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Mike Bennett: One of the Many Faces of AIDS

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By David Broughton | February 10th, 2012

“If you’re out in the world having sex and having unsafe sex this can happen to you. I don’t care who you are, you can get it,” commented Michael Bennett, a 47 year old survivor of HIV/AIDS who was diagnosed in 1989.

“I started receiving services from the AIDS Fund in 2000. The AIDS Fund is like family. I had issues with my medical provider and the AIDS Fund found me someone else to see,” commented Bennett.

Bennett grew up in the Tidewater area and attended Kempsville High School.

“I used to work as a bartender at the Oar House,” noted Bennet, referring to a gay bar that operated in Norfolk in the 1980’s. “Dick LaDonne owned the bar and was one of the founding members of TACT(also known as the AIDS Fund.) He used to make us participate in shows to raise money for the organization.”

Al Sharpton for Americans for Marriage Equality

Coming Out in Mid-Life After Marriage & Children

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By Michael Hamar

Recently, I reached the tenth anniversary of the day I first came out to my former wife. Prior to that date I had struggled for the better part of thirty-seven years trying to convince myself that what I knew in my heart about my sexual orientation was not really true. As part of that internal mental contortion process, I married and fathered three children and tried to be everything that church and society told me I should be. Over time, however, it all began to fall apart and I came to realize that I just could not continue to live my life as an actor on a stage. I had to do something about my situation and “come out” or kill myself. I chose the former, but not without flirtations with the latter along my journey.