"Children are so used to thinking about Aids and HIV in stereotypical ways. The gay man, the drug user, the African. This continues to breed
prejudice and ignorance. HIV is often still discussed along with being
gay. This has to stop. It must be discussed in the context of sexual health.
It must be normalised to completely remove the stigma, though, as I know,
it is very hard when you have HIV to just BE normal."
How to teach sex and safer sex
Annmarie explains: "We're usually booked by a school as part of a
special day's event on sexual health. I prefer the classroom question-and-answer
sessions."
How explicit can you get in the classroom sessions?
"I discuss my HIV. I stand up and say, 'hello I'm 52, a Catholic
mother of two children. Middle-class, I guess. White - originally from
Zimbabwe. And I have HIV. Don't look anything like an "Aids victim",
do I?' Then I have their attention.
"I try to use ordinary words like 'penis', and 'vagina' but I don't
try to be too trendy. In my experience, kids much prefer to be told things
about sex in a matter-of-fact way. I've seen other speakers trying to
be too 'street' and use words like 'f***ing' and 'cock', and it can embarrass
kids - they end up giggling and not taking in the serious stuff."
Annmarie believes that children should learn the basic facts as early
as possible, not only to encourage them to understand the risks but also
to understand about prejudice.
"I'm all in favour of the new approach to include HIV in the subject
of teenage
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pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections. I've found a lot of teenagers don't really understand much about STIs, or that HIV is more
