COLUMN: CLINT WALTERS
Clint Walters reflects on disclosure in his World AIDS year.
It’s taken me ages to find the time to write this article down - like most men I find it hard to express myself coherently! Nothing is ever as simplistic or straight forward as my first article on ‘Disclosing HIV’ would have led you to believe. Sometimes you can be in situations where it’s not easy to disclose intimate parts of yourself.
I recently met a guy and somehow HIV didn’t come up in the conversation. Ididn’t expect him to strip off naked in my flat and somehow he didn’t notice the HIV information everywhere! I told him later and found out he had never beenfor a test despite being 28 years of age. We talked about the range of other possible STI’s which we both could have been at risk of. It’s a gamble as to how people will react.
Admitting you have a contagious, terminal illness caught sexually on national television just isn’t cool either - full stop! Waking up in the morning and going to your local shop for bread and milk and being ‘recognised’ as that ‘positive’ bloke running the marathon gives away your status to people you
wouldn’t otherwise want to know. I don’t mind, its
part of my job and the more people that see me also
see HIV, you just have to be aware of the consequences on your life.
This year, World AIDS Day (WAD) has come at a tricky time. I’ve been trying for years to secure a home for young people to have an HIV Clinic on the weekend with(PEP) treatment and services. I see all the problems and issues I faced with living with HIV which is why we need this clinic to support young people and me! We are waiting on a building in Oxford Street, which was initially planned to be opened for this year’s fast approaching Dec 1st. Unfortunately there have been the inevitable delays.
Every year, I start to get the calls from mags, radio and TV to appear or find young people who can share their story and talk about the same issues. There are only a handful of people in the UK who are able to fully disclose their HIV status for very valid reasons. Most young people call our free phone helpline due to fear within their community or neighbourhood. The media doesn’t care after all its story and it is World AIDS Day (WAD).
Don’t get me wrong I’m not criticising the exposure - if it wasn’t for the media interest I wouldn’t be able to continue in running the Health Initiatives charity. I would have been financially forced to have chucked the towel in years ago and wouldn’t have met the young people we now work with. It’s just, I can think of better things to be recognised for than catching a ruddy illness.
The spotlight is put back on HIV for one day a year, but what happens for the rest of the year? Maybe that’s the only time of the year the media wants an AIDS story... next month it’s cancer. I’m not criticising the campaign after all something is better than nothing! I just feel we need a new approach to reach more people for the rest of the year. It should build momentum and hopefully inspire. Sure, it would be great if there was a massive staged event in Trafalgar Square and a way in which HIV charities worked in partnership, but again this year there isn’t. I admire the people who are HIV positive and can somehow manage to put their diagnosis in a small box within there lives. Diagnosed positive from a young age has made it such a big part of my genetic make-up for the last 10 years. This year I’m hoping all the media interest might make a difference so in the future when the next man decides to strip in my flat, he is already aware of my status. After all, whether I talk about it or not every day will be World AIDS Day to me. +
©Clint Walters founder of Health Initiatives - HI (No: 1076932)
www.healthinitiatives.org www.myspace.com/clintleewalters
