Parrhesia explains why in my social media profiles I describe myself as an “Uppity Faggot.”

I soaked up lessons in the art of disruption from masters like Ann Northrop and Michelangelo Signorili of Act Up when shock value was all we had to shake up a national political paralysis surrounding HIV and AIDS.

It’s funny how Act Up is sort of revered today, acknowledged as highly effective and even heroic. At the time, allies and enemies alike reviled us for not being nice. They didn’t approve of our parrhesia.

They tried to silence us by preaching about civilized values and behavior, even as we attended unimaginable numbers of funerals of our friends and loved ones.

I guess it’s cool that history eventually painted us in a positive light. But that doesn’t seem to have changed much for what’s going on right now. People still demand niceness instead of goodness.

As for me, I’ll take good over nice every day of the week.