About the Cranky Queer
Guide to Chronic Illness

Why We Fight:

“We're so busy putting out fires right now, that we don't have the time to talk to each other and strategize and plan for the next wave, and the next day, and next month and the next week and the next year…

And, we have to commit ourselves to doing that. And then, after we kick the shit out of this disease, we're all going to be alive to kick the shit out of this system, so that this never happens again.” — Vito Russo

Chronic health conditions affect as many as one of every two people in the United States, and many of us live with multiple diagnoses. I’m one of them.

To live our best lives, we need clear information and compassionate connection. But — despite the prominence of battles over health care in the United States, a burgeoning “wellness” industry, and heightened concern over pain management and the opioid crisis — the way forward for those of us living with major or multiple chronic illnesses remains shrouded.

We can and must become “illders”: wise elders of any age who turn the demands of living with chronic conditions into opportunities for self-knowledge, growth and connection.

Join me here for this journey. I look forward to hearing about yours.

Don’t trust your life to digital health information reliant on pharma marketing money.

Essential, honest and practical advice and support for living with chronic illnesses can be hard to find, despite a deluge of condition-specific and medical websites, direct-to-patient pharmaceutical advertising, diagnosis-based support groups, and social media chatter.

The confluence of narrowly-defined medical specialties; the market interests of drug companies, medical insurance and health care providers; and economic and social divisions and inequities ensures that many of us remain isolated and ill-informed — and just plain ill.

I know digital health media from the inside out, and the outside in — as a health writer, a source to other journalists,and as an editor.

And, most importantly as a person living with chronic illnesses who needs information for myself and people I love and everyone else who needs it.

And here’s the deal: If you don’t have a condition with expensive treatments, information is going to be limited. Even if you do, content is going to tilt towards inspiration porn, often-data-free lists of lifestyle recommendations that repeat from site to site — and few attempts to cut to the chase to the most frequent problems so many of us face no matter what our diagnoses if they turn off advertisers squeamish about the realities of literally-shitty digestive problems or sex issues that are neither monogamous nor straight.

“JD has the ability to look at a very complex problem and solve it rapidly and easily.  He remains a trusted ally and treasured strategist for the political issues facing people with HIV/AIDS.” — Jose deMarco, organizer, ACT UP Philadelphia

In addition, my experience as an organizer, advocate, journalist and digital editor anchors the advice I gleaned through my life --  and as such, reveals previously untold moments in pivotal HIV, LGBTQ and left activist history.

And I’ll take deep, well-researched dives into the real reasons that health care systems and online resources consistently fail to meet the needs of people with chronic illnesses -- and what we need to do to change these problems.

So here’s an invitation to everyone who has or cares for those with chronic illnesses to join together as powerful illders, working through our powerful love, insight and honesty to reach our best possible lives together.