In the mid-80s, at the age of 26, Austin Nation was sure his life was over.
Amid the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Nation, a gay man, discovered that he was HIV positive and believed he was destined to be among the more than 46,000 people who died from AIDS from 1981 to 1988, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Doctors said there was not much we could do for you and get your affairs in order,” said Nation, an assistant professor of nursing at Cal State Fullerton.
Believing he, too, would become a statistic, Nation deliberately embarked on a reckless drug- and alcohol-fueled road that he hoped would “medicate myself out of the world.”
“I was on a mission to kill myself,” Nation said. “I didn’t care. Drugs and alcohol seemed like a good idea. I was partying my way out. It was a soft suicide attempt.”
But nearly 40 years later, Nation, 62, is not only very much alive, he is thriving.
Now clean and sober for 21 years, Nation checks items off his bucket list and then adds more.
One bucket list item he checked off was an autobiographical, one-man stage show that Nation wrote, produced and performs.
The title is a summation of his life in a single phrase:
“Becoming Austin Nation. From Crack to PhD: A Drag Queen’s Story.”
In “Becoming Austin Nation,” Nation chronicles his journey from growing up in Milwaukee in an alcoholic home, moving to Southern California, his HIV diagnosis, watching friends die, his addiction and subsequent recovery, and his life today.
In sobriety, Nation has discovered and embraced what he describes as his “alter ego,” that being his drag queen persona, “A’Freeka Nature,” who, of course, makes an appearance in the show.
Nation debuted his one-man stage show in February 2022 as part of the Wayward Artist Ensemble at the Grand Central Theater in Santa Ana, which operates within CSUF’s College of the Arts.
Following the performance, Brooke Aston Harper, director of…
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