Do you ever think of AIDS?

[KillerMuffin]

Do you ever think you'll get it? Someone you know? Or is it one of those things that only the elusive THOSE people get? Honestly. When you have sex with someone outside of a monogamous relationship, do you ever think that you just might be getting AIDS from them? Do you see it as a threat or a plague or is it something else for you? When was the last time you thought about it?

 

[lavender]

 

[Valdimer]

Each and every time I dont use a condom........

 

[Starfish]

Yes, I've thought of it very clearly...

That is why I don't have sex outside of my marriage. I have only had sex with a handful of people, and havn't gotten it, so thankfully I won't unless he goes out and gets it.

Very scary disease.

When I watched 'And the Band Played On'.... That HBO Special Movie (I think), from a long time ago, I decided that sex wasn't worth AIDS.

 

[Ravenloft]

I have only neglectic using a condom twice, and that was more than 5 years ago... So... I think I am safe... But yeah... When I was stupid enough to forget I was chewing nails thinking about it... I hated that. There as a pregnancy scare for a time as well, that was even more frightening when I was 18... But now... God... I long for it... What a diference 6 years makes... From 18 and "I hope to fucking christ she ain't pregnant" To 24 "Just give me that FUCKING chance!!! MMMM!"

 

[JenJ]

I think about it all the time because somebody new comes down with HIV and AIDS each and everyday and there is the fight to find the cure for it.

 

[samadhi]

Actually, it's interesting that you brought this up, I was just drafting a rambling journal entry about AIDS.

I received a call this week from my best friend/former lover. She told me that the man she slept with after she left me just notified her that he has full blown AIDS. Apparently he was HIV positive when they were together and never knew it.

As awful as it sounds, I really did consider this disease something that 'other' people got. I have always been 'safe' with sexual encounters with my life (condoms and the like), but that was more with an eye towards pregnancy than THE virus. Issues concerning AIDS have never really directly impacted my life before. I have done the obligatory red ribbon 10-K etc. etc. but it was never REAL before now. I feel my eyes have been opened, and the problem has suddenly become live action and 3D...and for the first time, I am frightened.

I'm not really afraid for my own health, in this case I was not exposed to the virus (although to be honest I must admit that the thought of other encounters does tug at the back of my mind), but it's more that I am seeing the impact, physical and emotional, that this disease has. This announcement has sent a shock wave through this man's family, to my friend, through her family, to me...and it goes on and on and on.

Has anyone out there seen the movie 'Jeffrey'? It's a funny/romantic story of a gay man who gives up sex because he is afraid of AIDS. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

AIDS has changed and will continue to change the way we think about / pursue sexual relationships. I wonder what will happen in the coming years...how the disease will spread or be stopped...and what the future really is for our current wet and wild biologically intermingling version of sex.

 

[nasty]

NOPE

Han't had sex, so I don't need to think about it. Although, even if I had sex, I wouldn't worry about it, because I like to know the person I'm fucking before we fuck.

 

[cymbidia]

I think about it, have thought about it, quite alot.

I taught sex ed to 8th graders, as some know, for years and AIDS info was part of what i taught them. That kept it pretty fresh in my mind.

Additionally, my home (when i'm not stuck in WA as i am now and for the next year) is in the San Franciso Bay area, a place that has a really high per capita population with AIDS and ARC. My small community to the north of San Francisco proper has once of the very highest per capita populations with AIDS in the entire United States. We heard a lot about it in my small town, in my little county.

Finally, i have sexual relationships. I never begin the actual active part of the sexuality until all the testing is done and we have thoroughly discussed our respective histories. However, even with such caution, there's always some possibility of disease transmission *especially* with the kinds of sexual play in which i engage.

So, yes, i think about it and i am cautious but i don't dwell on the possibility of contracting AIDS.

One has to live her life amid all the concern and fear and rampant fleeing what-might-be. One has to find and hold pleasures and joys, one of which is found in the sexuality that flows between two well-matched people.

I'm not going to give up being sexual because of what might be lurking out there. I'll continue being careful, but i'm not running scared and i'm not giving it up.

 

[bluntforcemama]

I think about it quite a bit. But mostly in medical terms... it's an interesting virus to study, and I hope one day we can destroy it.

 

[Angelus]

Oh hell yeah, of course I think about it. It is a damn nasty virus and I've actually had a good friend die from it, it was so nasty I actually broke down because of it. So whenever I go to have sex and almost forget to put a condom on I remember my friend and put the damn thing on.

 

[CRaZy]

My poem HIV+ was actually written years ago as a eulogy for a gay friend who died of AIDS. He was my friend in high school and through university. We were Communists together and I miss him every day. I was a careless girl until my friend's death and indeed, I have to say it was mostly the guys with whom I was involved who urged caution. I hate condoms, have never used them and have obviously been far more fortunate than I deserved. I have never caught anything.

I was watching a doco the other day about the devastating effect AIDS has had in Africa. It was heartbreaking to watch mothers with AIDS breastfeeding their already infected babies. An AIDS counsellor was being interviewed about her work. She said that these people are worried about where their next bowl of rice will come from. They worry that the cow which ploughs their fields might die next week. They don't care about a disease which might kill them two years from now. It certainly puts things in perspective doesn't it? We lead relatively affluent lives and we take risks. The people in Africa don't even have the luxury of knowing about that risk in most cases. Even if they do, there are concerns which are far greater than dying from AIDS.

They are presently testing an antivenene. It was just released this week. Let's hope the doctors and scientists have success.

 

[CW]

Think about it ? ,,, sure

Think I'll get it? ,,, I certainly hope not

Is it a disease for "those others"? ,,, nope, it's potentially a disease for all of us

Know someone that has/had it? ,,, yeppers,,, five friends actually,,, four are dead and one is dying

See it as a threat or a plague? ,,, Yes it is,,, both.

 

[Vivid Blossom]

Yes

I think about it all the time -- my 27 year old son is gay and I worry every day that he is not being as careful as he should be. It scares me to death.

 

[Bluenose]

yes

Think about it all the time. Being a nurse you look after people with it and worry that you will stick yourself with a dirty needle.

 

[Cirrus]

Oh boy yes I have. I went through a period in my late teens/early twenties when I wasn't exactly promiscuous by most people's definition but I wasn't as choosy or careful as I should have been. I ended up hooking up with a guy who I later found out had over 60 sex partners and had, to the best of the knowledge of the person that told me, never been tested. So I got tested. For everything. I wasn't so much worried about gonorrhea, chlymidia, or even syphillis, I was worried about the HIV test. That was the worst 10 days of my life, waiting for that to come back. It was negative, thank god, but I learned my lesson.