Marc Malkin on His HIV+ Status Being Tied to Substance Abuse

With an extensive career in entertainment, Marc Malkin always dreamed of being a voice for his community, and he has done it well from his beginning stages in the print world, his career as an entertainment journalist has taken him around the ways to correspond for Entertainment Tonight, E! News, Variety, where he currently is the Senior Culture & Events Editor, and many other media outlets for over 20 years in LA.

“I just looked at my job as ‘I work on a gay newspaper and I work on the gay beat’,” he says. 

Little did he know, his professional journey would take him to jumpstart his advocacy in the LGBTQ community.  He is more than an “entertainment and gay boy who got lost in pop culture,” as he refers to himself. Marc has become a beacon of light on HIV testing and treatment for HIV.

Marc shared with The Q Agenda his views on the conversation around the HIV/AIDS topic. Is there enough being done?

“I hid my HIV status for a decade. Good friends knew, my family didn’t know. I lost two uncles to AIDS, so I thought my family just didn’t need another person at the table with HIV. But once I opened up about it, you know how it is,” he says. “The conversation is there, but it’s not a conversation you’re hearing every day among gay men LGBTQ men, you know.” Malkin shared with LATV’s The Q Agenda.

Marc says that his HIV status is tied to his prior crystal meth addiction, what he calls a “second epidemic.” He has been clean and sober for almost eight years, however, he’s being vocal about HIV infections happening and the fact that a lot of them are linked to substance abuse. 

In this heartfelt interview with TQA, Marc also opens up about his experience marrying an undocumented Latino man and their journey together from marriage to citizenship, a long legal process that took them almost five years. An interview you don’t wanna miss!