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2013

Out100: Demetre Costas Daskalakis

Doctor

Photography by Danielle Levitt

As a child, the 3-year-old Daskalakis would subject visitors to a blood pressure test with his Fisher-Price doctor's kit. That's when he decided to be a doctor, but it wasn't until he was in his senior of college and helped coordinate a display of the AIDS memorial quilt, that he dedicated himself to engage myself with the gay community and work to fight what I thought was the biggest plague in my experience," he explains. "I was going to do everything I could to not let someone with HIV get sick or die, and to prevent people without HIV from actually getting the infection." Now, as the director of HIV services at Manhattan's Mount Sinai hospital, he leads efforts to vaccinate gay men for meningitis. "It's my dream job," he says. "It's crazy: A little guy in Virginia wanted to be a doctor, but I never thought I'd be running what is definitely the best HIV care service in New York if not the country."

But that doesn't mean he's finished fighting for his dreams to come true. "Health care is a human right," he says. "We're just catching up."

Photographed at Fast Ashley's Studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., on August 9, 2013

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2013

Behind the Scenes With Jim Parsons, Edie Windsor, Lee Daniels & Wentworth Miller

The four Out100 cover stars discuss what this year has meant to them

Curious how Edie Windsor handled those doves during her photo shoot? She held on tight! Watch exclusive behind-the-scenes video and interviews with the four incredible people featured on the 2013 Out100 covers.

SLIDESHOW: Out100 Covers Revealed

As Windsor explains in her interview: "I've become a kind of hero in the community...It's great fun for me, because we grew into a real community...If I had to survive Thea, what a wonderful way to do it. I live in this community full of love and joy, and I'm sure Thea would be proud and pleased as hell how I'm living."

Plus, don't miss Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons discuss fulfilling his ultimate dream of playing a Muppet in The Muppet Movie.

See All 2023's Most Impactful and Influential LGBTQ+ People
Artists
Disruptors
Educators
Groundbreakers
Innovators
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Out.com Editors