Florida Agenda

KNOXVILLE, TN   – Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield  received more than brunch on Sunday at The Bistro at Bijou restaurant in Knoxville, when the restaurant’s owner refused to serve him because she considers his beliefs to be homophobic.

Martha Boggs, the owner of the restaurant—located, coincidentally, on Gay Street—had heard a radio interview with Campfield in which the lawmaker made what she considered to be disparaging remarks about homosexuality.

Campfield, who recently sponsored legislation requiring elementary and middle schools to teach only heterosexually-based sex education, told ABC News that he was taken completely by surprise by Boggs’ actions. “We were just standing there waiting for a table, and this woman came up to me saying ‘I’m not serving you, I’m not serving you, you hate gay people,’” Campfield said. “‘I said ma’am I’m not a homophobe,’ and I offered to send her links from the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Web site to back up what I said about homosexuality being a dangerous lifestyle, and being a risky behavior.”

The CDC links that Campfield referred to include statistics from 2008 data which indicate that 54 percent of HIV cases diagnosed that year were from same sex contact among males, while 32 percent was contracted from heterosexual sexual contact. The data did not address female homosexual sex.

Campfield, however, was not as thorough during the radio interview, claiming that it is “virtually impossible” to contract HIV or AIDS through heterosexual behavior.

“My understanding is that it is virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex,” Campfield said.

Boggs said she has no regrets, despite some local backlash. “It was one of those spur of the moment things. I didn’t think about what I was doing, but all I did was look at his smug face, and told myself I do not want to serve him. His comments have gone from stupid to dangerous and I think someone needs to stand up to him,” Boggs told ABC News. “I think Mr. Campfield is a bully, so I just stood up to a bully.”

By Bob Kecskemety

Pride Pharmacy and Midland Medical in Fort Lauderdale pride themselves on providing a one-stop location dedicated to your good health. Midland Medical specializes in men’s health, including diagnostics with on-site labs, and HIV specialties, in addition to being AAHIVM-certified.

Pride Pharmacy is a specialty pharmacy that also provides free delivery to its customers. Co-owners Greg West and Steven Levin hope local residents will find all the medical services they need under one, convenient roof at 2701 E Oakland Park Boulevard, sharing the same strip mall as Lips Cabaret.

West is a co-owner, but he does more than just sit behind a desk. He also helps out in the pharmacy and works as patient liaison and advocate. “If anybody has a problem,” West said, “they come to me and I try to straighten out their problems.” West  also has been known to deliver prescriptions to customers.

West noted that Pride Pharmacy is not 100% gay-owned and operated: there is a mix of gay and straight principals. “But with a name like ‘Pride Pharmacy’, we would have to be very gay-friendly,” he added.

The price of prescription drugs is always of concern to customer, and West says that he and staff are sensitive to economic realities, and make every effort to keep prices for prescription medications as low as possible. “We’re here to help the community,” said West. “We are very much aware of other pharmacies’ prices on meds, and are very competitively priced. You won’t find medications priced higher here, and we will try everything we can to be less.”

West said that Pride Pharmacy uses co-pay cards to cover a patient’s co-pay drug expenses. This could save customers potentially hundreds of dollars a month. Some save as much as four or five hundred dollars monthly. West explained that by not being a chain pharmacy, they have the flexibility to adjust without corporate oversight from hundreds of miles away.

Through the door in the waiting area of Pride Medical is Midland Medical, a state-of-the-art medical clinic with the ability to serve most patients’ examination needs. Midland is a one-stop clinic for diagnostic, medical, lab, and chiropractic services, as well as immunizations, prosthetics, boosters, Botox, and much more.

“The one thing I really love about Midland Medical,” said West, “is the personalized service. The doctors actually know
your name.”

West explained that Midland is not an assembly line doctor’s office. Patients will experience a different approach to their medical needs. “This is not the sort of practice where you take a number, have a seat, be directed to the first room, and spend five minutes with a nurse, be directed to a second room, wait another ten minutes with a nurse, then be directed to the third
room where you actually see a doctor for about two minutes.”

