This article is about how we don't talk about HIV & AIDS anymore, not really. When I was a teen & 20 something, back during the '80s & '90s, there was info on HIV everywhere. It was on billboards, magazine insets, posters at school. There were drag shows & benefits held at gay bars to give to AIDS charities helping people living with HIV. You couldn't turn to any form of media without HIV eventually showing up in the conversation.
They thought they were helping by getting the word out there. But, the way they approached it, all it accomplished was desensitizing the public to the subject. We were bombarded & overwhelmed. HIV was a scary & highly stigmatized subject in the 90's. All this info overload was taxing & isolating. Most adverts were aimed at highly, sexually active gay men & IV drug users. Not something, a lot of people wanted to be associated with back then or now.
People got tired of hearing about it, People always get annoyed hearing things they don't want to after a while. No matter how relevant. I wondered if some of that wasn't intentional on some groups part. Let's desensitize them to this & they'll get lax on the matter.
If that was the case, it's working. HIV is spreading due to ignorance & lack of communication. Treatment as prevention isn't going to stop HIV. We need serious & genuine conversation. We need to talk about the issue, not have it blasted at us by 50' billboards or unnerving magazine inserts. We need to discuss the topic & promote awareness, risks, testing, treatment & understanding.
We need to use our words again. Not as a judgement or a means to separate, but as a means to unite & move forward against HIV.
Cya...
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