MarioJohn

Some things aren’t worth the wait. Sex before puberty. Tattoos before prison. Sero-conversion before Hivster. With this “why wait?” credo and in-between trips to local bars and federal corrections institutions, MarioJohn writes for Hivster. For three years, he wrote Bric-a-Brac, a monthly column no one ever read, in a local community newspaper, the Capitol Hill Times, no one ever read either. Memorable lines include (from an article on the Crescent Lounge), “To the tranny who sweet-talked me with her honey-tongue and sparking eyes: give me back my wallet,” and (from an article advocating a new anti-gay bashing slogan-cum-police-tactic), “Bash a faggot. Get a bullet.”

His last stint at a gay rag, Mo Magazine, ended in termination after he refused to edit an article attacking the mainstream gay media for not defending Sen. Larry Craig’s right to public toilet sex and marital infidelity, “He married and fucking straight. Have some sympathy for the poor guy. What else is he supposed to do? Christ.”

Simply, he gives good copy. He makes no guarantees about happy endings.

Brad

Brad’s parents ran a alternative newspaper, The Local Planet, while he was in high school and it looks like growing up around two politically minded journalist rubbed off on him. He started early; writing for The Local Planet and for The Spokesmen-Review. At 18, Brad stopped writing and got the political bug; volunteering for Al Gore, a family friend’s campaign for mayor and then for John Kerry. After a few failed campaigns he tried his hand at writing again and eventually returned to politics. Spending most of 2008 working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and volunteered Obama’s campaign. After 2008, Brad took a break from both writing and campaigns and spent some much needed time to work out his priorities.

In March of 2010 Brad was diagnosed with HIV and lost the luxury of figuring his priorities out on his own. He starting writing again to help himself heal and now hopes to write to help other going through similar situations. Bio’s are tricky and his life story won’t fit in a few hundred words but rest assured, Brad can relate to most of you in someway or another. His friends can attest to how busy he’s been the last twenty-five years, which wasn’t always a good thing.

Hivster.com is a site for anyone and for everyone, it was created with the intention of making something new, something that wasn’t already out there. We really hope that we can accomplish that goal and build a open, honest and welcoming community for anyone regardless of your status.

Jesse

A professional college drop-out (3 times and counting) and a perpetual nomad, Jesse James Kendall is a man of many trades. He has spent summers teaching special needs children in upstate New York. He worked at a well known yoga studio in lower Manhattan. He helped build houses during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. He worked at a public relations firm in Beverly Hills (and managed to escape LA relatively sane). And he lived in Costa Rica where he worked on an organic spice farm. As scattered as his personal resume may seem, Jesse has gained a great deal of insight from his experiences in this big old world.

As the public relations manager of hivster.com, Jesse is committed to putting his diverse experiences to the test. Hivster.com is about bringing a community together and connecting people through similar interests and goals. If there is one thing Jesse can do, it’s taking what may seem like fragments of life and bridging them together in a cohesive and inclusive way. Hivster.com has finally provided the perfect platform to bring a diverse and sometimes fragmented community together as he invites everyone to embrace their shared interests, goals and responsibilities as members of a greater community.