In the recent issues of Poz I read about a PeaceCorps worker who was teaching HIV Prevention, but made a mistake one night, and ended up becoming positive. After this was found out, PeaceCorps (mind you, our US Gov’t & tax payer money) pulled him from his job because of his status. And up until February 2008, PeaceCorps wouldn’t even accept any applicants who were HIV+ (if you are positive, you can still do a lot, it’s not a death sentence like it used to be – people like for 25 or more years being positive before every having AIDS). In some ways I’m not surprised that even our own US government is scared of HIV+ people and don’t know what to do.
People seem to forget about the stigma that still exists in the world today with HIV+ people. American’s are positive too. This isn’t just happening in Africa. The stigma exists because HIV is contracted through “taboo” ways such as drug use/needle exchange and sex. Just because someone makes a mistake doesn’t mean they should be punished. We’re all human. It could be any one of us. It just takes once.
I keep talking about HIV/AIDS because I want people to be educated. It’s not because I believe my blog readers need an “intervention” so you don’t contract HIV – it’s because if we want to love others and help change the world – we need to understand where people are coming from and how to help them. If someone is HIV+ they shouldn’t be shunned from society.
