Mark S. King

Mark S. King (born December 23, 1960) is an American HIV/AIDS activist, blogger, writer, and actor. King tested positive for HIV in 1985 and became an HIV/AIDS activist soon after. He was inducted into the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists Hall of Fame in 2025. In 2020, he received the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for the LGBTQ Journalist of the Year. He is the creator of the video blog My Fabulous Disease, which won the 2020 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Blog. Out magazine named King to its 2020 Out100 list of LGBTQ+ influencers.

Early life Mark King, one of six siblings, was born on December 23, 1960, to a military family that settled in Shreveport, Louisiana. He graduated from the University of Houston in 1981.

Career Following college, King went to Hollywood to pursue a career in acting, and appeared in television commercials. While in California, he also owned and operated a gay fantasy phone service, Telerotic. His memoir, A Place Like This, focuses on his time in Los Angeles during the early years of the AIDS pandemic.

After King tested HIV positive in 1985, he became an AIDS activist, and was the first public relations director for the Los Angeles Shanti Foundation. He later served as director of education and communication for AID Atlanta.

King publishes a video blog, My Fabulous Disease, the subjects of which include HIV and AIDS, LGBTQ+ issues, substance abuse, politics, sex, and his own family. King advocates against HIV criminalization and is a proponent of U=U (undetectable = untransmittable) and the use of PrEP.

In 2020 My Fabulous Disease received the GLAAD Media Award for outstanding blog, He was named 2020's LGBTQ Journalist of the Year by the Association of LGBTQ Journalists.

King's articles, blog entries, videos, and commentaries have appeared in Huffpost, TheBody.com, The Advocate, and Poz Magazine, among others. He has been interviewed or cited on NBC, CNN, NPR, Salon, and the Washington Post. He also participated in the original "Let's Stop HIV Together" campaign launched in 2012 by the Centers for Disease Control.

In 2013, HIV Equal included him in a list of thirteen notable HIV/AIDS activists. According to HuffPost, he has slept with close to 10,000 men. He has been sober since 2012. In 2015 he married Michael Mitchell.

Selected publications My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor (2023) A Place Like This: A Memoir (2007) "Suicide, A Love Story," in Shades of Blue, Amy Ferris, ed. (2015) My Fabulous Disease (video blog) "David Furnish talks Sir Elton, PrEP and U=U at AIDS2018 Confab," Queerty, August 1, 2018 (interviewing David Furnish) "Finding Larry Kramer," Poz Magazine, May 15, 2018 (interviewing Larry Kramer)

Films and television Featured participant, Meth (2006) Producer, actor, Merce, Seasons 1 & 2 Contestant, The Price is Right (1980)

Selected conferences 2018 OHTN Research Conference, Toronto, ON (plenary speaker) 2018 United States Conference on AIDS (plenary speaker) 2015 NLGJA Conference (plenary panel moderator) 2013 ADAP Advocacy Association Annual Conference (panelist)

Awards and recognition 2025—Inducted into the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists 2013 – Listed in "Legendary Activists in the Fight Against AIDS" in HIV Equal 2011, 2018 – Listed in Poz Magazine's "Poz 100" 2010 – Included in "The Best of 'It Gets Better'", The Advocate, October 4, 2010