Do you remember where you were when you first started hearing about the "gay cancer"?? Do you remember the irrational fears people held about those who were sick with HIV and dying of AIDS?? Remember how people thought you could catch it from merely hugging an infected person?? Or a kiss on the cheek?? Did you lose a friend or a loved one?? Or many friends and loved ones??? How many women (both straight and queer) out there can relate to being a caretaker...holding fragile hands and soothing sunken cheeks as you watched your gay male friends slipping away around you?? I still carry a lot of grief for the friends and family member I lost to the disease in those early years of the epidemic. I look around me as I stand here in my mid 40's now, and I miss the generation of incredible men and women I knew in my youth. They should be here. So many bedside vigils...watching beloved friends waste away to frail skeletons. So many abandoned by judgmental and fearful families. We should all be growing old together. It's beyond devastating. Remember how Reagan responded like an bigoted ostrich with its head in the sand? No acknowledgement. No compassion.
There is hope. People are living longer than before, but there is still so much work to be done and awareness to be cultivated. The epidemic in Africa and other impoverished regions of the world rages on. There is a statistic out there that says 94 of every 100 people infected with HIV live in "developing nations"where access to current drug therapies is not available to them. The rates of infection among American Indians, African-Americans and Latinos (and particularly young women in those groups) have also been skyrocketing. Many medications continue to cause very hazardous side effects...and then there is the arrogance and ignorance of many of the new cases of infection. So many still refuse to see the wisdom of using condoms -- whether it's "bare-backing" gay men out to "PNP" or straight men and women playing russian roulette with their sex partners -- it's unbelievable that the urgency and awareness of the epidemic is being lost in these modern times.
We must remember and learn from the past. We must remember and honor those loved ones who were felled by this monstrous disease. I dream that someday soon, there will be a cure. But that day is not today. If you are sexually active, especially in non-monogamous, non-committed relationships, have your fun....but always, always play safe and use condoms. If you shoot drugs and end up often sharing needles, check your area for needle exchanges and places to pick up free, sterile needles. Always, always use with sterile needles...And always, always use condoms. You're worth it. Your partners are worth it. Get tested and be safe.
Click below for an article marking the 30th anniversary of the AIDS crisis:
- National AIDS Hotline:
(800) 342-AIDS (English)
(800) 344-7432 (Spanish)
(800) 243-7889 (TTY)
Toll-free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
(TTY—10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday)
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| The Quilt |
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| Ryan White |
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| Reagan's shame |
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| AIDS orphans being cared for by their local community in South Africa |
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| Suman - a girl who lost her mother to AIDS in India |
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| HIV positive activist Karen Dunaway-Gonzalez |
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| South African AIDS patient -- by Gideon Mendel |
Blessings....
ReplyDeleteEven with all there has been, all there is people still take their lives for granted, still being blase about having unprotected sex. Use to be the worst thing was getting pregnant now its hiv/aids and people still acting ignorant.
peace....
Rhapsody