A Decade of Positive Faces

We’re feeling nostalgic. Since our first issue in fall/winter 2001, when Aboriginal activist Kecia Larkin posed for the cover just days before giving birth, The Positive Side magazine has covered life with HIV by sharing the stories of those who are living it. Leafing through the past 17 issues, we at CATIE were amazed at all the passionate, courageous, enchanting voices we’ve had the honour of publishing.

You may not know this, but those 17 issues represent only the current incarnation of the publication. Originally a newsletter, The Positive Side was published a full 10 years earlier in 1991 by the Treatment Information Exchange, a fledgling Toronto community group dedicated to sharing between people with HIV what little we knew about HIV at the time. From the start, The Positive Side published holistic health information that expressed the real-life experiences of people living with HIV and, in a tradition that continues today, it often featured a story and photo of an HIV-positive person.

Given that tradition, what better way to celebrate our 10-year (or arguably our 20-year) anniversary than with a rendezvous with our cover folk? We checked in with 24 of our cover subjects to learn about life since we first featured them. Their interviews will surprise and inspire you. So here’s to them and to you, our readers. But most of all, here’s to the day when there’s nothing left to cover but the cure.

The interviews: