NOT SO FAST FORWARD :: This year as I watched TheGGN Publisher Shaun Proulx Chair the 25th Anniversary of The Scotiabank AIDS Walk For Life Toronto, I decided to create a meaningful team to walk the Walk. Team #emds is the Official Electronic Music Dance Scene’s AIDS Walk For Life team.
Witnessing my mother’s experience dealing with those suffering from HIV/AIDS – including friends in palliative care at Casey House in the early days when HIV was a death sentence – affected me growing up. It was from my mother’s experiences and her stories that I grew to understand this disease. I met those she cared for and learned about their experiences.
Sadly, like it has for many, a world with HIV/AIDS in it has become normal for me. However, I don’t think HIV discrimination will ever seem right.
Now I’m an adult and I have my own close friends who are HIV positive. It is rewarding to see they are fortunate enough to be living healthy lives. HIV/AIDS has come a long way, compared to when my mom would hold onto the hand of a friend as they passed away before her eyes. The sadness she suffered broke my heart. No one deserved to die this way.
However, some things haven’t changed, I have recently found out. As I sought donations, I learned many people out there still see HIV/AIDS as a gay disease. Through my fundraising efforts, I’ve seen people I previously thought weren’t prejudice towards gays demonstrate that they actually are.
Other people I spoke to expressed concern about the intersection between disease, organizations that help fight it, and pharmaceutical corporations. The argument that disease becomes a profitable business is one we’ve heard made before. One Toronto DJ I know (who wished to remain anonymous), says something we’ve all heard: “… a cure for illness is not (a) profitable outcome. It is more profitable to provide treatments over the long term than cure an individual outright.”
I can understand that point of view. There is no profit in a cure. But before we have a cure – at least for HIV/AIDS – we have treatment. We have organizations like ACT, who greatly assist those living with HIV/AIDS and has been, for over three decades, before there was anything for anyone.
I see the judgement, I hear the politics, the homophobia. But I walk anyway. After all, some of these very people might receive a positive test back some day.
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Over the decades (yes, DECADES) of this illness, many have referred to it as a “gay disease”, but when you see a 4 year old child in 1994, living with it, and going through every possible treatment (because back then, there was only 1, called AZT), you can no longer call it a “gay disease”.
“Cam” became positive from receiving an immunization needle that wasn’t sterilized. Can you imagine if that happened today? There would probably be lawsuits thrown everywhere. But what did a single mom of a then 4 year old know? Not much, given the fact no medications were available back then.
He was put is a gas chamber as a form of oxygen therapy, because in the early 90’s, people were still grasping for anything that would prolong life.
Today, little is known about him, his mom, or his uncle, who was also HIV positive. One could only hope happiness is surrounding them.
18 years, 35+ lost…way too many, way too soon.
Thank you for sharing. This is why I walk today.