seeking out their legislators.

By Lucy Baglin

In the midst of the Illinois’ notoriously unpredictable "Lame Duck Session," 15 HIV/AIDS advocates and myself headed down to Springfield on Monday to advocate the passage of ‘Medicaid Financing for the Uninsured’ – a bill that would help provide health care to thousands of uninsured people living with HIV/AIDS in Illinois under the Affordable Care Act.

It felt an honor to be in Springfield defending such a historic piece of legislation. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama’s revolutionary health care reform, holds so much promise for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Illinois.

The advocate group, brought together by AIDS Foundation of Chicago, was made up of lively members from the Illinois HIV/AIDS community. With so much on the table, there was an undeniable buzz among all the advocates as we discussed the bill during a group training before heading to the Capitol.