Our History -- Humble Beginnings to Worldwide Membership

GayPoz developed as a logical offshoot of HIV-Support. HIV-Support was a discussion list begun by Michael Davon and Amittai F. Aviram to provide a forum for all HIV Positive individuals, whatever their sexual orientation or gender, to share emotional support and medical information.

Following the success of the HIV-Support Discussion List, Professor Aviram recognized the need for a mailing list that could offer Gay men a comfortable environment to talk about issues that are uniquely their own. During discussions with Mr. Davon over the summer of 1995, the foundations were laid, and GayPoz came into existence on August 18, 1995.

Beginning with just a handful of men, GayPoz now has almost 500 members. Every continent except Antarctica is represented in its subscriber list. Many have been subscribers from the very first week that GayPoz came online.

GayPoz is an unmoderated list, but List Administrators screen potential new subscribers to try to insure that they meet the membership criteria. List Administrators can also intervene when further discussion of a topic would be counterproductive. List Administrators work to insure that all messages posted to the list are consistent with the GayPoz Guidelines.

Any topic is open for discussion with one exception. The premise that HIV is the cause of AIDS is not debatable. Each time subscribers were asked the consensus has been to keep this guideline intact.