Stories From Aids Walk NY 2012

The AIDS Walk took place in New York on Sunday May 20, 2012. While every participant walked for a different reason, they all walked for the same cause, which was support the fight against AIDS and HIV.  Check out the video I shot during Aids Walk NY 2012 "Stories From The Walk". Hope to see you on the walk in 2013!

--Kyle Sweet

GET DOWN Youth Blogger

kylesweet2013@gmail.com

On Sunday, May 20^th, approximately 45,000 people converged in the streets of Manhattan for the AIDS Walk NY, and I am honored to have been one of them.  Walkers and wheelers of all ages and all ethnicities trekked 10 kilometers through Central Park and around the West Side, each of us with our own stories in every step.

We passed volunteers who shouted at us from the opposite side of the caution tape to “keep walking” and blew encouraging whistles in our direction. There were also tourists and NYC residents who joined us for a bit, curious and overwhelmed by the number of people walking.  “What are you fighting for?” I remember one woman yelling at us from the sidewalk.  “It’s the AIDS walk,” a man next to me answered, “we’re walking for awareness and a cure.”

Photo by Kyle Sweet

 

Each person had a story to tell, and we heard a few of them as we stopped to take footage.  My fellow intern and walker Kyle, brought along his camera and stopped to ask questions of people we wanted to know more about.  Some participants were walking for the twelfth time.  There were families with names of loved ones on their T-shirts, and co-workers who walked for companies that supported AIDS research.  Many walkers with their children and dogs, walked hand-in-hand, and held up banners proclaiming where they came from, and who they were walking for.  Others, like me, joined the fight for AIDS awareness recently, and this was our first walk.

Photo by Kim J. Ford for Lionqueen192 Productions, Inc.

For me, being surrounded by so many veterans of previous AIDS walks was powerful and also intimidating.  Was my brief encounter with this passionate world substantial enough that I was qualified to walk next to people who had seen their lovers and loved ones die from AIDS?  I was not alive when many of the walkers watched half of their friends contract a mysterious and deadly virus.  I have no way of knowing the pain fellow walkers felt when they discovered, years later, that their son’s, boyfriend’s, or grandmother’s HIV had finally morphed into AIDS, which was, at that time, a death sentence. 

Photo by Kyle Sweet

 

As I counted the number of AIDS Walk NY pins on the back of one man’s vest, I was reminded again of how the fight has changed since the first walk, in 1986. Today, people diagnosed with HIV who receive treatment can expect to live almost as long as a person not diagnosed with the disease.  However, if a person doesn’t know she’s HIV positive, doesn’t get tested, or doesn’t tell her partners about the diagnosis, she could spread HIV by not protecting herself and others.  When I think about how little most people know about HIV/AIDS and the importance of protection, the fight remains the same.  Everyone needs to know what happens when you neglect your body and sexual health, and what fights still need our attention.  Today, there are 33 million people living with HIV, and only 3 million are getting treatment.  Even with these statistics, unfortunately, according to a 2009 National Aids Strategy Coordinating Committee Report shows that the American public has become increasingly less concerned with HIV/AIDS. 

Yesterday, there were many, many people who raised money and walked for the cause, but there were so many more people who were not there.  Few of my peers and friends at home and at school knew that I was walking, and none of them were at the walk with me.  In my health class in high school, HIV/AIDS was a 30-minute PowerPoint lecture, mostly about how deadly HIV/AIDS used to be.

Photo by Kim J. Ford for Lionqueen192 Productions, Inc.

 

HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness is not an issue that my friends and I discuss when we hang out.  To our generation, HIV/AIDS is archaic and a none-issue; most people are under the impression that AIDS now has a cure.  That needs to change.  If we are to live in a safer, healthier, more conscious world, our generation of YouTube-watching, Facebook-stalking teens needs to know that kids our age are still being diagnosed with HIV, and even more of those teens simply do not know how to prevent the disease or how to get tested.  And that is what I walked for Sunday: I walked as a promise to get the word out, to get my friends to be aware of the current fight, and to get more young people behind the AIDS fight.  Even though I’m not a long-time walker, and even though I don’t have as many stories to tell, I was as much a part of the AIDS Walk as anyone else because I’m determined to get the word out.

Remember: no matter how you get down, protect yourself. Get tested. 

Check out this HIV/AIDS photo retrospective: 

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/slideshow_aids_retrospective/article_em.htm)

--Virginia Marshall

GET DOWN Youth Blogger

@vrosemarshall

virginiarosemarshall@college.harvard.edu

Meet Virginia Marshall, GET DOWN Youth Blogger

 

GET DOWN is excited that the Summer 2012 interns are here! Meet Virginia Marshall, a Harvard University student, and now GET DOWN Youth Blogger.  Virginia is got started right away and did the Aids Walk NY with us.  She's also going to Africa later this Summer.  Take photos for us!

Virginia Marshall

GET DOWN Youth Blogger

@vrosemarshall

virginiarosemarshall@college.harvard.edu

Photo Courtesy Virginia Marshall Facebook

GETTING DOWN With Aids Walk NY 2012!!

