GMHC
Annette Messager's exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art."My Vows" 1988-1991
“Live in my house, I’ll be your shelter. Just pay me back with one thousand kisses. Be my lover, and I’ll cover you.” – RENT
**Viewer Discretion Advised this post contains language about delicate topics that you may not be comfortable talking about**
“There was once this nineteen year old boy who came to visit New York from Jamaica. On a whim he decided to get tested for HIV here. He was positive. When he called to tell his mother, she told him that he was no longer welcome back home. She said if the family didn’t kill him, she would make sure the neighbors did. That’s how we got him a student visa to go to college in the United States. He graduated college here and is now doing very well for himself.”
This is one of the many poignant and inspiring stories that echos through the halls of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, a center that serves people who are HIV positive. Although the center started out as a sanctuary for gay men with HIV and AIDS, today it stands as a haven for any person who is HIV positive no matter of their age, gender, or orientation. Their mission is to not only provide services for people with HIV, but to also continue fighting the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding HIV and AIDS, as well as the ever continuing battle against homophobia. As shown by the people shouting homophobic slurs at openly gay Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, homophobia is still a highly prevalent issue in today’s world. GMHC commits itself to fighting these negative stereotypes against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.
GMHC is an organization that assists people living with HIV and AIDS, and they provide numerous services for people who are not able to get them elsewhere. I had the incredible opportunity of volunteering with GMHC this past week. Along with 35 other volunteers, I talked with clients, served lunch, worked with AIDS walk, and learned the most up to date information about HIV and AIDS. Having been educated about HIV and AIDS in high school, I came into these workshops thinking that I knew everything there was to know about the disease. What I soon realized was that I had so much more to learn. It is disheartening to know that there are still stigmas attached to HIV and AIDS and that every day people are not receiving the same treatment because of their personal health. It is also scary to know that the population at risk for HIV is ever changing. Even with all of the information available in the United States, people still make unsafe decisions in their lives.
Having been fully educated through these workshops, people may believe that I feel it is my duty to at least spout off a few random facts about HIV and AIDS, but truthfully, I was genuinely interested and surprised by many of the new facts I learned. So here are some things you may not have known:
1. There are only four ways to be infected with HIV: blood, sperm, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. You would be surprised how many people believe that just coming in contact with saliva or being touched by someone with HIV could transmit the disease. Many people are discriminated against in the workplace, alienated by their friends, and even exiled from their families because of these stereotypical misconceptions about HIV.
2. In the United States, the highest killer of women ages 14 to 24 and people over the age of 60 is AIDS. Most of these women did not know they were HIV positive until it was too late. Many of their husbands and boyfriends were unfaithful and in doing so became HIV positive, transmitting the disease to their significant others. One of the GMHC volunteers I worked with didn’t find out she was HIV positive until she had a daughter who was born HIV positive. Unfortunately, her daughter passed away at the tender age of 7, but she continues to dedicate much of her time volunteering with GMHC.
3. A person can’t die from HIV, they can only die from AIDS. A person is diagnosed with AIDS when their T-cell count is 200 or below. HIV attacks the immune system until a person’s body can’t fight off diseases it would normally be able to deal with without a problem. These opportunistic infections start emerging when a person has AIDS. Some common examples are Pneumonia, Herpes, Kaposi’s Sarcoma, and Lymphoma.
4. Most of GMHC’s clients are under or just above the New York poverty line, which means that treating HIV and AIDS is not their sole priority. Many find that housing, food, and just getting by from day to day is their main concern. True, there are also many who do not fit this description, but what is amazing about GMHC is the fact that they offer clients free HIV testing and consultation, a wellness program, GED courses, dining services, and legal aid. Not only do they offer care for their clients, but they also make a great effort to educate this new generation in preventing HIV and practicing safe sex.
There are many more facts that I learned during my week at GMHC, but I just wanted to share a few that I found most alarming and important to know.
As much as this post is about GMHC and its clients, it is also about the volunteers. Many of the volunteers and employees at GMHC work there because of personal reasons. Whether they volunteer because they lost a loved one to AIDS, they themselves are HIV positive, or they just volunteer out of the goodness of their heart, each and every person is there because they are dedicated to the cause. No one is there for the money or the fame, every person sincerely loves and cares about what they are doing.
Of the hundreds of heart-wrenching stories I heard, many came straight from the mouths of GMHC volunteers and employees. From a lawyer’s HIV positive brother who committed suicide, to an employee’s discovery that he was HIV positive and subsequent coming out to his family and the world at the young age of 14 left me wondering what I could possibly do to help those in need in my own community. I can’t put it in any better words than Luna did. He said, “I would like for young people to take up activism. To get angry and speak up. You know, to get involved, with themselves, but also with their community. I would like the scene to be the way things were before, in terms of belonging.”
Though New York has the highest concentration of HIV and AIDS cases in the United States (more than Miami, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles combined), there are always people who are not so lucky as to live in New York where organizations like GMHC exist. Whether it is raising money and walking in the AIDS walk in New York or Los Angeles, volunteering at my local HIV and AIDS clinic, or starting up my own non profit in the future, I am committed to doing as much as I can to help out people living with HIV and AIDS.
The most important things I took away from my time with GMHC were open-mindedness, understanding, perseverance, and hope. Hope for a time when everyone is treated equally. Hope for a world without prejudice. Hope for a future where HIV and AIDS can be both prevented and cured. And love for all those who have died.
-Sithara Reddy-
