12 Facts About Michael Callen

Michael Callen was an American singer, songwriter, composer, author, and AIDS activist.

Michael Callen consistently spoke out for AIDS activists and gay and lesbian organizations and made frequent speaking and performance appearances.

Michael Callen remained a primary public figure in AIDS activism until he died at age 38 from AIDS-related complications of pulmonary Kaposi's sarcoma at Midway Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

In Love Doesn't Need a Reason the author, Jones, wrote that Michael Callen requested that Douglas Sadownick and Tim should be granted power of attorney over him.

In 1982, Michael Callen joined with fellow person with AIDS Richard Berkowitz and partner Richard Dworkin to write an essay entitled "We Know Who We Are: Two Gay Men Declare War on Promiscuity" for the New York Native.

In 1990, Michael Callen wrote Surviving AIDS, which received an Honorable Mention from the American Medical Writers Association.

Michael Callen responded to that criticism by releasing his medical reports and pictures of his lungs which showed his pulmonary Kaposi's Sarcoma.

Additionally, Michael Callen stood by his belief in the multifactorial theory when there was scientific proof that HIV was the cause of AIDS.

In June 2019, Michael Callen was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City's Stonewall Inn.

Michael Callen was a founding member of the gay male a cappella singing group The Flirtations, with whom he recorded two albums.

Additionally, Michael Callen made cameo appearances in the films Philadelphia and Zero Patience, in which he famously performed a song in falsetto as the fictitious "Miss HIV".

In partnership with Oscar winner Peter Allen and Marsha Melamet, Michael Callen wrote his most famous song, "Love Don't Need a Reason", commissioned by Larry Kramer for his play, The Normal Heart.