It's May! And for GET DOWN, that means it's time for Aids Walk NY, the largest single-day AIDS fundraising event in the world.  Founded by GMHC, the world's first AIDS service organization, the 10-kilometer walkathon was designed to raise urgently needed funds for GMHC, and to battle the stigma so many associated with HIV/AIDS. The event took place on May 18, 1986 at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park, Fordham University's Robert Moses Plaza, and the streets of the Upper West Side. Today, the AIDS Walk begins and ends in Central Park.  In its 27 years, AIDS Walk New York has inspired nearly 845,000 people to walk, and millions more to donate, raising more than $122 million to combat HIV and AIDS. The funds raised at the event remain a vital lifeline that sustains GMHC's prevention, care, and advocacy programs for the thousands of men, women, and families affected by the disease in the tri-state area.

WHY DO WE WALK? Because Half of all new HIV infections

 in the U.S. occur in people 25 years of age or younger.

GET DOWN is just beginning. We are grassroots. You can read all about us here getdownpsa.blogspot.com, friend us at facebook.com/getdownpsa and follow us on twitter.com/getdownpsa. The GET DOWN PSAs are on You Tube and on our sites as well. 

We are walking with TEAM FACES NY (#0638) and are proud to have met so many young people at the Brooklyn Youth Conference that want to walk with us!

Please go here to donate to GET DOWN creator and executive producer Kim J. Ford's page: http://aidswalknewyork2012.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1000060&lis=1&kntae1000060=B930CD2C388249B6A1F4B6CE1518A3DE&supId=289403036

The GET DOWN team is thanking you in advance for standing with us in the fight against HIV/AIDS and helping spread awareness among youth and young adults.

--The GET DOWN Team

www.facebook.com/getdownpsa

www.twitter.com/getdownpsa

getdownpsa2008@gmail.com

Sex and Politics: The Condom Debate

The issue of contraception and women’s reproductive rights are not new to the presidential election debate, but President Obama’s recent contraceptive mandate stoked the fire among conservative candidates.  The federal mandate would require that all employees of insured religiously affiliated institutions (i.e. schools and hospitals) receive free contraceptives in their health plan.  Many religious conservatives saw this as a direct attack.  Like nearly every politician to grace the American spotlight, former presidential candidate Rick Santorum was no exception.  And, it was Santorum’s highly conservative and absolutist view on the issue of contraception that separated him from his former GOP competitors in the race for the presidency.  According to a Huffington Post article titled “Rick Santorum Contraception Stance Remains Out Of Step With Nation,” released in February of this year, “He [Santorum] believes states should be free to ban them [condoms] if they want.  He argues that the Supreme Court erred when it ruled in 1965 that married Americans have a right to privacy that includes the use of contraceptives.”  Santorum supports this view through his strong Christian faith, in which he believes access to contraception ultimately encourages permissive sexual activity.  

The Huffington Post indeed had it right when they claimed Santorum to be “out of step” with the majority of the nation.  In this case, we are not talking about abortion, despite the fact that Santorum planned to deny women this access, too.  In this case, we are referring to the basic methods of contraception, which include the Pill, condom and various other methods that are utilized by 99 percent of American women to prevent pregnancy in addition to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, according to the Guttmacher Institute.  But before we can examine the dangers that a ban in contraception poses to the American public, we must first distinguish how this issue differs from that of abortion.

Within the political sphere, we so often associate the issues of abortion and contraception to one another, many times blurring the lines between the two and classifying them as one sole topic of debate.  But what Santorum’s unique stance on contraception control proves, however, is that these two issues stand greatly apart from one another.  One of them relates to the HIV/AIDS epidemic (and other STDs), a fact that is not only overlooked, but many times disregarded entirely when these two topics of debate are addressed together.  And that is the issue at the heart of his belief system: The issue of access to contraception.

Santorum’s belief centers on the fact that condoms are used solely as a means of birth control; or rather, that the use of a condom provides one with “a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be,” ultimately allowing people to act without the intent of procreating.  In order to test the validity of his assumption, I randomly selected 20 male friends and asked them what they believed to be the number one purpose of putting on a condom before sexual intercourse.  In other words, what is the most important reason for utilizing this form of contraception? To my surprise, 17 out of the 20 young men answered to prevent pregnancy.  I was relieved to find that all 20 admitted to using a condom on a regular basis, but was shocked to find that pregnancy was their number one concern.  What about sexually transmitted diseases?  What about incurable viruses such as HIV that, once acquired, one will have to live with forever?  Aren’t these legitimate dangers?  Why have so many of these young men, and Santorum himself, failed to consider this fact?

