are you positive about prejudice?
page 1 of 3
contents
of issue 73/74
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remember my first real experience of seeing an example of stigma about HIV and Aids. I was at an exhibition at Bradford's museum of photography and film. In a roomful of portraits of all kinds of people doing all kinds of things, one photograph had attracted a gaggle of schoolkids. The picture was of an emaciated young man covered in KS lesions. The kids were screeching to each other "Oh look - Aids!". You remember what school trips to museums
were like - they hadn't shown the slightest interest in any of the other
pictures. But this picture filled them with fascination and revulsion.
That was in the summer of 1986. I had just finished my first year as a
student and was just about coming out to myself, let alone anyone else,
as gay. When I did come out in the autumn term, my housemates had a committee
meeting in the kitchen after dinner to decide if they wanted me to move
out of the house, in case they got Aids from me.
So that was my second experience of stigma about HIV, this time directed
at me.
Fairly trivial stuff compared to what was to come when I actually was diagnosed with HIV nine years later, but it sticks in my mind all the same.
