Education = Hope

Thanks to lowfatmuffin for creation and linkage to the banner above.

I can't say much on this. I'd be lying if I said I had been touched by this disease more than other diseases, cancer, heart disease, etc. AIDS is important, I just haven't been touched by it's impact as much as some others here.

I have to admit part of it is by trying to stay away from it, hiding away from the issue by staying closeted. It wasn't the only issue, but certainly the spectre of AIDS gave me, and millions of other gay men a reason from discovering who they were. Certainly I had opportunities to learn about AIDS, and I did, but only in the most clinical of terms. I really didn't learn the emotional toll of the disease.

Even when Paul, the former drum major had died of AIDS-related illness, it had been a few years since i had seen him, nor had we been particularly close, so it still didn't have a hard impact. Reading personal accounts of people here on LJ actually brings it home more than anything in my experience. People who have dealt with the losses, people who are still living with HIV now, they are what I have to draw upon.

I have to admit that I felt foolish, putting off wanting to ask a friend, who is HIV positive to tell me more, to answer some questions, and now, since he lives further away, it's hard for me to just sit him down and ask those questions. I guess it's still something that many of us are afraid to discuss, afraid to offend, or afraid we'll get into a weird us vs. them territory by bringing up the subject, but really, how else are we going to learn? I hope I get another opportunity soon to sit my friend down and have a good, long chat with him, or with other poz people and learn, and understand, because I feel naive.

I tried to do something today. Without a ribbon, I wore a red shirt to work, and I saw that several others of the gay crowd did too. I added a line about World AIDS Day to my morning email to the team with some links, thought it may have gotten lost with the info about the Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer special's 40th anniversary. Who knows. Still, I tried.

Hopefully it will be the little things that count. AIDS is treatable now, but still deadly in most parts of the world due to drug expense and governmental bodies. Maybe in the next few years a breakthrough will come. Surely it is a positive that in the US, Europe and Canada it isn't the death sentence it once was, but we need to do better. Our community lost a great deal of a generation of men, and even though we'll go back to seeing Cancer, and heart disease and Diabetes replace AIDS as a cause of death, the infection rates are rising as people think there's some cakewalk to staying healthy after becoming infected.

Even that I know is a lie, and I don't know much.

Let's work to stop HIV infection, because many case can be prevented. Get the facts, give the facts, be smart, and since our government may be shy, we can't be. Spread the facts, not HIV.