As “out of step” as Santorum may be, his belief highlights a few important truths: that the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is not at the forefront of concerns regarding sexual health among the American public today.  That more young men are willing to put on a condom to prevent an unwanted pregnancy than to prevent acquiring a deadly sexually transmitted disease.  That too often, the ethics surrounding contraception control are dictated by religious views that are more than out of sync with reality.  As we continue to make advancements in the field of HIV/AIDS research, it is important that we utilize what we know to prevent the further spread of this disease.  And what we do know is that using a condom can help keep this disease under control.  So regardless of the beliefs one may hold, we cannot deny the obvious truth: that using a condom can prevent HIV/AIDS. And that alone can save lives.

--Rebecca Florcyzk

GET DOWN Youth Blogger In Chief

florczy3@tcnj.edu

Rebecca Gets Tested: Women's HIV Awareness Month

A few weeks ago, three of my college housemates and I were hanging out in our living room as we usually do on Sunday evenings.  Only on this night, our conversation took a turn from what is usually lighthearted and playful, to a non-joking matter entirely.  The three of them had confessed that night to never having gotten an STD or HIV screening in their lives.  I was shocked.  And before I knew it, I was scolding them as a mother does; yelling at them about the dangers of not getting checked and demanding that they make appointments first thing in the morning.

Before bed that night, I thought to myself: How could these girls, all twenty-two years of age and older, go so long without getting checked?  To me, it seemed like sheer neglect of oneself.  Since I was sixteen years old, I’ve been making yearly trips to my doctor for routine check-ups.  I also found myself in her office sporadically over the years; some times at the end of a relationship, other times, out of the simple need to be “safe.”  Either way, I was on top of my health. Or so I thought.

Long before I attended Sundae Sermon at El Museo Del Barrio on Sunday, February 26^th, I was asked by my GET DOWN supervisor if I’d ever gotten an HIV screening done.  The answer was no.  I visited my doctor every year, was an HIV screening truly necessary?  The answer to this one is yes.  I, along with many people, believed that such check-ups test for HIV, when in fact, they don’t.  A standard STD test will check for a number of sexually transmitted diseases, but won’t check for HIV unless you specifically ask for that screening to be done.  And by the time Sunday rolled around, I knew I couldn’t leave El Museo until I had gotten my first HIV screening.

Up until that point, I had been so sure that I was healthy and free of every sexually transmitted disease imaginable.  After all, I was on top of my sexual health better than anyone.  But words cannot describe the feeling that overwhelmed me once I sat down in that chair.  Just moments prior, I was more than certain of what the test would read.  It hadn’t occurred to me until that very moment that a negative result was not guaranteed.  This was my first time getting tested, so in actuality, I had no idea what the outcome would be.

An HIV screening can be conducted various ways.  I had a rapid oral HIV test, in which a small swab was lightly scrapped along the walls of my mouth and then placed aside for approximately 15 minutes to produce a result.  When a person is infected with HIV, their body responds by producing special proteins that fight infection, called antibodies. The oral HIV test is designed to look for these antibodies in the saliva.  If antibodies are detected, it means that person has tested preliminarily positive for HIV.  That’s when a tester will draw blood in order to submit for a confirmatory test.  If that test comes back positive, the person being tested is HIV positive, for sure.  The confirmatory test might also come back HIV negative.

After my mouth was swabbed, I had to wait 15 minutes before I could find out the result.  During that time, the woman who administered the test questioned me in great detail about my past sexual experiences.  My answers are then included in reporting to the Center For Disease Control (CDC) for their research reports.  Each question caused my heart to beat faster and faster, for I knew that each honest answer put me at greater risk of contracting this virus.  Halfway through the questioning, I started to get mad at myself; mad at a poor decision I had made one night, mad that this was my first time getting tested, mad that I had thought I was invincible to something deadly.  I was not as responsible as I had thought and now I feared the results.  What if it came back positive? What would I do? With each minute, I grew more and more anxious and after what felt like an eternity, I got my results. Negative.

I let out a huge sigh of relief.  For years I had lived under the assumption that I was clean and HIV negative, but hadn’t known for sure until this very moment.  The yearly trips to my doctor were not enough because I had never asked for an HIV screening to be done before.  But now I knew and knowing is truly one of the greatest feelings in the world.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommend that all people between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested for HIV, regardless of whether you think you’re at risk or not.  According to the CDC’s 2009 statistics, women comprised 51% of the US population and accounted for 23% of new HIV infections.  According to the CDC 2009 report by age, the age group 20-24 accounted for the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses, at 36.7 per 100,000 population.  Those figures have increased from 2006 among those aged 15-19 and 20-24.  My friends and I fall into that age group.

March is Women and Girls HIV Awareness Month, which is coordinated by the Office on Women's Health (OWH), within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  And because getting tested for HIV is this easy, there is no excuse for anyone not to.  I am sure the living room conversations will be a little more interesting at my college apartment. 

Just remember: No matter how you get down, protect yourself. Get tested.

To see more photos of GET DOWN at Sundae Sermon El Museo Del Barrio Kickoff:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2776992794916.2116464.1561001943&type=3

--Rebecca Florcyzk

GET DOWN Youth Blogger In Chief

florczy3@tcnj.edu

Cuéntame LGBT Series: An Honest Conversation