Michael Shernoff - Professional Contributions

Professional Contributions

Shernoff was an early volunteer for Gay Men's Health Crisis and became one of the first social workers in the United States to address AIDS in a private psychotherapy practice. He wrote many articles and offered training for both mental health professionals and patients on dealing with mental health aspects of gay sexuality and living with HIV and AIDS. In 1985 he and Luis Palacios-Jiménez created the workshop "Hot, Horny and Healthy: Eroticizing Gay Sex" for a Gay Men’s Health Crisis conference. The workshop, intended to teach gay men how to continue to engage in sexual activity without risking HIV transmission, was eventually presented in cities across North America. A pamphlet that he co-authored, When a Friend Has AIDS, was translated into eight languages.

After a partner died from AIDS, Shernoff produced an anthology entitled Gay Widowers: Life after the Death of a Partner that ten years later was described as still being the only book to address the specific challenges of grief for gay men who have lost their partners.