Botkin, Michael C

Michael Botkin was a wonderful friend and a courageous fighter. I didn't have a photo of him til this database. Thanks so much. Here's a partial remembrance of my own to him. http://thecahokian.blogspot.com/2009/12/world-aids-day-2009-online-immortality.html

I remember Steve asking me what he should do when you left for SIU. I asked him if there was anything keeping him in Chicago and if he wanted to spend the rest of his life wondering what might have been. He was studying Art History at the time but a year later was more than half way through a degree in social work at SIU. Of course, both he and I thought you were a selfish scumbag when it came to open relationships but nobody who knew you could ever regard you with contempt for more than a few minutes. Love always, Glenn.

I always found Michael's HIV Watch columns in the B.A.R. compelling reading. Here is an example of his writing from April 19, 1990: Looking back at my own decision not to take the test, I think I was acting from denial as much as from the logic I offered up as my justification. When an ex-lover was diagnosed I cringed at what I feared this meant about me; when my partner tested negative I sighed in relief and what I assumed this meant about my own HIV status -- and renewed my decision not to take the test. As a result, I was blindsided, and only found out about my own HIV status when it became advanced enough to produce some classic symptoms, and blast through my waning denial.