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.