“We are compassionate with our patients,” said Anetha Jones, the practice’s head medical assistant. “We personally sit down and consult with our patients. Sometimes we feed them, or bring them food, whatever it takes to make our patients happy and healthy.”

At Midland, West said, patients are seen by a doctor in a straightforward manner, and given their diagnosis “in plain English, not ‘doctor-eze,’ so the patient understands what the doctor is saying without a lot of medical jargon,” West added.

Trudy Zengler, Midland’s office manager, said that Midland is the most caring medical facility she has ever seen. “Everybody  here really cares about the patients. The patients are family,” she said. “I think we put forth the effort to make sure our patients are taken care of and provide the best  care we can.”

Zengler has firsthand knowledge of Midland’s care and practices from an outsider’s perspective. Prior to her employment, she owned a medical billing company, which gave her the opportunity to interface with the operations of many medical facilities, and Midland was a client of Zengler’s company. That changed in 2009 when Zengler was hired to work at Midland.

Zengler and the rest of the staff are well acquainted with West’s mantra about customer service. “Customer service is our top priority at both Pride Pharmacy and Midland Medical,” said West. “We are not your typical pharmacy. We are not your typical doctor’s office. We also have a very high ratio of keeping people healthy and
out of the hospital.”

West explained that recently he spent four hours helping a patient navigate his way through some insurance-related matters. The patient was talked out of his previous insurance plan by the insurance company’s representative. But his new insurance plan didn’t cover the cost of medication. The patient’s medicine bill was close to $3,000 a month.

“He couldn’t afford that. Who can?” sympathized West. “It took about four hours, but we got him back on his original insurance policy. We go out of our way to help people.”

Pride Pharmacy has been open for three years, and has Monday through Saturday business hours. Midland Medical has  been in operation for almost six years, and
is currently open from Tuesday through Saturday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Broward House, Broward County’s oldest and largest HIV/AIDS service organizations, hosted its annual “Hope’s Heroes” awards ceremony and luncheon on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Dapur Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. The event was held to induct the newest class of the honorees, those businesses and individuals who the service organization says “have gone above and beyond in their community to help those living with HIV/AIDS.”

Honorees included: John Zieba and Cliff Mulcahy of Rosie’s Bar and Grill; Karen Caroll and Julie Slater of Chic Optique; Drew Miller and Kevin Murdoch of the GLBX; Marc Silverstone of Equilibrium Events and “A Toy’s Story;” attorney and publisher Norm Kent; the Leather Men’s Brotherhood; and Hotspots Media Group.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – The Broward Sheriff’s Office has made a $10,000 donation to a start teen suicide prevention hotline run by Broward House. The money was donated from the Department’s Law Enforcement Trust Funds to support at-risk youth. Money from the fund comes from seized property that was used in criminal acts and the grants are controlled by governing bodies for the police agencies that acquire the property.

The gift to Broward House must still be approved by the Broward County Commission. Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti does not think that County Commissioners’ approval will be a problem.

Broward House, a 23-year old organization that serves more than 6,000 people who are living with HIV/AIDS, said they hope to have the help line operating by mid-January.

Ellis: “When you read stories about kids who have been thrown out on the street by their parents, or their church, or have been bullied at school because of their lifestyle, it is difficult not to be extremely touched.”

By Cliff Dunn

On Friday, December 30, the Gamma Mu Foundation kicks off three days of New Year’s events in Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale. Called HEAT 12, the weekend is the non-profit organization’s major yearly fundraising effort.

The weekend events are open to both Foundation members and those who want to contribute financially to the organization’s ongoing philanthropic efforts. As described in the Gammu Mu Foundation’s Mission Statement, these efforts are aimed at establishing “… a perpetual, philanthropic fund to provide financial assistance for the health, enhancement, and pride of our community.”

The Gamma Mu Foundation was organized to endow financial grants to organizations and individuals, mostly in rural America, to make direct assistance available to people with HIV/AIDS. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization under the rules of the IRS Code.

