Composer Callen Loses 12-Year Fight With AIDS

Michael Callen, the composer, singer and writer whose decade-long epic struggle with AIDS was documented in dozens of publications and on most of the country’s national talk shows, died of the disease Monday in Los Angeles, nearly 12 years after his condition was diagnosed.

Callen, 38, co-author of “Love Don’t Need a Reason,” which has become a signature song for the gay community in its struggle against AIDS, was considered a national treasure in the gay and lesbian community for his pronouncement a decade ago that “I’m going to “wrestle this beast (AIDS) to the ground.”

He was credited with coining the term people with AIDS (PWA) in an effort to prevent its sufferers from being branded as “AIDS victims.” In his books, lectures and public appearances he emphasized that those with AIDS could continue to live happily while making significant contributions to society.

He had survived so long with his illness that some had questioned whether he even had it.

One of his replies came during a 1989 interview with The Times when he bared an arm scarred by lesions and said in his dry way: “There are easier ways to meet Liz Taylor than by pretending you have the most stigmatized disease of this century.”

He credited his determination to survive AIDS to his discovery as a youth at Boston University that he was gay and that society held some startling misconceptions about homosexuals, such as being flighty and incapable of struggle and determination.

“I don’t deny that people die (of AIDS),” he said in 1989. “. . . It is just that some would have us start that process too early.”

Toward the end of his long, dramatic and painful battle, he became physically incapable of responding to invitations to speak or write publicly, but he had by then formed or helped found a large number of organizations united in their efforts to cure the disease while supporting its sufferers.

Among them are the People With AIDS Coalition, the Community Research Initiative, the National Assn. of People With AIDS, the PWA Health Group, the New York City Mayor’s Interagency Task Force on AIDS and the New York State AIDS Institute.

He testified before the President’s Commission on AIDS, the U.S. House and Senate, the New York State Legislature and New York City Council and the Australian AIDS Council.

Callen was a frequent guest on news and talk shows, among them “Nightline,” “Good Morning America,” “20/20,” “The Phil Donahue Show” and “Geraldo.”

He also was seen in films and documentaries, the most recent of which were “Philadelphia” and the HBO special “Why Am I Gay?”

He also recorded the albums “Purple Heart,” “The Flirtations” (with the gay a cappella chorus performing under that name) and “Out on the Road.” His song “Living in Wartime,” from “Purple Heart,” was featured in the original production of the drama “The Normal Heart.”

A collection of new songs is to be released posthumously under the title of “Legacy.”

Callen also was a prolific author and his 1983 booklet, “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach” has become the accepted standard for risk reduction.

Callen’s survivors include his longtime companion, Richard Dworkin, his parents, Barbara and Clifford Callen, a sister and a brother.

Memorial services are pending in Los Angeles and New York.