Today, HIV gets a tiny mention in the New York Times. In an article about sexually transmitted diseases. One word at the end of the piece. This, too, marginalizes. We are ashamed. We hang our heads. We did it to ourselves. Normals refuse to see HIV as a sexually transmitted disease. We stuff it through a moral lens. Parents freak. It’s evil. It’s malevolent. Let us cut to the chase. HIV supposedly means anal sex. And intransigence becomes a bubble of hatred that mistakes the person for the disease. I just had twelve adolescent boys with HIV read this piece. “Why are they leaving us out.” I do not think (like the boys do) a deliberate effort was made to leave anyone out. And that’s the problem. The boys condemn. There is still a need for an increased awareness. We are hardest on ourselves. Our suicide rate is off the charts. The boys have to surrender their medications in school (most of them are back to school). They wear a big V painted on their backs. It is absolutely impossible to make confidentiality confidential. I am compelled to look them straight in the eye, and tell them the truth about what they have. People give up. Do not believe the rhetoric that all HIV needs is a pill. You can have enormous physical problems. The boys I teach know this. They already understand that if you get Covid, and you are having problems remaining undetectable, you will have difficulty believing it’s all going to be okay. It gets better.” Better for whom. The boys “need protection.” No kidding. But I must recognize the forest for the trees. What the boys really need is to learn to protect themselves.