Its genesis as a charitable institution began in 1989, when members of the private Gamma Mu Fraternity established the separate Gamma Mu Foundation to support many of the unmet needs of the gay community on a nationwide, ongoing basis. Initially, the projects of the Foundation were funded by the original Board of Directors, but from its inception, the group’s intention has been to build that seed-support through the contributions of its members, as well as their friends and associates, and those who are looking to aid in the group’s ongoing efforts.

Says Foundation board member John Ellis II, “Once I joined the social side of Gamma Mu, I realized how the ongoing work the Foundation blended with my desire to work within our community to help the Foundation grow.”

Like other board and Foundation members, Ellis recalls his skills as a successful businessman dovetailed well with the non-profit’s needs for experts to take part in the way the funding for the Grants and Scholarships is utilized.

The Foundation bestows its largesse in a number of ways. According to the non-profit’s Web site, these include awarding grants to 501(c)(3)’s working in America’s rural HIV/AIDS environment, providing graduate-level scholarships to college and university students whose degree programs have a positive influence on LGBT-acceptance in the community-at-large, conducting fundraising events across the U.S. (such as next weekend’s HEAT 12 in Greater Fort Lauderdale) -  and providing both the means and know-how to establish outright, annual, and memorial gifts, and planned giving through wills, charitable trusts, and life insurance assignments.

Those benefiting from Foundation programs include persons with HIV/AIDS (PWA’s) and their families. Starting in 1999, the Foundation expanded its policies to include grants for programs other than HIV/AIDS. These include the awarding of undergraduate and advance degree scholarships to gay men as well as grants to organizations meeting special needs within LGBT groups that include youths, seniors, and victims of domestic violence.

The Foundation also provides funding through research and public education grants with the goal of making the world a better place for everyone, without regard to a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

In all cases, the Foundation looks to make grants to organizations located in rural areas where the need is great and the resources are often very limited. To date, the Foundation has awarded over $1,500,000 to more than 100 organizations: over 90% of these awards have been in rural areas.

Says board member Ellis, “To my knowledge we are among very few organizations giving grants to rural HIV/AIDS support groups in this manner.”

Grants and scholarships are bestowed annually by the Foundation based upon a formal application and approval process. Only organizations and individuals in the United States are eligible for Gamma Mu Foundation financial assistance. All groups qualifying for Gamma Mu Foundation assistance must currently qualify as 501(c)3 charitable organizations as defined by the IRS. With the exception of scholarships, Gamma Mu Foundation does not make financial assistance grants to individuals.

Even at a time when Americans routinely contribute 2% of our annual gross domestic product to charitable and non-profit organizations – in excess of $175 billion annually – there is always a need for the assistance of other benefactors to support the Foundation’s goals.

“Our requests for grants far exceed the funds available on a yearly basis,” Ellis notes. “The scholarship requests also way outnumber the available funds. The grants and scholarships we do fund are well deserving and very effective in their communities.”

Ellis says that the grant and scholarship requests are read by a large group of volunteers, who use a one-to-ten scale to score each individual application, based upon a range of criteria. At the conclusion of that process, the results are compiled and winners selected at the Foundation’s annual meeting.

“Those of us who are ‘readers’ feel that the process is awakening,” emphasizes Ellis. “At the conclusion, we really have a sense of contributing to the community and a certain understanding of how much need there is for what we do.”
Ellis and his fellow “readers” say that the scholarship review process can be especially emotional times. The scholarship requests from individual students background information such as school records, but also there are also stories about the personal experiences of the applicants, which include in numerous instances tales of bullying and family rejection.

Notes Ellis: “We focus on selecting the students who are scholastically able to succeed, but there is no question that when you read stories about kids who have been thrown out on the street by their parents, or their church, or have been bullied at school because of their lifestyle, it is difficult not to be extremely touched.”

New Year’s weekend promises to be an entertaining time for the Florida members of the Foundation, who are hosting their fellows from across the country.

