Author Archives

Virally Suppressed is a progressive blog and outreach movement centered around matters of HIV & social justice in America and across the globe.

• The Family Afterward: West Virginia Four Months After The Freedom Industries Chemical Spill

  By Drew Gibson on June 3, 2014 • ( 8 )

  

  “Put a marshmallow on it.” he told her. “I’m telling you, fish love the marshmallows. Helps ’em to see the bait underwater. Normally it’s hard for fish to see bait moving around, but the marshmallow gives ’em something they can fix their… Read More ›

• Closed Minds, No Heart, Will Lose: A Response to Paul Daugherty’s Article Concerning Michael Sam

  By Drew Gibson on May 14, 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  Mr. Daugherty: As a sports columnist for The Cincinnati Enquirer, you are entitled to publish a wide array of opinions concerning St. Louis Rams and University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam. For instance, it would be perfectly reasonable for… Read More ›

• Krispy Kremes & Strip Clubs: A Trip To The Id of America

  By Drew Gibson on May 11, 2014 • ( 4 )

  

  By the time I hit Sahara Ave, all of the phosphorescent glitz of the Vegas Strip had petered out behind me. Streets that had been teeming with fanny packed families and booze-besotted co-eds just a quarter mile earlier were suddenly… Read More ›

• A Nation With No Ears: The History and Legacy of Little Bighorn

  By Drew Gibson on May 7, 2014 • ( 9 )

  

  “The love of possessions is a disease with them. They take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own and fence their neighbours away. If… Read More ›

• An Open Letter to Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley Concerning New Foundations Transitional Living

  By Drew Gibson on May 5, 2014 • ( 1 )

  

  Mayor Cranley, In your mayoral acceptance speech this past November, you pledged to turn Cincinnati into a more inclusive city; a city where government can find solutions that will bring disparate groups together while building communities that work for everyone. It… Read More ›

• The Quality of Mercy in Oklahoma

  By Drew Gibson on May 3, 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  Go to Oklahoma and you will find the quality of mercy is now strained. It withers in the rainless, nameless plains out west and finds no purchase in the Cross Timbers or the Red River Basin down south. Twice profaned… Read More ›

• Mississippi Crumbling: The Inheritance of Inequity in The Magnolia State

  By Drew Gibson on April 26, 2014 • ( 2 )

  

  “Everybody in the Mississippi Delta was a racist, white or black. Racism was built into our bones. It is a thing we will never recover from having committed, but it also had its side that we always benefitted from…I lived… Read More ›

• Following in Potentially Vanishing Footsteps: A Latina’s Journey From LA to an Ivy & Back Again

  By Drew Gibson on April 23, 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  Author’s Note: I thought this piece might have particular significance in light of the Supreme Court’s 6-2 majority decision to allow the state of Michigan, and by extension all states, the right to enact legislation banning the use of consideration… Read More ›

• Watching As He Wastes Away: How a Kentucky Prison Let a Mentally Ill Man Starve to Death

  By Drew Gibson on April 22, 2014 • ( 1 )

  

  As I type this, a delectable, carbohydrate filled pretzel bagel from Servatti’s is busy baking in the convection oven of my favorite coffee shop. Within the next minute or so that bagel will be brought out to my table and… Read More ›

• “Because The Money’s Too Damn Good to Leave” : A Look Inside North Dakota’s Oil Boom

  By Drew Gibson on April 19, 2014 • ( 2 )

  

  There is no acceptable English word to describe how hot it was on the day I ran into Toby. When I started talking to him on the corner of South Main and Charleston in Las Vegas’s  arts district it was… Read More ›