My new home of Toronto just had their AIDS Walk for Life this weekend which has compelled me to also note another anniversary of sorts. Twenty five years ago this past summer, five gay men were diagnosed with an unusual disease called pneumocystis pneumonia. These were the first AIDS cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To put this in the perspective of my life, in 1981 I was entering the 2nd grade at Beloit Elementary School. I didn't learn much about this epidemic until I was in high school and we had a special assembly. A hometown girl who had grown up and moved away, had married a man who somehow (I forget) contracted the virus and given it to her. I distinctly remember her saying "Someday each of you will know or meet someone with the HIV/AIDS virus." I doubted the truth of this because at that time, I had every intention of spending the rest of my life in some small town in Kansas.
Oh how wrong I was (on that and many other things)! Sometime in 2000, I had the pleasure of meeting A. through a common friend. A. is funny, Hispanic, Texan and adorably cute. One day, I found out that his skin had become jaundiced and when he went to the hospital it turned out he had liver failure. So we went to visit him and I remember thinking how it was just like the time Ted from Queer as Folk was in the hospital and all his friends came together for him. Or that one guy in Brokenhearts Club. (Both of these came out in 2000, so they were very much on my mind!) It was really good to see him happy to see us and know that he was getting better. My boyfriend at the time and I thought that A. might have Hepatitis C and I remember reading up on it. However in the middle of the night, A. tearfully called to tell me he had HIV and he would be leaving Kansas to return to his family in Texas.
I was very upset by the whole unfairness of it all. Here he was, barely an adult (only 20 years old) and his life was pretty much over. What I learned from A. was that no one deserves to get this. Not gay people, not children, not Africans, not wives, not even hookers and drug users. As shown in the play and movie, Angels in America, our humanity, our lives are sacred gifts. There are more than 36.1 million people infected with HIV currently. And by the end of today, 8,000 people will die of this disease.
What drives me crazy is the "ABC" policy of the current administration. A stands for abstinence, B stands for Be faithful and C stands for condom use. When the administration reports that the majority of HIV/AIDS cases are men and that contractions happen through man to man transmission, it blows me away that the ABC policy is targeted at heterosexual couples. Also what are they doing to target racial minority groups? African-Americans and Hispanics are dying in disproportionate numbers to their percentage in the general population. This conservative policy has dangerous consequences for women as well.
What I'd like to see is an emphasis on prevention, testing and research. Prevention needs to target groups that are most affected (see above). Testing is vitally important as well. Typically it takes 8-10 years for an HIV positive person to develop AIDS but late testers start treatment sicker. Just over 38% of people diagnosed with HIV each year in America received an AIDS diagnosis within just 12 months. (OUT, January 2004) And finally research is needed to see how we can finally put an end to the deaths and suffering.
Nations around the world are doing their part. Just today, a group of countries led by France plan to raise at least $300 million next year, mostly through taxes on airline tickets, to help pay for the treatment of children with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. France is providing $250 million of the $300 million for next year, all from an airline ticket tax it began collecting this summer. It is charging 4 euros, about $5, for every international economy ticket and 40 euros, about $51, for first-class ones. (NY Times, Sept. 19, 2006)
Fortunately for my friend A., HIV wasn't the death sentence we both thought it was at the time. He was one of the lucky ones. He is happily living in Chicago and currently attending nursing school. I'm so proud of how he has come through it all. It's an inspiration of all of us when we are at our lowest, that life is worth living and the best is yet to come!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
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2 comments:
This administration's response to AIDS seems to have been "maybe if we ignore it, it will go away."
Which, you know, works so incredibly well!
Couple that with the huge problems in Asia and Africa (like the S. African gov't promoting a 'healthy diet' over things like condoms), and the fact that the drug cocktails are so freaking expensive... and we have a Serious Problem that no one in power seems to want to touch with a 20 million foot pole. It worries me greatly. Amazingly, no one I know has been diagnosed as HIV+ yet... YET. I know before long that milestone, too, will be shattered.
The scariest thing I've ever done was get tested for HIV. I did two years ago, while I was still in undergrad. My last boyfriend (the Bad Dan) showed his true colours during our breakup (which was five years ago) and I realized at that moment two years ago... how much can/could I really have trust(ed) him? So I decided to do the "better safe than sorry" bit and get tested. Scared me $**+less, let me tell you. I burst into tears when it came back negative.
And somehow... it scares me and worries me that there is anything that we should stress over like that. No one should ever have to go through that kind of stress... and the governments of the world should be working to make sure that future generations don't have to. To see them constantly dropping the ball makes me want to bash heads together.
(btw, that link to Beloit Elementary took me BACK! Man. They replaced the playground!! AND they took out the Kindergarden one?! Dood! Bummer! the coolest day we ever had in PE was in Kindergarden when we got to go play on the big kids' playground. That day ruled.)
I was first touched by AIDS in 1990. A manager at the restaurant I worked at died from it. At the time it was very taboo to speak about it and it was so very new. That was back when it was a death sentence. I really admired my manager and his death really stayed with me. Today I know many people with the disease. They are happy and healthy. They live very full lives.
People in power ARE trying to make a difference around the world. Unfortunately, just not our government. Reagan set us back decades by refusing to mention the issue ever. This is when other African nations had created educational plans (in the form of traveling plays that talked about condoms, etc.) that worked. In the Phillipines, they had radio commercials to educate people and freely handed out condoms to high risk areas. I learned this and so much more from a PBS series that covered the history of the disease and what the future will probably hold. It will take millions of dollars annually just to get people the medications they need.
Education is key. Our current policy of Abstinence is foolish and it's not working. Hopefully that will change when there is new president in office.
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