The kick-off event on December 30, “Manor Sizzle,” is a three-hour post-work-week casual mixer at The Manor Restaurant and Nightclub Complex in Wilton Manors, hosted by entertainer Joe Posa as “Joan Rivers,” followed on Saturday night with their New Year’s Eve 16th Annual Tropics Ball and Casino Royale fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, and Sunday’s “Wake Up Bloodies-Plus” Brunch at the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

Reflecting upon the work of the Gamma Mu Foundation, and its founder, Cliff Pettit, Ellis says that in addition to a sense of accomplishment, his membership in the organization has paid dividends of a different nature.

“When I joined Gamma Mu I, had just retired from a corporate position, and found myself with a lot of time available,” recalls Ellis.

“The first benefit was being able to meet new people and develop new friendships, many outside of Florida. Being active in the Foundation has increased that number of friends manifold, and I have been able to work on and build upon something I truly believe in.”

For more information about the Gamma Mu Foundation and HEAT 12,  visit  www.gammamufoundation.org.

By Nicholas Snow

How many friends have I lost to AIDS

?  How many ACT-UP protests have included my voice?  How many safer sex discussions have I participated in?  How many counseling sessions, self-help seminars and 12-step meetings have I attended?  How many times have I, as a columnist, radio personality and television host shared the wisdom garnered from such experiences with those who would read, listen or watch?  And most importantly, how many friends have I lost to AIDS?

The answer to each of these questions is “Countless!,” but clearly not enough to prevent me, in a collision of passion, depression, denial and poor judgment, from contracting HIV in August of 2007.  In many interviews since I have stated, “I became HIV positive decades into the AIDS epidemic, completely armed with the knowledge to protect myself.  It’s still a bit shocking to me.”

Three years after exposure I began taking antiretroviral medications.  My side-effects are vivid dreams and a spike in my cholesterol which may be treated soon with additional medication.  As far as HIV is concerned, I have had no other noticeable health consequences with the exception of the terrible, lasting, flu-like illness that occurred weeks after my exposure, one that left me sitting face to face with an infectious disease specialist in a Bangkok hospital who said, “Your symptoms could be the result of recent acute HIV infection.”  What?!?!

I played dumb.  I did not share that I had recently had unprotected sex.  I left with a scheduled follow-up appointment I never showed up for.  About five months later, on January 3rd, 2008, I confirmed my HIV status at an anonymous testing site, a New Year’s resolution of sorts.  I still could not believe this had happened to me.  In the coming months, I wanted to die, and unlike previous depressions (periodic because of life circumstances, nothing chronic), I actually looked up on the internet painless means of suicide.

I had to ask myself the question most likely going through your head right now.  Why, knowing what I know with the life experience that I have, would I consciously (and while sober, eight years-plus at that point, thank you) participate in unsafe sex?  I have come up with these answers:  1) I was with someone who said and believed he was HIV negative; 2) I was depressed; 3) I did not know (or had conveniently suppressed) how high the incidence of HIV was in the city in which I was residing; and 4) I had a false sense of security because I had remained negative so far into the epidemic.  NONE of these reasons are good reasons, but they are human reasons.

Before I could go public about my status to hopefully prevent others from following in my footsteps, I needed to tell my mom, step-dad, family and close friends.  On October 1st, 2008, I came out to my mother as being HIV positive.  She was very loving in her response.   Here is a journal entry from that day:

“Wow.  I had done it!  The most important part of my journey was over.  I had told my mother, and in telling her, I realized that she is the most important person in my world, the person I love the absolute most, and I am so grateful, and on the verge of tears as I write this, that she is my mother.  She has done the best she could and she didn’t’ do all that bad.”

On March 17th, 2009—the morning after a spectacular conversation with my mom and step-dad on the occasion of their 32nd wedding anniversary—as the result of an error during an outpatient laboratory test, seemingly almost as suddenly as I am telling you, my mother died.

For about two years, from April 2008 to April 2010, I kept a journal that I will be turning into a book, entitled Life Positive—A Journey from the Center of my Heart.  A bit part of this story is the creation of The Power To Be Strong HIV Testing/Safer Sex Song & Music Video Campaign, and I invite you to download MP3 for free at www.SnowbizNow.com.

