Reflections on World AIDS Day

Today was World AIDS Day and it caused me to reflect on my own experiences in the early days of the AIDS crisis.  The younger generations grew up in a kinder gentler time where HIV has become a manageable condition rather than the death sentence it once was.  I remember well the days when health care providers wouldn't even go in the hospital rooms of AIDS patients; when local organizations and the gay community had to raise funds and rally volunteers to help care for people living with and dying from AIDS and its various opportunistic infections.  I remember the housing provided to AIDS patients strategically placed in covert locations so no one would know where they were.  I remember buddy programs where people volunteered to help care for people who couldn't care for themselves.  I remember the benefit shows put on in local bars and clubs to help raise what little money we could for the cause.  I remember the stone cold silence from the Reagan administration who did nothing because no one cared about the gays who were dying, when it was known solely as a gay disease.  I remember the pious religious leaders preaching that AIDS was God's punishment on gays and that those who contracted the disease deserved to die.  I remember it taking a little boy named Ryan White to call national attention to and put a mainstream face on the AIDS crisis.  I remember the Names Project and the quilt that stitched together a community.  And most of all I remember the friends and acquaintances lost to this horrible disease, often alone having been disowned by their families and friends; often the only human contact they would have would be that of the tireless volunteers that acted as friends and companions.  I especially remember one dear friend, Mark, who I was lucky to have gotten to know through performing.  I remember spending time with him when he felt so ill and couldn't keep anything down.  His ultimate death left a hole in my heart that remains to this day.  I still carry the worn old small prayer card from his funeral in my wallet and think of him often.  Today we have it easier.  Thanks to advances in medicine and pharmaceuticals HIV has become more manageable, similar to diabetes.  Awareness in this country remains high though there are still populations that remain at great risk of infection.  Medications, while effective, can be prohibitively expensive and it is only through the help of insurance and non-profit organizations that people can afford them.  I believe we are close to a vaccine that would do for HIV what the polio vaccine did for polio.  I can only hope and pray that one day this disease will be a distant memory, but until this happens I ask that you remember!  Remember what it was once like.  Remember those we've lost.  Remember the forgotten souls who died alone.  Remember lest we never repeat our mistakes in the future.  December 1st is a day that we're called to remember.  Thanks for remembering!