Oh my goodness, y’all! I have so much to tell you… I can’t decide whether to write one massive post, or just post a bunch of little ones! Where to begin?
Well, I guess I don’t want to get much further along here without recognizing that today is World AIDS day. I just don’t know what to say. It’s terrible that HIV and AIDS is still with us, affecting those we love. What I think is even worse is the level of apathy we have about it nowadays, especially among the younguns. You see, I’m old enough to remember when friends were dropping like flies–hell, I remember when this mysterious new disease was called GRID! Back then, receiving a diagnosis of positive status was a death sentence. Happily, those days are over for most affected folks. But there are so many young gay guys out there (and others, too of course) that don’t think it’s that serious. I even heard one guy explain that it was OK if he got HIV… he would just take the pills. He said this as an explanation for why he didn’t always practice safer sex. I was shocked. I did give him a piece of my mind, I just hope he heard it.
Then there was the time a long time ago when I went to get tested. This was about 15 years ago I think. Back then, there was all kind of conflicting advice about what was safe & what wasn’t. I guess there probably still is today. And getting tested back then was torture, too! You had to make an appointment, and the nurse would draw a LOT of blood, then you had to wait three weeks for the results and go in again to get them. Not only was the wait agonizing, but where I was at the time wasn’t the most accepting or congenial place for HIV testing.
At this time and place, the only people who got tested were those in high risk groups: gays and drug addicts. The nurse would take advantage of having a captive audience while she drew your blood to tell you all kind of things. If she suspected you were gay, she tried all kinds of ways to try to get you to stop having sex altogether. She spread a rumor that there was someone in the community deliberately infecting his partners. Then there was the time when she advised doubling up on your protection. I can imagine that wearing two condoms at once would kind of take the fun out of hanky panky for the guys!
But what I remember most about that clinic where you had to go to get your HIV tests was that it was down a rural lane. When you got to the end of the drive, there was a sign: with an arrow pointing to the right, it said “HIV Clinic” and with another arrow pointing to the left, it said “Jesus Only Church”. I wonder how many folks came to that stop and chose a path different from what they planned to?
So anyway, this day is set aside to remember that AIDS and HIV are still with us, and still a problem. I also like to remember old and dear friends lost to AIDS on this day. There are too, too many…