What can one say?  I endeavor to rise above pride and ego.  HIV empowered me to do this with my mother.  I will cherish her memory forever, and dedicate each day of my life to more healing.­­­­

Follow Nicholas Snow online at  www.Facebook.com/SnowbizNow, www.Twitter.com/SnowbizNow, and at www.SnowbizNow.com. Follow “The Power To Be Strong” HIV Testing / Safer Sex Awareness Campaign at www.Facebook.com/PowerToBeStrong.

Photo: Dab Garner travels the world bringing awareness to HIV/AIDS and  helping the children living with the  disease.

By BOB KECSKEMETY

Dab Garner, if he didn’t already hold a place in the medical history books, would hold a place in history for the good he does for others.

Now in its 22nd year, Garner is bringing cheer to children suffering with HIV/AIDS during this holiday season through his “Dab the AIDS Bear” project.

In 1982, Garner became friends and godfather to a little girl affected with AIDS. In fact, she was the first little girl born in San Francisco with HIV. The child was an orphan and her mother died shortly after,  then Candice, the little girl, was born. The mother did not know who the father was. To make matters worse, Candice was also born deformed.

Garner himself was diagnosed with HIV earlier in that year on Valentine’s Day and immediately became an activist. He went to the hospital where Candice was being taken care of and noticed how Candice was being cared for in the pediatric AIDS unit.

“It struck me how horrible it was that even the nurses in the ward would not pay attention to this little girl. As you can imagine in the ‘80s, nobody wanted a child with HIV much less a deformed one so my second partner and I became her godparents. Back then, as a gay couple, we couldn’t legally adopt her.”

Garner and his partner shopped all year for Christmas presents for Candice as Christmas was Candice’s favorite holiday.

Candice died when she was 4-1/2 years old in August. At her bedside, Garner promised the dying child that he would make other children like her feel loved and special.

Garner remembered that at the time, there were about a dozen other children with HIV in the San Francisco Bay area, so he and his partner divided up the toys he had already bought Candice and gave those to the other children. He also gave each and every one of them a teddy bear.

This gesture of kindness and caring for others started an organization that has grown exponentially. Garner explained that he started looking for other kids afflicted with HIV and every two years would add another city and added more children to his Christmas list – first Los Angeles; then New York. Twenty-two years later, Garner reaches out to 21 cities, both in the United States and abroad with his special brand of caring and love.

“Candice is the whole reason I do this,” Garner explained, “I’m keeping the promise I made to a dying little girl.”

How is Garner’s health having been diagnosed with GRID (what AIDS was referred to back then) in 1982? Garner is doing fine. He said that according to the National Institute of Health, he’s the third longest living survivor they know of still living with HIV/AIDS. He was also the first person in San Francisco to make it out of hospital quarantine alive.

“Back then,” Garner explained, “there were no privacy laws to keep [AIDS patients’ names] out of the newspapers or anyone from disclosing my HIV status so my name, picture and status were published in the newspaper. I never really had a choice whether I was going to be out concerning my HIV status – it just was. I was raised by parents that taught me to make the best of my situation and to help those less fortunate than myself.”

Garner said that back in 1985, then-President Ronald Regan wouldn’t even mention HIV or AIDS.

“In 1985,” he said, “several of us chained ourselves to the White House to get President Reagan just to say ‘HIV.’” He also explained that he was fortunate enough to work with Elizabeth Taylor and Senator Ted Kennedy to get Ryan White funding started.

Garner moved to South Florida just over a year and a half ago. “I moved down here because South Florida has the highest incidence of new HIV infections in the country,” he said.

Garner also works with the Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County health departments to help with their HIV prevention programs.

“For the most part, it’s been very, very positive,” said Garner when asked how his AIDS Bear project has been accepted.

“I travel the world to about 120 to 150 events a year, speaking at AIDS walks, AIDS rides, HIV conferences , gay prides, women health fairs – just about to anyone who will put me behind a podium to help prevent the spread of HIV while helping those that are already infected.”

