Another December 1 rolls around — World AIDS Day. Most years, pondering the significance of this day makes me sad. This year, I find myself angry.
The focus of this year's annual dose of HIV/AIDS news coverage is on women with HIV... supposedly. Most of the coverage I've seen twists the story around and makes it about the men who infected the women. See, all those men clearly are on the "down low" (thank you, Oprah), sleeping with men on the side, because AIDS is still — in the American psyche — just a gay disease.
(Worthy of note: I did see one interviewer talk to a representative of the CDC, who said there was no evidence that the increase in cases of women with HIV was related to this so-called phenomenon of "life on the DL." In fact, it seemed that by and large, none the men surveyed who had infected women had ever had same-sex relations.)
If you're looking for more information, it seems the Link and Think group (featured as a button in my blog's sidebar) hasn't updated their site for 2004. May I recommend instead, the page for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
Very nicely done. A couple of things that I think about on December 1st are:
ReplyDelete1) Pray for people who are living with HIV or AIDS
2) Hoping that people get tested to know
3) Explaining to someone who does not know about HIV
4) Wearing my "Red Ribbon" to show support and that I care about finding a cure
5) Hoping that my friends/family don't ever get HIV/AIDS
6) Staying healthy (I do)
7) Smiling cause everyday I live with HIV is a wonderful day of living
8) Saying Thanks to GOD for my friends who love me :-) j