paeanssong:

notquitelostnotquitefound:

sgeoffa:

The Impact of Aids on the Artistic Community

September 13, 1987

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In the 1990s I did HIV test counseling. Test sites were anonymous. Folks were still getting dropped from health insurance if they requested testing through their doctors as it was seen as an admission of higher risk behaviors.

It was almost 2 decades of young people, mostly queer men and persons of color, dying. Safer sex was normalized. Even the porn industry used condoms. If you were sexually active and always used condoms, standard recommendation was to test every 6 months. Most the tests at my testing site were negative, the result of responsible college students and middle class teens and adults coming in for routine testing. It took a week for results (cheek swabbing and instant results came later.)

I still wonder about the 3 persons that I gave positive results to. 2 cried on (and with) me. One had health insurance through a job that was likely to provide good access to care, the other 2 had no chance of anything but the underfunded county health department. One walked out of my office within 5 minutes of hearing his diagnosis, with a antisuicide plan (call his mom), but unable to process any of the resources I wanted to offer him. No one left our offices without making a call someone plan, but there is no way to know what they actually did. Even with HAART, most likely all 3 are dead now.

All these deaths were because the persons in power chose to see AIDS as a disease of marginalized others. A joke, and a convenient way to get rid of “undesirables.” So funding came slowly, and stigmatization hampered diagnosis and prevention.

I fear for the next 4 years.