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IN FOCUS: ARTICLE |
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Absolutely Positively
by Amy Zavatto, 11.14.06
"If you're in a relationship - whether it be two minutes, two days, two months, or 29 years, and you're sexually active, than you're at risk." |
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You're 19. Your whole life spreads out before you like a long, lush banquet table full of wonderful choices. You have ideas for the future; dreams of what you will be. You have time - so much time - to figure it all out. And then, one day, you find out something that stops you in your forward-moving tracks. You find out you are HIV positive.
Terrifying? Maybe so. But not if you're 21-year-old Cree Gordon, or any of his five incredibly motivated bus-mates who are positive in more ways than one. These six HIV-positive young adults are on the road from New York to California telling their stories to their peers as part of Who's Positive's educational blitz, Operation Get Tested! - a 30-city tour where Cree and his cohorts teach young adults to "be aware, be prepared, and get tested."
A Positive Message
"I kind of felt like HIV was rock bottom," says Cree, who found out his status just days before his 20th birthday. "And the only way I could go was up." Cree's diagnosis was indeed the wake-up call that, ironically, changed his life for the better. He went from being a directionless kid on the streets to a focused young man attending the University of Oregon, thriving in a great job that he loves, acting as a role model for other kids who have been diagnosed, and knowing that he has a whole lot to live for.
"We take a completely different approach to HIV awareness in that we're humanizing HIV through the accounts of young adults who are living with it," says Tom Donohue, 25, the founder of Who's Positive? "Sex is so much of a taboo that partners don't discuss it. One moment of passion, of intimacy, of irresponsibility not only changed my life, but the lives of so many people around me," he says of his own HIV diagnosis. "If you're in a relationship - whether it be two minutes, two days, two months, or 29 years, and you're sexually active, than you're at risk. It's time that partners begin to discuss HIV and AIDS with each other. I mean, if you can't talk about sex, then why are you having it?"
30 Cities and 30,000 Miles
Opening up much-needed dialogue among sexually active teens and young adults is a big part of the Get Tested! Tour. When attendees enter the room at each official stop on the speaking tour, they are given a sealed envelope containing mock HIV test results. They are told that one of them is "positive." As the kids begin to wonder who has the positive HIV card, a Get Tested team member stands up and says, "I may look like you, act like you; I might even be the same age of some of you; but could any of you ever tell that I am HIV positive?"
The effect on the audience is powerful - HIV can happen to anyone, regardless of age, skin color, or level of sexual activity (a couple of members on the crew were born HIV positive). Free HIV testing is offered at the end of the program on each of the tour stops. "There are so many stereotypes around HIV and AIDS," says Tom. What we do is provide that opportunity to offer faces and stories." Cree agrees: "There's a stigma that people with HIV are supposed to look sick, and all of us [on the tour] are young and healthy kids."
"And that's the thing," Tom continues, "I'm not only doing this to educate my peers and empower them, but to let them know that it's not the end of the world. That life continues - that you can continue and prosper just like everyone else." |
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