Tim Barrus in the New York Times
I work with adolescent boys at-risk. Many have HIV. They are frequently referred to as – the Hard to Reach. A term that carries stigma like a tsunami. I tweet like crazy. Usually about them and me. Relationships matter. AIDS is not over.
I want you to know that HIV still means a crushing hatred can be an indifference that reinforces keeping these kids in their assigned place. There are many struggles to stay alive. We only think we know this disease. But in the back of our minds, we think we’ve solved it.
What about kids who live hundreds of miles from public health clinics, and getting the meds is next to impossible. What about the repeated and repeated and repeated full-on physicals that rob adolescents of their sacred privacy and are seen from such boys as continued sexual abuse this time perpetrated by the system that exploits not supports.
I tweet about all of this and more. I attempt, and usually fail, to communicate their humanity, their terrors, their vulnerability, their attributes, and the immense accumulation of struggles that define them. They are more than the sum of their diseases.
Few people read this stuff. We create a lot of art. Constructed to remind us we are still alive. We put it out there. The point is that we can use creativity to increase our self-awareness versus looking for the relief of a pill that comes with side effects and we already have those in abundance.
Most of all I tweet about death. We are not afraid.