Jeff Berry is editor of Positively Aware, a Chicago-based magazine for people living with or affected by HIV.

By Jeff Berry, editor of Positively Aware, “A Day with HIV” co-founder

Last September, a collection of 120 online photographs gave a face to hundreds of thousands of people in North America who live with HIV every day. This portrait of people affected by HIV — gay and straight, negative and positive, friends, family and co-workers — confirmed what photographer August Sander once said, “In photography, there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated.”

For the third year Positively Aware is hosting its “A Day with HIV” photography public awareness program by asking people around the world on one single day, Friday, Sept. 21, to shed light on the realities of living with HIV. On this day, people will grab a digital camera and “take a shot” to chronicle a time in their day that tells their story of living with HIV.

If you don't know who Shaun Sperling is, or in the very least know who the "bar mitzvah vogue guy" is, you may be living in a cave. (Or it's also possible you don't constantly troll the Internet for viral videos.)

At any rate, Shaun Sperling is a Chicago attorney who found sudden and instant fame recently after he uploaded a home video of his 13-year-old self dancing to Madonna's hit song "Vogue" at his bar mitzvah. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then click here and see for yourself before reading any further.

The video went viral almost instantly -- ABC News, Perez Hilton, Gawker, Huffington Post and so on and so on. Sperling was interviewed on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! a couple of weeks ago. Next up will be the Ellen DeGeneres Show, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 10.

Where will this all lead? That's hard to say. But Sperling hopes to use his celebrity to make a difference and to speak out on homophobia and HIV stigma. A former AFC Junior Board member, as well as a longtime participant of the TEAM TO END AIDS, Sperling has deep roots in HIV advocacy.

He recently took some time to share his thoughts on his sudden fame and what he hopes to accomplish. Check out the short video above from that interview.

Thanks, Shaun!

By Jim Merrell

For the second time in Chicago this year, the life of a gender-variant young person of color was lost to violence.

Donta Gooden’s body was found in an abandoned building on the city’s West Side late in the evening of August 14th.  Gooden, 19, who also went by the name “Tiffany,” was stabbed to death just three blocks from where Paige Clay, a 23 year-old transgender woman, was shot and killed in April, according to media reports.  The police investigation is ongoing.

The tragedy of these senseless killings, still so raw and heartrending for the loved ones of Gooden and Clay, is beyond comprehension and deplorable on every level. But perhaps even more unsettling is how often violent crimes against LGBTQ people occur and how little social outrage they ignite.