| December 2002: AIDS/HIV |
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Discrimination and stigma continue to stand as barriers. Stigma silences individuals and communities, saps their strength, increases their vulnerability, isolates people and deprives them of care of support.-- UNAIDS
| Personal |
I could write a book here on just how AIDS has affected my life. As a Gay man, it's rather obvious in the socio-political realm, but also on the personal level. I grew up during the time that AIDS began. I knew about AIDS before I was openly gay, before I was an adult, even before I was a teenager. So, AIDS wasn't something that hit my Gay community or my friends within it because I wasn't a part of the community yet. All I knew was about the effect it was having on the overall Gay world, the big-name stars like Rock Hudson and Liberace contracting it and dying, and all the other overall societal impacts it was making.
When I did come out in 1990 at the age of 19 I already knew about AIDS, knew I better be safe, knew I needed to know more, and knew everybody needed to know more. One of the first things I did upon coming out was to learn about how to be safe-- reading materials, going to a clinic, asking questions, learning about safe sex, going to courses at school, and taking the test. It's all very overwhelming for a newly minted Gay man who's still a teenager. But, in many ways, I'm glad of the timing because I didn't have to go through the extra-hard years of the early to mid-80's during the "don't know what is happening" and "losing all my friends" years. That was before me and I was lucky in that respect. I can't imagine how hard it must be to see all your friends die around you every week. Living in San Francisco now, and thinking about what it must have been like had I lived here in this same space during that time, makes me realize just how difficult this whole epidemic is.
My first test for HIV was probably the scariest and most OCD-induced two weeks of my life. The waiting was the killer. I had barely done anything prior to the test to warrant exposure, but it didn't matter at the time-- I was so scared and nervous and figured I was doomed. I couldn't wait til the end of the two weeks, and then, when they were over I was scared to death to go back to the clinic to find out. This was still back in 1990 and I was still very young and very naive. The guy took me into the back office, sat me down, and told me that I was negative. I was so relieved, and yet felt guilty, like I should be positive because I was a Gay man and because I was a "bad" person. Isn't that bizarre how AIDS has so greatly affected our culture and the mindset of people that even we Gay men put such homophobic and anti-Gay feelings upon ourselves as if we are supposed to inflicted with this? Isn't it just plain wrong?
I've been lucky throughout the years to continue to be negative. I always practice safe sex and have never strayed from that. But safe sex is so dependent upon definition and time and place and people and you never know and it could always happen some other way and it's out there, it's out there, it's out there. So I'm not sure why I've been so lucky. And I always figure that someday I'll get it and be positive and go through that. Because I'm Gay and that's how society has programmed us all to think. It doesn't seem to matter that the reality is that the growth in infections is within the heterosexual community. We all still seem to think it's a Gay thing. So dumb.
That's why we must learn more. That's why we all must fight together. This isn't someone else's problem. This is our problem. Together. All of us. It's World AIDS Day month. It's probably the most important epidemic affecting our lifetime, our century. And what are you, I, we doing about it?
(As soon as I get some HTML help in putting up a "comments" link, I'd love to hear your comments to make this a true community section. In the meantime, feel free to send me your feedback)
| Political |
Take Action Now
Make a Difference
Whatever you do for World AIDS Day, someone's life will be different because of it. You can stop the spread of HIV, you can fight discrimination, you can help to make people in power sit up, take notice, and do something about finding a cure. How? Just by finding out more about HIV by challenging HIV prejudice...
The best protection the world has got against HIV and AIDS are the actions of individuals like you. There's no cure for AIDS, there's no vaccine against HIV, but there are simple things that we all can do to stop the spread of HIV.
The crucial thing is knowing what these simple, but very powerful, actions are in the first place. Because knowledge can change behaviour. And changing behaviour can stop the spread of HIV. That will save lives.
How much do you know about HIV?
| Articles |
The San Francisco Chronicle has a great package of articles and such on it's "AIDS at 20" page, including an nostalgic timeline. They had done a tremendous series of article back during the 20th anniversary and this is some of those and some updated materials. Exhaustive.
World AIDS Day hits close to home, heart: Amazing and incredibly heartbreaking anecdotal story.
AIDS National Memorial Grove in Golden Gate park articles:
--Working in AIDS Grove helps mourners heal; AIDS Memorial Grove nurtures the souls of visitors, volunteers
--Gathering to honor World AIDS Day
Fighting AIDS Abroad Would Curb Terror: It was a remarkable moment. As he neared retirement, the jingoistic troglodyte from North Carolina realized he'd been mistaken about anti-AIDS efforts. Believing that his Christian faith required more of him, he rounded up bipartisan support for a bill to pour billions into programs to fight the epidemic. But Bush, who marketed himself to the American people as a "compassionate conservative," deep-sixed the plan.
Global Estimates of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as of end 2002.
HIV/AIDS Panel: For Bush, Ideology Trumps Medicine and Science: Conservative ideologues will likely replace seven of the eight Clinton-appointed panelists on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).... With exiting panelists including gay activists who support HIV prevention programs that incorporate “safer sex” practices and condom use, the move marks yet another step in the Bush plan to impose abstinence-only sexual education across the nation.
Brisbane firm's clinical trials of AIDS vaccine nears completion
AIDS IN ASIA: Thailand overwhelmed by runaway AIDS: It is all over Thailand now. It's in the lower class, the middle class and the upper class. It's in the womb. It's everywhere.
AIDS IN ASIA: Cruel epidemic hits kids hard -- nearly 300,000 orphaned: When [she] is ill, I cry with her. If she doesn't eat, I don't eat, too. When Fon died last year at age 3, Faa held her sister's lifeless hand as other children gathered to sing, pray and lay flowers on the body. "We told Faa that she (Fon) is going to be with Jesus, and she will be well and healthy," said Arnott. Faa "understood and still talks about her sister going to heaven." Now the children say 8-year-old Tum will be next to go to heaven.
In Africa, AIDS Has a Woman's Face -- Kofi A. Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
When Politics Trumps Science:...information that used to be based on science is being systematically removed from the public when it conflicts with the administration's political agenda.... Bush staffers are vetting hundreds of nominees to these scientific panels by screening their political loyalties, rather than their scientific expertise.
(I'll be adding more articles here as the press writes more on the issue throughout the month)
| Resources |
A very minor listing of various links to groups and resources are below. However, there are also many great local programs in every area of the country and you may wish to do a search within your local community for groups that may need your help.
Aids Action
Gay Men's Health Crisis
American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR)
Stop AIDS Project
HIV Stops With Me
AIDS Memorial Quilt
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
AIDS Project Los Angeles
UNAIDS
"Live and Let Live" is the slogan of the two-year World AIDS Campaign 2002-2003, which will focus on eliminating stigma and discrimination.
World AIDS Day
AIDS.org
Fight AIDS at Home
CDC page on AIDS
AIDS National Memorial Grove
AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition
Until There's a Cure
HIV Insite
Have you been tested lately? Get tested here or here in San Francisco.