HI was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1947, the son of a pathologist
from West Virginia and a teacher from Puerto Rico who met in Panama during World War II and settled on the island
in 1945, when my older sister was born. I grew up in the southern Puerto Rico city of Ponce, which is very provincial
but has some great architecture, and studied at a parochial Catholic school. I'm fluent in Spanish and English.
HI have two brothers, Frankie, a chef in
New York who died of AIDS in 1984, and Freddie, a consultant on bank loans. My sister, Margarita, is retired. My
father died in 1996. My mother, brother and sister all live in the Washington area. My nephew Frankie makesa films
and works at a law firm.
HI attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
and Oglethorpe College in Atlanta, but did not receive a degree. In 1968, during the Vietnam War, I dropped out
of college and joined the National Guard, to avoid the draft.
HI was a journalist in Puerto Rico until
1992, first at United Press International's Caribbean Bureau and then at the San Juan Star, the only English language
daily. I was a reporter, City Editor and finally assistant managing editor for features.
After Frankie died I became involved with Fundación SIDA, the first and largest AIDS
service organization on the island, which unfortunately closed in 2003. I was
continues u
 Calle Isabel, Ponce, PR |
Chairman of the Board for 5 years, as well as a facilitator for safer sex workshops for gay men. I got a lot more satisfaction from my AIDS work than from journalism, so when the opportunity arose in 1992 I decided to work in the field of AIDS program development.
HI couldn't make a living of it in Puerto Rico so I came to Washington, where I went to work for COSSMHO, managing a program that provided technical assistance on HIV prevention for Latinos, and in 1995 became executive director of Salud, a community-based organization providing HIV/AIDS prevention and support services to Latinos in the Washington area. But the agency closed in November 1997. After working for a few years as a consultant, I joined the District of Columbia HIV/AIDS Administration as a public health advisor. I monitor grants awarded to community-based organizations and write funding proposals and the comprehensive HIV Prevention Plan for the District of Columbia.
| crafts pottery flea markets zoos aquariums architecture walking men surfing the net talking |
creating web pages mystery books cooking desserts dining in and out Puerto Rican food Spring and Fall buttondown shirts kissing cuddling |
comfort food: Puerto Rican-style rice and beans with fried ripe plantains.
Creative, analytical, idea person, self-starter, hard-driving, impatient, powerful decision maker, assume authority readily, good trouble shooter, tend to feel I can accomplish anything, do not like constant direction, explore areas removed from tradition and the system, tend not to relate to structure, use commanding style rather than persuasive, quick decision maker, impatient with detail, people, routine and machine.
Read the newspaper column in which I "came out" publicly in Puerto Rico.
Bear classification for Donald - this site's webmaster:
B3 (none) t+ w++ c (none) g k-- s- (none) e r- q
Translation:
B3: beard kept trim and short
(none): average fur
t+: taller than average (6' 1.5")
w++: big teddy bear (285 lb.)
cd: cub with daddy tendencies
(none): not a daddy
g: generally outgoing, a little reserved about place/person
k--: vanilla
s-: relationship-oriented
(none): muscle neutral
r-: prefer indoor activities
q: way out
For more on the Bear Classification Codes
click
here
Donald Babb