Vincent Crisostomo
| Vincent Crisostomo | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 6, 1961 Tachikawa, Japan |
| Occupation | HIV/AIDS activist |
Vincent Anthony Crisostomo (born in February 6, 1961 in Tachikawa, Japan) is a gay Asian American HIV AIDS activist of Chamorro descent from Guam. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1995. He currently serves as the Program Manager of the 50-Plus Network at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Crisostomo grew up Catholic in a religious family. He attended church frequently and was an altar boy as well as a member of the church choir. While the church provided a sense of community, it also promoted intolerance of homosexuality. Eventually, this prompted Crisostomo to leave the church and his home.
Crisostomo met his partner Jesse Solomon in 1988 in New York City. Solomon was a physical therapist who worked with severely disabled children as well as a personal trainer and yoga teacher. They moved to San Francisco in 1990 and was one of the first 50 same-sex couples to register at the San Francisco City Hall. Solomon passed on October 6, 1991 of HIV/AIDS.
Crisostomo began doing HIV AIDS work in 1985 when he was in New York City. One of his jobs was at a club where many patrons began falling sick. He volunteered to do hospital visits for the terminally ill HIV/AIDS patients. Crisostomo himself contracted HIV in 1987 and was diagnosed with AIDS in 1995.
In 1992, Crisostomo became a HIV AIDS educator in the Asian Pacific Islanders LGBTQ community through the GAPA Community HIV Project (GCHP) and the Asian AIDS Project, which later merged to become the API Wellness Center. Guam's World AIDS day in 1992 was also the day that Crisostomo became the first Chamorro to publicly come out as living with AIDS. He continued to travel back to Guam and the Pacific area to provide assistance on HIV AIDS capacity building and service provision.
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