Since rising our Voice to Voice review series, we’ve tackled lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature, Black History Month, bullying, Pride and more.
Today, in respect of World AIDS Day, we move a review between West Hollywood legislature members John Duran and John D’Amico, dual of this nation’s unequivocally few HIV certain inaugurated officials. Both lay on a five-member City Council in a 1.9 block mile city of West Hollywood, California.
They sat down progressing this month to discuss about vital with HIV in 2012, a ways in that a illness is opposite and evolving, and their shortcoming to focus a contention and open adult a discourse about rising options for people influenced by HIV.
For some-more World AIDS Day stories and blogs, click here.
John D’Amico: So, this is a review that we’re carrying in respect of World AIDS Day about a fact that we are dual of this Country’s HIV Positive inaugurated officials.
John Duran: Yes. Two out of maybe three. Alright, let’s start with a history. Tell me when we initial got concerned with HIV, a epidemic’s been here for 30 years, so…
JAD: Well, indeed a unequivocally initial memory we have about HIV is sitting on my lounge with my mother, it was 1981 and it was “that†summer and it was what was reported on a news. we had usually graduated from high propagandize and we remember my mom articulate about a happy bar that was around a dilemma from a residence and we don’t remember accurately what she said, nonetheless we remember her restraining AIDS and happy group and a culture.
And what about you? What’s your initial memory?
JD: Well, we was a tiny over high school. When 1981 arrived, we was indeed out in a happy bars in West Hollywood, essentially during Studio One and a Motherload. we was usually entrance into my whole happy sexuality and we started to hear about this bizarre illness that was display adult in New York and San Francisco nonetheless many of us suspicion that usually happens to those unequivocally random guys, not a somewhat random guys here in Los Angeles, nonetheless a unequivocally random guys and we usually didn’t consider that it would ever hold us in Los Angeles.
JAD: But we know in your possess story that we were unequivocally most concerned in what was, maybe, GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) or early AIDS and process and advocacy in a early 80s, right?
JD: Yeah. Well, my crony Scott Fleener, who we used to go to Studio One with, was a initial AIDS genocide [for me] and he died in Jun of 1985. Prior to that, we didn’t know anybody who had died. we was arrange of starting to hear about people that were removing sick, nonetheless it was people that were around my center circle, it wasn’t in my center turn until Scott died and he was a initial of 104 that would die over a subsequent 10 years. And when Scott died, we had never seen death. we had never mislaid a crony or a family member to death. It was a initial time we ever gifted death. And so, it was unequivocally dire and we was during his memorial, and it was an open-casket Catholic service, my twenty-four year aged crony in a box and we did one of those, we know, Tara moments: “With God as my witness, we will get concerned until this thing is over!†Thinking it would be, we know, a year or dual of my life and not thirty years and of my life. How about you?
JAD: Well, we have to contend that we lived with a arrange of miss of alertness around HIV, really. Even, in some way, by my possess HIV test. we was tested a initial and usually time in a summer of 1988. And we remember removing that diagnosis and meditative I usually don’t consider that I’m going to die of this disease.
JD: That’s a large partial of it.
JAD: Which, we think, is a healthy sip of swoon and confidence and so that’s arrange of where it started. And then, it was 7 months after and we went to connoisseur propagandize and we was during a University of Houston and we said, “What do we need to do?†and she said, “Well, we need to do this, and we need to get a T-cell exam and we need to do this, nonetheless we don’t do any of that here. This is a tyro clinic.†And so began my life as an disciple and we said, “Well, I’m a student. You need to start doing it.â€
JD: Wow.
JAD: And we was a initial T-cell exam that a University of Houston hospital ever conducted and after that it became arrange of a vital hospital for people vital with HIV in Houston. And, we know, we consider my story with HIV is tiny and incremental, sized, arrange of, to my celebrity in some way. I’ve always been an disciple and we always trust in holding a right action. we unequivocally trust in action. But, we was never a “get myself arrested, shake a gates of a White House†arrange that we were.
JD: we did that! My early activism, ‘86, was a “No on Prop 64″ campaign. Lyndon LaRouche was proposing putting all HIV certain people in California into camps, in a same camps that they used to inter Japanese Americans during World War II out in San Bernardino, Riverside, in a Central Valley. So, it was unequivocally real. We kick a LaRouche beginning and afterwards shortly afterward we had a National Mar on Washington on Oct 11th, 1987 where ACT UP was born. we afterwards became one of a attorneys for ACT UP in ’87, fortifying people as they got arrested. Over a subsequent few years, my law partners Bruce and Tommy both died in a widespread and we didn’t. I’m still here.
JAD: And vocalization of still here, maybe this is a possibility for us to pronounce about here. Here and now. we mean, this is 2012. It’s a twenty-first century and we know we went to a National AIDS Conference and we have been doing my arrange of meditative about where West Hollywood positions itself.
JD: Right.
