Early life
Boyd was born in 1962 in Indianapolis, Indiana, the youngest of four children. His college education started at the University of Southern California, but he later transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles, where he studied sociology and graduated in 1985. Before writing full-time, Boyd worked in broadcast promotion in Hollywood. He tested positive for HIV in 1988 and became an outspoken activist against HIV stigma. "It should not be socially acceptable to use words like 'clean' when describing someone who is HIV-negative," he was quoted as saying in the ''Bay Area Recorder,'' "It would also help if gay people today understood more about what gay people with HIV/AIDS had to endure during the AIDS panic. In some ways, longtime survivors are like Holocaust survivors or veterans of a war. Have some sensitivity to our plight, for goodness sake."Literary career
His novels include ''Bridge Across the Ocean'' (2000), ''Uprising'' (2001), ''The Devil Inside'' (2002), and ''Walt Loves the Bearcat'' (2005). ''Uprising'' was a finalist for theSelected list of works
*References
21st-century American novelists American male novelists Writers from Indianapolis Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni People with HIV/AIDS American LGBT writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Indiana 1962 births {{US-novelist-1960s-stub