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Gay men are having
unprotected sex… again.
Intravenous-Drug Users (IDUs)
are sharing unclean works… still.
Sex workers are engaging
in high-risk activities… once more.
Heterosexual individuals
are “barebacking” (not using condoms) with numerous partners…
as usual.
Everyone is engaging in practices
that are considered high risk for transmitting HIV to unsuspecting
partners.
We fault the FDA for delaying
drug approval. We blame the pharmaceutical industry for developing
anti-HIV medicines that are too powerful (yes, the drugs need
to be improved, but the fact is that HIV therapy is basically
a form of chemotherapy). We claim that the ads for these medicines
are too misleading, because they don’t accurately represent
the reality of being on anti-HIV therapy.
I have friends who swear
that when AIDS funding started drying up for the good ole
boys here in the U.S., the good ole boys went global. Africa,
Asia, Eastern Europe. They demand that pharmaceutical companies
and the government package up these same anti-HIV meds, and
ship them off, at discounted prices, to far away developing
countries. But they still refuse to look into their own backyard
and notice the “third world” rates of infection in rural areas,
in prisons and communities of color.
Have you heard it? Have you
read it? Attack, after attack, after counterattack—activist
vs. advocate, women vs. men, heterosexuals vs. gays vs. bisexuals
vs. transgender, positives vs. negatives, community based
organizations vs. AIDS service organizations. I recently spent
an entire day reading a seemingly endless stream of articles
and e-mails that were pointing fingers in every-which-way
and laying blame for the current day predicament. Activist
sell-outs. False prophets. Bankruptcy. Corporate greed. Traitors.
Conspiracy theories.
Who the hell can we trust?
Toss out your meds. Quit your support group. While you’re
at it toss out those damn HIV mags with them (this one too).
And don’t think you can trust those nifty little web sites
or your doctor. Everyone’s on the take.
Is there a divide and conquer
conspiracy at work upon us? Has everyone gone crazy? What
the hell is going on here? We sound like a bunch of hypocrites.
Worst of all, we are behaving like a bunch of schizophrenics.
People living with and impacted
by HIV in every part of the globe have a right to act up,
act out by whatever means necessary. But after twenty years
of struggle, twenty years of deaths, twenty years of new infections,
twenty years of re-infections, more deaths and now an ultra-conservative
White House…
Are we running scared and
looking in every direction for a scapegoat?
Rather than acting out, are
we acting in upon ourselves?
Seriously speaking, the reality
of sex in the age of AIDS, staying negative or living positive,
deciding on a treatment regimen that best fits your life(style)
and building a productive life is a complicated and individualized
process. The “fault” for increasing rates of HIV infection
can not be simply laid at the door of pharmaceuticals, or
defined by federal regulation, nor rationalized in a witty
commentary.
What’s real? People &
HIV. And they continue to shoot up together with dirty works
in New York’s Spanish Harlem, and they are sexin’ each other
up in parks, bars and bathhouses in Seattle without protection
or knowledge of their HIV status. And let’s not forget that
People and HIV are hookin’ up in the low country of Georgia,
in the Mississippi Delta, and state prisons.
There are individuals living
with HIV in the U.S., on complex antiretroviral therapy, who
still don’t understand the basics of HIV and AIDS. Hell, there
are people living right here in the U.S. who don’t access
healthcare or HIV therapy. Just imagine the work ahead of
those engaging HIV in Africa.
Yes, we are flawed. Yes,
we are angry, and full of fear, superstitions, and frustrations.
And rightfully so, but rather than feeding shamelessly on
each other, let’s try something new, let’s try something old.
Let’s reaffirm our commitment to do something constructive.
Write a letter to the President, or your representative in
Congress declaring your support to increase funding for domestic
HIV/AIDS prevention, care, housing and research; join a protest
to express your outrage at pharmaceuticals’ practices and
federal government policies; or volunteer at a local agency
and help someone living with HIV. Don’t cost ya’ nothin’.
Let someone know you still
care, that you still remember, in this the twentieth year
that the first cases of AIDS were reported.
Charles E. Clifton
Editor
Send comments and reactions
to posaware@aol.com
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