JAD: Where we position ourselves as a city in a twenty-first century and as a personality in HIV. we consider from my indicate of view, a city is a tiny stranded around issues of HIV and tarnish and we hold on flattering firmly during a AIDS widespread and we done certain that we did all we could as a city. And now, we think, as we pronounced a while ago during one of your legislature member comments, it’s time for us to focus a tiny and demeanour during a kinds of things that a city competence do since we have, what, 40 percent of a population…..
JD: Right.
JAD: …is happy men. Or happy and bisexual group or transgender men, group who have sex with men, and (approximately) 10 percent of a city is HIV certain and we consider addressing that, creation a city a protected place, a stigma-free place, for people with HIV, we consider starts with us…
JD: Yeah.
JAD: …and maybe finishes with us. And takes a prolonged tour all a approach by everybody who lives here and visits here.
JD: Here’s one of a large challenges: new infections, male-to-male, are on an boost in Los Angeles County even though, we know, we’ve been regulating that [adage] “condoms, condoms, condoms.†So it means re-adjusting strategies and one of a things we and we have been articulate about is formulating a virus-free community.
JAD: Right. Reducing a village viral load.
JD: Right.
JAD: And that comes from removing tested and removing into diagnosis and afterwards adhering and profitable courtesy to a approach in that we take caring of yourself.
JD: Right. Well, that’s it. You have to be compliant. we mean, we’re perplexing to strengthen this message: Get tested. If you’re positive, get on meds. If you’re on meds, get down to undetectable levels and afterwards be agreeable with your medications. But we have this additional conceal called a clear meth epidemic. In West Hollywood, people who are doing meth are not meditative about holding their meds once or twice a day. So then, they’re not means to strech undetectable levels, they build adult insurgency to a drugs that exist and we finish adult with another turn of new infections. There’s some-more that we can do in West Hollywood. Yeah, use a condom, safer sex and get on meds and turn undetectable. But if we can get a community’s viral turn down to undetectable levels, like we say, afterwards that means reduction transmission.
JAD: Right. And we consider there’s some-more that’s about a enlightenment of HIV in a village and perplexing to make West Hollywood a place that’s protected for people with HIV and we consider that competence even be a installed statement, but, we know, we all have seen online people not wanting to be compared with people who are HIV certain or have sex with people who are HIV positive. As prolonged as that exists, we send a summary that it’s something not to pronounce about, it’s something not to be open about and we consider it’s in that silence, once again we lapse to a same embellishment that overpower equals death, and it might not be genocide nonetheless it’s a means that does not get attended to and that means is holding caring of ourselves, holding caring of a community. And we consider a village is incomparable than usually a gay, bisexual, transgender, people who live here in West Hollywood. You know, what is it, 200,000 people revisit West Hollywood any week?
JD: Right.
JAD: That’s a lot of people that come by here and we could have an effect. We could take assign of a village account around HIV.
JD: Well, West Hollywood is one of a red prohibited zones of a epidemic. we mean, when we were gripping lane of AIDS deaths, West Hollywood was a large red dot in a center of Los Angeles County, along with South Central.
JAD: And that’s still a case. If we demeanour during a LA County statistics, we unequivocally see that it’s right here. And it’s both a people who live here in West Hollywood and a surrounding neighborhoods, nonetheless it’s also a people who expostulate here to go to a bars and clubs and spend an hour, or a weekend, and we consider that’s where some of a flourishing corner is. Learning to promulgate that West Hollywood takes severely HIV and our, arrange of, twenty-first century devise for shortening a viral bucket in a village and creation stigma-free associations for those of us, like we and me, who are out in a village and for everybody who visits.
JD: Yeah. Let’s pronounce about that tarnish for a second since that’s a unequivocally critical thing. So, out of a hook-up sites around West Hollywood: Grindr, Adam-for-Adam, we know, a several hook-up sites, there will be people who say: HIV negative: we be, too. And, we know, when we confront some of these guys and say, is that your screening device? You usually assume that someone you’re about to rivet in infrequent sex with is 1) going to be honest or 2) knows his standing and that’s going to be your screening device before we confirm either or not you’re going to be barebacking with someone that you’re usually assembly online for a initial time?
JAD: Right. Right.
JD: You know, we can’t tell we a series of guys who have used that as their filter who are now positive. Okay? Or other guys who start dating somebody and trust that they are in a monogamous attribute and therefore can now do, can desert a condoms and they finish adult positive, too, since of some bad preference making. So, it’s not a foolproof screening device and nonetheless what happens is guys who are certain turn stigmatized as a other. You know?
JAD: Right.
JD: And a usually foolproof 100 percent [solution] is personal shortcoming for any particular either we are a disastrous or a positive. You know, for a disastrous chairman it means practicing protected sex 100 percent of a time until we are positively certain that we are in a devoted attribute where there is monogamy and afterwards if we confirm to bareback, afterwards that’s your choice.
