This message is for the YOUTH and YOUTHFUL.
As I reflect on #WorldAIDSDay, I think one of the most important messages that I want youth to take away from the celebration is knowing their truth and standing firm in it. It’s wild because it almost feels like I came out twice. The first time gave me life. The second coming out was my old body dying from what was my perception of what it means to be HIV-negative. While not said explicitly, society teaches you in many ways that being HIV-negative grants you many privileges, that being HIV-negative means that you have made the right choices thus far. “It couldn’t be me” is the mentality that I speak of.
According to Merck and the Prevention Access Campaign, approximately 23% of the survey participants stated that they either were “not at all informed” or “somewhat informed” about HIV.
Speaking only from my worldview and my experience—If you live in the South, from a reproductive health perspective, you more than likely had a mediocre class that spread stigmatizing language about HIV, which made you afraid. I know that was my experience.
I remember the bolder term in my Health book in seventh grade, and I remember how “dirty” I felt thinking about the word and how it must’ve been painful to live with.
Something that kills you slowly surely sounds like a curse.
But it was bittersweet for me.
My positive diagnosis unlocked a different part of myself that I was too afraid to tap into. I found my voice, my conviction to live and a purpose to thrive.
My family was my support, my mentors, everything that I could possibly ask for in reconstructing myself to live with a newly added identity, a new HEALTH CONDITION.
And when I say family, I’m not just talking about blood relatives. I’m talking about my brothers and sisters who also know that it can literally be….a hard pill to swallow.
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Toraje, Georgia
