I recall the moment my mother discovered I owned a vibrator. Her reaction was a mix of shock, horror, disappointment, and embarrassment. While I was undoubtedly mortified, I was faced with two choices — either pretend it wasn’t mine, or own up to the fact that I was a sexually active 30-some-thing adult, with urges.
I’ve grown up in a home where my parents always encouraged an open and honest conversation around sex. We could ask our parents anything, and they’d do their best to answer questions in a way that was easy to understand. Having raised two girls, the ‘talk’, for the most part, was always about ‘preserving one’s chastity', given their catholic bent.
APEX Express - 12 2 21 Sex Positivity kpfa.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kpfa.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
March 17, 2021
Demetre Daskalakis, M.D., M.P.H., speaks on stage during Housing Works World AIDS Day at The New York Academy of Medicine on December 2, 2019 in New York City.
The first time I ever saw Demetre Daskalakis, M.D., M.P.H., was in April 2017, at an afternoon dance party at the AIDS Memorial in downtown New York to end HIV stigma and celebrate the science of U=U (undetectable equals untransmittable.
As I was boogie-oogie-oogie-ing, my friend asked me if I recognized the DJ. I looked over, and in the music booth was a sexy, tattooed, bald, goateed guy in a cut-up T-shirt and baseball cap. It was Dr. D. At the time, he was the deputy commissioner in the Division of Disease Control for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, our HIV champion, and, apparently, a rockin’ music mixologist.