It's been on my mind recently, perhaps a hangover from some attitudes that unfortunately still exist in certain pockets of the community. And reinforced by a particular GP I was seeing at the time, when I told her I was HIV+ she became very judgmental; "Well I am surprised, you're a big boy now". WTF? This was after I'd been seeing her for 4 years and she knew the dramas I'd been going through. I never saw her again after that. Apart from just being diagnosed with it and the last thing I needed was to be moralised to, she was putting the blame fairly and squarely on me for getting it.
Of course there are those who vocally assert that I would deserve to get it for being gay citing my behaviour as a moral blight on society, but I'd never have expected such judgment to come from someone I trusted as a medical professional. I'd assume she'd not be so with someone who'd been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (caused through lifestyle) or someone with a skin cancer melanoma from not taking precautions in the sun (can be deadly). Imagine her saying to someone just diagnosed with lung cancer who'd smoked for zonks "Well I am surprised, you're a big boy now". Then why was she saying it to me?
Are some diseases dirty diseases, and others clean? By getting HIV does that mean it's a dirty disease, and a reflection of my moral character? Of course not, yet it's surprising even today the level of discrimination there is regarding HIV even within the professional community.
My assertion is that HIV is simply a disease like any other. Medical science doesn't discriminate in researching a cure and treatments for it. You'd think at least the medical professionals who's charter is to treat the ill would also not discriminate.
And yes, I got it through unsafe sex, at a gay sex club. If there was any sort of conservative Christian view of debauchery I don't think you could go much further than that. Was it my fault I was mentally unstable at the time? Was it my fault I didn't care? Was it my fault the other guys didn't use condoms? It takes two (or more) to tango. Bottom line is I deserve just as much care and attention as with any other disease, and just as little judgment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Amen and amen! You are so right. Life is life and illness is illness regardless of how you got it. The US is so anti-smoking these days lung cancer has almost the same reaction as AIDS. "Well you asked for it didn't you?" Well, F**K YOU! All those who live lily white lives will get sick some day and die too won't they. All their "goodness" will not save them.
ReplyDeleteI remember on the farm in NZ as a kid, we'd all be in the lounge-room at night where the big gas heater was watching telly. Dad smoked like a chimney and sometimes there was a full on cloud hanging in the room. Had to repaint the ceilings every couple of years from it. But neither he nor any of us kids yet (the oldest in his '60's now) died of lung cancer.
ReplyDeleteSure, risk minimisation may be OK in the perfect world. But the world isn't perfect, and neither are we.
Apart from that, there's increasing evidence now that to treat HIV and get the viral load down to undetectable massively reduces the infection rate.
Thinking of you C lately, hope all is going sort of OK. x x