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And the band plays ever on
Mar. 6th, 2006 07:55 pmI worked as an A&D counselor in the 80's and 90's. There was something we started hearing about, a disease that was hitting drug users back East. GRID - Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disorder. I was in a small town in Oregon; not to worry. Sure, we were the meth capitol of the US at the time and there was a lot of IV drug use. But few gays. A few years later, I took a Drugs 101 training of trainers course and they began to talk about HIV/AIDS. Same disease, new name. Turned out you didn't have to be gay. You had to trade blood. I signed up for the next AIDS training, and became a trainer myself. I was soon including condom demos in my DUII classes.
In the early days, we fought for anonymous testing. There was a great deal of paranoia, not all of it unwarranted. With conservative ministers preaching death to gays from the pulpit, and government plans for AIDS sanitoria revealed by the watchful eye of the press, many had good reason to guard their HIV status. By and by, however, HIV became a chronic, treatable illness to the informed public.
The century turned. Homophobia has intensified, it seems, rather than diminished. I read something on another board that made me feel physically ill. Apparently, the right to life does not extend to gay people. A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a 43 year old man who had a heart attack close to the Welch, W.Va. City Hall. His friend was giving him CPR. Chest compressions. Police Chief Bobby Bowman pulled the friend off and stopped him, telling him that the man was HIV positive. The Chief didn't do anything more to help the dying man other than call an ambulance, and tell the drivers the man was HIV positive.
Oh, and, by the way, the man was gay. And HIV negative. Even so, there has never been a known case of HIV transmission by CPR.
This case piqued my interest because of an approaching deadline here in Oregon. We have a system wherein the names of people tested for HIV are kept for 90 days, after which the name is replaced by a numeric code. The Federal Government has informed the State that it must begin retaining names of those tested or face the loss of Ryan White Act funds. To their credit, in State hands, there has never been a breach of confidentiality. With the Federal proclivities for searching and seizing information without warrants nowadays, is that information really safe?
How far off the GRID have we really travelled?
In the early days, we fought for anonymous testing. There was a great deal of paranoia, not all of it unwarranted. With conservative ministers preaching death to gays from the pulpit, and government plans for AIDS sanitoria revealed by the watchful eye of the press, many had good reason to guard their HIV status. By and by, however, HIV became a chronic, treatable illness to the informed public.
The century turned. Homophobia has intensified, it seems, rather than diminished. I read something on another board that made me feel physically ill. Apparently, the right to life does not extend to gay people. A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a 43 year old man who had a heart attack close to the Welch, W.Va. City Hall. His friend was giving him CPR. Chest compressions. Police Chief Bobby Bowman pulled the friend off and stopped him, telling him that the man was HIV positive. The Chief didn't do anything more to help the dying man other than call an ambulance, and tell the drivers the man was HIV positive.
Oh, and, by the way, the man was gay. And HIV negative. Even so, there has never been a known case of HIV transmission by CPR.
This case piqued my interest because of an approaching deadline here in Oregon. We have a system wherein the names of people tested for HIV are kept for 90 days, after which the name is replaced by a numeric code. The Federal Government has informed the State that it must begin retaining names of those tested or face the loss of Ryan White Act funds. To their credit, in State hands, there has never been a breach of confidentiality. With the Federal proclivities for searching and seizing information without warrants nowadays, is that information really safe?
How far off the GRID have we really travelled?
