Ive Accepted The Ice Water Challenge!!! Just kidding. Its a great cause, but thats not really whats on my mind today. What Im thinking about isnt one of the most horrific, ill-understood diseases in the country anymore, but its the one that Fifty Thousand Americans contract each year, and Twenty Thousand Americans die from each year, not because there isnt treatment available, but because our society is too uncomfortable to address it in any meaningful way. Does my status make me a HIV-exceptionalist, favoring one charitable cause over another? Thats probably true in part. But ask yourself, what other disease causes people to lower the volume of their voice when they speak about it in public? What other once-deadly condition has available and effective life-saving treatment that people are taking either in secret or not taking at all because they dont want to be judged by their peers? If all you had to do to curve the trend of a disease, that is silently devastating your own community, was simply to educate each other and talk about it, wouldnt you? Because thats the best thing you can do, and its the one thing we arent doing. One of the only Rhode Island demographics in which HIV is on the rise instead of the decline is young gay men. Lets restart that conversation, guys. I wont even ask you to jump in a freezing pool or take an ice bath. Promise. #challenge #starttheconversation #liveoutloud #noshame #silenceequalsdeath
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 03:12:39 +0000
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