Juan Michael Porter II is a health journalist, HIV advocate, culture critic, and educator. He currently serves as the senior communications manager of Global Black Gay Men Connect and the host of HIV Unmuted; the International AIDS Society’s podcast. From 2020 to 2025, he led coverage at TheBody.com and TheBodyPro where he was rapidly promoted from staff writer to senior editor ― making him the first person living with HIV to hold the position.
Regarding the discussion of HIV, Juan Michael is recognized for working with activists to eliminate the use of pejorative language within the International AIDS Society’s conference spaces ― a change that the HIV movement has been seeking for decades. Since helping to usher in that change at IAS, numerous health organizations and conferences have updated their language guidelines to ensure that the dignity of people living with HIV is upheld.
Juan Michael is also noted for his fierce advocacy of communities who have been pushed to the margins ― including transgender people, people who drugs, people who are unhoused, Indigenous people, and gay men ― and for using his personal experiences to address struggles with accessing care, the cost of poor clinician to patient communication, and how providers can improve their care when diagnosing HIV. As Juan Michael frequently notes when discussing these issues, “If I’m having a difficult time accessing care, what is is like for the single mother in rural Appalachia or the homeless teenager in Kentucky who doesn’t even know how to ask for help; or that there are other options available to them?”
Juan Michael has written for PBS, SF Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, NY Observer, TDF Stages, Playbill, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Queerty, Anti-Racism Daily, Positively Aware, Documentary Magazine, POZ Magazine, SYFY Wire, Scholastic, Dance Magazine and BroadwayWorld, where he served as the managing editor of the publication’s dance department. He is the former podcast host of the Future of HIV Care and the Critic’s Table and has taught and lectured for numerous acclaimed institutions, including: Dance Theatre of Harlem, John Hopkins University, USC Annenberg, International AIDS Society. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, University of Texas, 92nd Street Y, and the BIPOC Critic’s Lab.
He serves on the External Advisory Committee of Canada’s Community-Centred Knowledge Mobilization Hub; is a Dorian Award voter (GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics); a fellow of the National Critics Institute (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center), Poynter Institute for Media Studies (Power of Diverse Voices), Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (Maynard 200), and the International AIDS Society (HIV Research for Prevention); and is the first Black man to serve as a Drama Desk Award nominator.
Prior to his career as a journalist, Juan Michael was a professional dancer, youth running coach and regional coordinator for the New York Road Runners Foundation, and a dance concert presenter with extensive production credits at Webster Hall. Beyond career highlights, the most important thing to know about Juan Michael is that he hates being cold, is a life-long traveler, and can usually be found jumping like a gazelle.
