You Don’t Need to Forgive People Who Hurt You

February 24, 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

You do not need to forgive people who have been abusive to you. You do not need to rise above them, or make peace with them, or even pity them. You need to do whatever is best for you.

Why Should I Date Someone With Herpes?

January 28, 2016.Reading time 2 minutes.

Does your dick get hard around her? Is she nice?

Bachelorella: We Need To Retire The Las Vegas Herpes Joke

January 25, 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

I haven’t been writing Bachelorella recaps this season of The Bachelor because I am busy and tired and nothing interesting has happened. And then tonight The Bachelor put Ben H.’s harem of girlfriends on a jet (or, possibly, on a passive aggressive party bus) and dragged them to Las Vegas. And I cringed, because I knew what was […]

Why Having A Boyfriend Doesn’t Cure Herpes

January 24, 2016.Reading time 15 minutes.

We’ve all read that essay: the woman who gets herpes because she caves to temptation just once and has a regrettable one-night-stand, but goes on to find happiness because she meets that one man who loves her just as she is, STI and all. You can find it in glossy women’s magazines and anonymous chat […]

Why STDRegistry.com Is Disgusting, and Outing Your Ex as STI+ Makes You an Asshole

January 14, 2016.Reading time 18 minutes.

I stopped. I went back and read the paragraph again. STDRegistry. STDRegistry. No. Absolutely not.

Dear VICE, Stop Using This Photo of a Smashed Banana on Your STI Articles

January 7, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

Look, VICE. We need to have a quick chat. You’ve been on the STI beat this year, and I respect that. One of your journalists wrote a great piece about me over the summer and she was super lovely and considerate. It was a positive experience. But then the article used a repulsive image of […]

Everything 2015 Taught Me About Harassment

December 31, 2015.Reading time 11 minutes.

It would be easy to say 2015 was about herpes. In reality, this year was about my voice and the Internet and growing up and falling short. I conquered some demons by capturing a specter in words. I gained a few thousand Twitter followers. I broke my own heart and never wrote about it. I moved into […]

“Who Has The Time To Count Facebook Likes?” Fuck You, I Do.

December 28, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

I get so pissed off when people rag on social media. You know that conversation, usually at a cocktail party (oh who am I kidding, I’m twenty-three and I go to cramped apartment parties or loud bars where I have to strain myself to reluctantly listen to sermons about modern technology), when someone you thought […]

We Can’t Allow Sexual Harassment In The Herpes Community

December 21, 2015.Reading time 15 minutes.

UPDATE 4/21/2016: Although I will always stand by the contents of the letter below, I no longer feel comfortable endorsing the work of Rafaella Gunz going forward. While I wish her well, we have professional differences as activists and as writers. The headline of this post has been changed to reflect that. No matter the circumstances, the sexual […]