When Garner speaks, he tells people to get tested on a regular basis, not only for HIV but for other STDs. He explains that there are now medications to keep people alive. But he warns that it is important to be diagnosed while a person is still healthy because not only does it give you a better chance of living with HIV, but it also allow you to start medication while your T-cell count is higher, the lessening the side effects.

“The other major point I like to make,” said Garner, “is that in Florida and 13 other states, we have a waiting list to get assistance through ADAP (AIDS Drugs Assistance Program). I go to DC once a month and lobby for more funding because we have a waiting list of over 3,000 people in Florida and a total of 9,000 throughout the country. People can help just by picking up the phone or sending an email by contacting the elected officials.”

For more information about Dab Garner and the Dab the AIDS?Bear Project, please visit the website at www.dabtheaidsbearproject.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank announced that he will not seek reelection next year, American Family Association (AFA) spokesman Bryan Fischer decided to celebrate Frank’s retirement by attacking the congressman for being gay.

According to Right Wing Watch, on “Focal Point,” Fischer claimed that Frank may have used his prominent position to “influence” other men into becoming gay who may have later contracted AIDS. “This is a dangerous, risky, immoral, unhealthy lifestyle, and Barney Frank has been an open practitioner of a lifestyle that is condemning one young man after another to an early grave,” Fischer said. “This is not somebody to admire, this is not somebody to honor.” Fischer went on to say that Frank “modeled a lifestyle which is really a death-style,” wondering, “Who knows how many people were drawn or encouraged in some way by Barney Frank’s example to dabble in a lifestyle that eventually cost them their health and maybe even cost them their lives.”

By ANTHONY JOHNSON

Now that December 1st and World AIDS Day has passed, I can rest and reflect on the reason why after almost 17 years of being diagnosed HIV positive, I am able to CELEBRATE it today. It is because many amazing men, women, and children fought the fear and stigma associated with HIV and AIDS by our government and peers. These people, these advocates, these angels have given freely their time, their energy, and their hearts to assure that generations to come would not have to suffer the fate of those who came before. I wish I could list all the names of the men, women, AND children who have fought for my right to live a healthy, happy, productive life. However, there is not enough paper in the world to list all who have fought over the last 30 years nor can any monument do them justice. Their unwavering dedication and courage forced the government and healthcare providers to provide services that helped individuals like me receive care so desperately needed

to survive and thrive. In fact, it is because of these advocates that the state of Florida finally released funds that will assist its residents in acquiring medications that they need to remain healthy and alive.

For the last 30 years, these advocates, these angels have brought communities together all working for the same ultimate goal, a cure for a human disease called HIV. There is no cure as of yet, no magic bullet, but these advocates promote, encourage, and demand that science be allowed to continue research and work towards discovering a vaccine and a cure.

I cannot continue without also saying thank you to the many advocates that are unknown to us who work behind the scene with individuals directly affected by HIV/AIDS in the communities where they live. These are the people, the angels who volunteer their time, give of their heart, and share their love with those who many times are discouraged or dismayed due to stigma and fear. They are indiscriminative and supportive of those who live in the shadow of discrimination and ignorance. These are the people who stand with us, not against us when we walk the street at night on World AIDS Day carrying a candle for those we have lost and for the battle that we are facing ourselves.

These advocates, these friends, these AMAZING ANGELS OF HOPE AND GUIDANCE have been fighting for years to assure that generations to come will have the medications, healthcare, and dignity that is our human right. And although we have come a long way over the last 30 years in achieving this, there is a long way to go and I know that many of these angels have tired and need our help and our support in continuing this fight. This battle will not be over until every HIV positive man, woman, and child has equal access to care and services. This fight will not end until there is a vaccine for HIV and cure for AIDS. Because of this, I have joined in the fight to rid the world of stigma, fear, and discrimination that people living with HIV/AIDS are facing and to advocate for equal care and equal rights for all.

I now ask of you, no CHALLENGE you to join these advocates, our angels and do what you can to help promote, encourage, and assure that the needs of all people living with HIV/AIDS are met. The only way that we as a community, as a nation, as a world can win this battle is by joining together, hand in hand, working with each other, in support of one another.

