HIV/AIDS, politics, and the '80s suffering of humanity

I've gone on a date with a guy who has HIV.

My mom had a gym instructor who was gay and died from AIDS. That's about the only person I remember our family knowing.

I think it's pretty great that because of education and medicine, AIDS/HIV is not much of an epidemic at all when it was pretty terrifying when it first hit. I know it mostly affected the gay community, but some people got it through drug needles, and the saddest stories were people getting it from blood transfusions, even kids.

We have plenty of other things to worry about these days, but I'm glad this is something we have dealt with. Even though sadly everyone in Uganda has AIDS, the Mormons experienced it first hand.

I still have a hard time believing it all started with a green monkey a long time ago.
The first time I heard about it is when Ricky Wilson from the B-52s passed away. They said it was a rare form of cancer at first.
Interesting topic, and I hope this doesn't get locked. There was a child in a neighboring elementary school where I grew up who was HIV positive. It caused quite an uproar when it was discovered. But you have to remember, back then they didn't know how to deal with it. People protested & removed their children from the school. I'm sure the family had to deal with a bunch of harassment as well. I'm not sure what ever happened to the kid. I just hope people in schools are more lenient with dealing with a student who has the virus.

I grew up in a very conservative religious family in the bible belt, where gays were considered to be perverts and abnormal. In elementary school in the 80's, we used to call each other gay slurs and accuse each other of having AIDS. Boy George is what I considered to be what gay people were like, and I never had first hand knowledge of anyone being gay until high school, nor have I ever known anyone personally who had HIV/AIDS. It was learning about the personal lives of celebrities like Freddie Mercury, Robert Reed and Michael Stipe that actually changed my outlook, so that "gay" was no longer a slur or a word that I associated with Boy George. Even then, I still bought into the religious narrative for the longest time that being gay was a choice and that it was wrong, even though I personally held no ill feelings for LGBT. Eventually, I just decided that other people's lives were none of my business and that trying to oppress them through legislation was wrong. Finally, I realized I was an atheist and that there was no rational basis for all these silly prejudices. I am 100% hetero, and frankly I still have a hard time watching two men kiss each other, but I have evolved greatly and will continue to do so.

Such a perfect post.

I lost an uncle to aids. It was pretty rough to watch. I was pretty young, around 10. My parents informed me of everything though.

They found put he had h.i.v., within a year it was full blown aids. By year 2 he ended up with cancer. Died not long after that.

Growing up, my dad had passed away before I was born so I did not have too much in the way of a "male role model" that every boy is supposed to have according to outsiders looking in. But yet I did. My godmother had become good friends with her tax attorney in the 80s, who is a gay man and has had AIDS as long as she's known him; and as a result she became friends with his long time companion who is HIV Positive. These two are my role models on how to live life through adversity. It was hard enough hearing them talk about the sh*t they got in their youth for being gay, let alone the sh*t they still get to this day for having AIDS/being HIV Positive. Being gay is a borderline non issue for MOST in the US and the western world anymore...it's not taboo even like it was when I was a kid growing up in the 90's. But having that AIDS stigma is still arguably as bad as the disease itself because you tell someone you have AIDS and they instantly pity you, make a ton of assumptions, and treat you as if you are less than human because of a disease you have. I learned so much from George and Jim on how to be a good person, how to deal with adversity, and how to live life to the fullest because in Jim's case; he never knows when AZT will stop doing its job effectively and what day could be his last. He once told me "I could just as easily walk out onto Forbes Avenue and die from a PAT bus losing its breaks and die as I could from AIDS. It's about living, a little bit of prayer even if you don't believe, and just making the best of an uncertain situation." Words I live by even today at 24, and he told me this when I was 6.

As for the spread, causation, and cure? if I know. We know how it's spread. You can be straight as an arrow and go to a hospital for a shot and a nurse could royally up and use a used needle. You could use a pathogen clean up kit at work for someone who was bleeding and not realize some of the blood got into a cut on a finger because there was a tiny hole in the tip of your glove. Then there are the more known ways that I won't discuss because this is a kids forum all things considered. Where it came from, I'm inclined to believe science but I understand there are for sure more conspiracy theories than there is scientific evidence. Believe as you will. The same goes for a cure. I'd like to think in my lifetime that there will not only be cures but full blown immunizations that prevent AIDS, cancer, ALS, Ebola etcetera. Again, there are many conspiracy theories out there that those cures exist and they're just not being released. I'd like to have a little more faith in humanity than that.

Unless you are a scientific researcher or the head of a cure finding organization, all we can do is sit back, protect ourselves the best we can and just hope for the best. Spread awareness as we always have. Push the governments of the world for more funding for developing cures...the whole ten yards. It sounds almost too easy to call up your Senator and tell them to vote yes for a funding bill but don't because you assume your voice won't be heard. You'd be surprised how many Senators and members of Congress actually listen to their constituents because we're ultimately the ones who give them their power no matter how much money they may make on the side from kickbacks. That money means nothing if you lose an election. Best way to win an election is to listen to your people and follow through on what they asked you to do. As someone who lives for the political sphere, you'd be surprised how well that works if enough people voice their opinions. One person alone may not make the difference, but to be the final voice of a massive group of people? It has a lot more power than you think.