JAD: Right. Actually, when people ask me about that, we always contend it’s a 30-30-30-30 rule: that if we accommodate someone and you’re carrying sex in 30 minutes, we should substantially use condoms. Right? And if it’s 30 hours later, maybe we know their HIV status.
JD: Or their final name.
JAD: Yeah. And if it’s 30 days later, maybe we both went and had a exam together.
JD: Right.
JAD: And if it’s 30 months later, we flattering most have it down.
JD: Yeah.
JAD: And for me, we mean, I’ve been in a attribute for 20 years with my husband. We’re both HIV positive. We have a sex life that is unequivocally unchanging with who we are and what is going on with us. But we consider there’s never adequate opportunity, or opportunities taken, for dual people who are HIV disastrous to have a life in that they don’t use condoms. And we know that goes on. Of march it does. And if we’re articulate about marriage, for real, opposite America, we mean, we can’t say: we need to be suspicion of as equal and we need to be means to get married nonetheless we still are not equal since we have to use condoms by a possess marriage. we mean, that’s like a damaged guarantee to happy group opposite a country. And we consider that’s a kind of thing that starts here in West Hollywood since we have to have a most deeper, richer set of conversations around when people are regulating condoms now, since we know that people don’t use condoms 100% of a time.
JD: Right.
JAD: Some people do. The immeasurable infancy doesn’t. But we also don’t emanate any space for people who don’t wish to.
JD: Right.
JAD: There’s PReP and PEP, post-exposure treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis, and we need to have those conversations. We need to make space for people to live their lives and we consider until we describe manifest all a opportunities, all a ways in that HIV disastrous people can take caring of themselves and all a ways in that HIV certain people can take caring of themselves and a village can take caring of itself, we consider we’re unequivocally not carrying a whole conversation. And it is 2012, it’s not 1996. You know, David Ho altered a universe in 1996 and we need David Ho 2.0. The universe has deconstructed itself and so has AIDS, so has HIV and people will find themselves during opposite places around a continuum during opposite times in their lives and we need to learn to contend that’s OK.
JD: Right. we consider a question, too, for HIV certain people like us is when to disclose. Right?
JAD: Oh. For sure.
JD: I’m dating. Whatever that means. And so, we know, perplexing to figure out when we divulge my HIV standing and underneath what resources is always a plea for those of us that are out there and positive. You know, we know, for example, that low kissing is not a approach to broadcast HIV. But once we get into intercourse, and retort is tangible as vaginal or anal intercourse, good that’s where risk factors go adult by a roof and disclosures have to happen. And so we consider that’s partial of it, too, we know, a positives holding shortcoming for disclosing and underneath what circumstances. But we consider what’s unequivocally critical is that we live in a burble in West Hollywood. Right?
JAD: Mmhmm.
JD: And we and we are carrying a straightforward review right now about tellurian sexuality and HIV nonetheless if we leave West Hollywood and we conduct into a superficial areas of larger Los Angeles or Orange or Ventura Counties, these conversations turn unequivocally different. And, we know, since I’m a rapist invulnerability lawyer, a criminalization of HIV does cocktail adult from time to time in a courts. And I’ve had to come out as an HIV certain chairman to prosecutors and judges who have unequivocally tiny to no information about HIV and a transmissibility, even today. And that’s one of a things we consider that, as inaugurated officials, that we’re called on to do from time to time, is teach other inaugurated who are creation process around HIV and AIDS and are still relying on contribution or justification or assumptions from 10 or fifteen or twenty years ago.
And we do consider that we, and a calculations, and a confidence that we pronounce about, that we are in a final chapters of HIV. It will be 5 years, 10 years, fifteen years, we don’t know. It’s within reach.
JAD: we consider so.
JD: And that’s a initial time that I’ve been means to contend that, and it’s not usually me observant it, nonetheless a International Conference on AIDS is observant it, tip scientists are observant it. The light during a finish of a hovel is not a sight entrance during us to strike us. It’s indeed a light during a finish of a hovel to finally get out of a epidemic.
JAD: Right. And we consider what we can do as inaugurated officials in West Hollywood is we can re-think this for a city: how a amicable services are delivered in terms of people vital with HIV, how we aim impediment messages, how we work with a county partners and a state partners and a sovereign partners around what happens here in West Hollywood as a prohibited spot. And we consider that’s a charge, John. You and I. We need to do that and I’m certain a colleagues will follow us if we ask. And we consider we’re going to ask since it’s clearly critical that we uncover some leadership. And some of that care is to acknowledge that a illness is different, and to acknowledge that West Hollywood is still an epicenter, maybe now some-more than ever, and that we can have a genuine outcome if we take some action.
JD: That’s a challenge.
JAD: Anything else we need to say? Oh, we were going to ask other HIV certain inaugurated officials to give us a call — confidentially or publicly.
JD: Right.
JAD: Right. Right on. Thanks, John.
JD: Thanks, John.