Once again, to the many advocates, the ANGELS HOPE AND GUIDANCE that fight and have fought for my right and the right of others to live a healthy, happy, productive life, I want to say thank you. Know that I love you for allthat you have done and still do to this day. I will never forget that you are all my ANGELS OF HOPE AND GUIDANCE!

Anthony Johnson

Anthony Johnson is the organizer of BOLT, a group that is HIV centric  but is open to the whole GLBT community. He can be reached by email at  aejtyger243@gmail.com and you can find BOLT?on facebook, twitter and Youtube.

By Nicholas Snow

Whether we like it or not, we’re all going to have one — a cause of death that is. As another World AIDS Day comes and goes, let’s have a reality check, shall we? I’m not writing this column to depress you, but rather to empower you. If you are reading this, you can be sure that you are alive.

You can also be sure that you fall into the first, second and/or third of the following categories:

1) You are HIV positive and you know it; 2) You may be HIV positive but have not been tested recently (or at all); 3) You were HIV negative upon your last test.

I came out of the closet before there was such a thing as an HIV test. The year the test arrived, and for over a quarter century, I was “HIV negative upon my last test,” but all of that changed on January 3, 2008, approximately five months after I became HIV positive because I did not use a condom when I should have. Yes, it took me five months to gain the courage to have the test as a New Year’s resolution.

I had been very good at maintaining safer sex practices for virtually my entire adult life, having turned eighteen years old in 1980. So what changed? Why did I have unsafe sex? 1) I was depressed at the time and not as focused on taking care of myself; 2) I was with a partner who said and believed he was HIV negative; and 3) I had a false sense of security about remaining HIV negative so far into the epidemic.

NONE OF THESE ARE GOOD REASONS for not having used a condom, but they are human reasons.

For millions of people throughout the world who do not have access to antiretroviral medications, HIV is a death sentence. For the tens of thousands of people each year who learn they have HIV not because of a test, but because they became sick with AIDS-related opportunistic infections, HIV is often a death sentence. For the thousands of HIV positive people (or more) who cannot tolerate or develop a resistance to antiretroviral medications for one reason or another, HIV is a death sentence.

This is to all dispel the myth, “If I get HIV, I can just take a pill and everything will be okay.”

So here’s my own newsflash as a result of attending an HIV/AIDS medicine symposium last year—as an HIV positive person, in spite of having access (so far) to some of the most modern antiretroviral medications in the world, I can very well have a shortened lifespan because of HIV.

For those of you who have remained HIV negative, please don’t buy into the myth that should you become positive all you have to do is take a pill and everything will be okay. Play safely. Stay negative!

To give meaning to my own mistake and hopefully prevent you from following in my unsafe sex footsteps, I
created “The Power To Be Strong” HIV Testing/Safer Sex Awareness Campaign, the cornerstone of which is a song with a music video subtitled in 20 languages (including Spanish) at YouTube.com/ThePowerToBeStrong.

But can a song make a difference in people’s lives?

Yes. How many people turn to music in their time of sorrow? How many listen to love songs when they have a broken heart? How many people are inspired by songs such as “The Wind Beneath My Wings?” Now a song exists to address the fears and concerns of someone who may have HIV. Recently I received a message from a Facebook user explaining that only two people In the world know he is HIV positive, and he went on to say: “I listen to your song every morning and it gives me the strength to face my day.”

My gift to you in the homestretch to the New Year as you consider your own resolutions, go online and visit www.SnowbizNow.com, and look for the “Free Song” link in the main menu bar to download “The Power to be Strong.” Remember, “Get Tested and Live Longer and Be Strong!”

I’d like to conclude by sharing one of my favorite quotes from Goethe:  “Whatever you can do or dream you can do, beg in it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it Now!”

SnowBiz Florida Agenda

Follow Nicholas Snow online at  www.Facebook.com/SnowbizNow, www.Twitter.com/SnowbizNow, and at www.SnowbizNow.com. Follow “The Power To Be Strong” HIV Testing/
Safer Sex Awareness Campaign at www.Facebook.com/PowerToBeStrong.