One Step Closer
Yesterday, two HIV-positive gay men announced they were in the running for elections to their hometown city councils. Austin Head, from Phoenix Arizona & Corey Johnson, from N.Y.C are both LGBT and AIDS activists in their communities who were inspired by their personal experiences to run for office.
To Tell or Not To Tell?
Whether it’s still fresh news that you are beginning to absorb or it’s something you have been living with for a while, there are bound to be many situations in your life in which you will be faced with the decision of whether or not to disclose your HIV status.
Whom do you feel you need to tell? Is there someone you want to tell, but aren’t sure what or how much to say? Is there anyone you feel that you must tell like a spouse, a partner, or perhaps someone whom you’ve been dating?
Read up on our advice for disclosing, ask questions, & get informed.
Nashville Journey
Bisexual country music singer, Jimbeau Hinson’s album Strong Medicine spans a life with HIV.
Read the POZ exclusive here.
To My Future Grown-Up Son
An anonymous HIV-positive mother discloses to her HIV-negative son.
It’s hard to know how to start this letter, but I find myself needing to write to you on this World AIDS Day about my having HIV. Right now in 2012, you are only 3 years old and much too young to understand what it means for your mom to be living with HIV. There is a big part of me that wishes I could protect you from knowing for as long as possible, but I know that I cannot keep it a secret from you forever, and that trying to will not make it go away and will only create barriers and make it seem shameful. So, I am publishing this letter on this World AIDS Day to help others who need to and want to understand more about what it’s like to have HIV. But, I am doing so under a pseudonym to protect you from any stigma and discrimination that you do not deserve simply because you are my son.
Read more: http://www.poz.com/articles/altarum_institute_2676_23285.shtml
Canada: Supreme Court makes bad HIV disclosure law worse
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday October 5th that individuals who know they are HIV-positive are liable to criminal prosecution for aggravated sexual assault - which comes with a maximum sentence of life in prison and sex offender status - if they do not disclose this fact prior to sex that may risk a “realistic possibility of transmission of HIV”. There’s been a lot of confusion about whether this ruling, which created the illusion of being fair, rational, just and based on the latest science, was a step in the right direction. Believe me, it wasn’t.
A blog by Edwin Bernard
My first journey begins with how disclosure affected my job. It began with me sitting across from supervisor who wanted some answers as to why I seemed to called in sick or every several months I put in half a day as I had to leave the office for one reason or the other. It was tricky as I was running out of excuses of telling my boss why I was late for work. How many times could I use the ‘I didn’t hear the alarm clock excuse’ or that the half days I put in was for a family emergency when it would have been so much easier to tell her that in actuality I had an appointment with my HIV doctor.
Click here for more and sound off in the comments section how you all have handled HIV disclosure.
(Source: poz.com)
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