STANDing Against AIDS

Shayla Pierce
SisterLove, Inc.
Bridge Leadership Program Assistant
September, 2008

The STAND Against AIDS rallies in Oxford, Mississippi were conducted by the Campaign to End AIDS organization in September, 2008. The Campaign to End AIDS, better known by its acronym, C2EA, is a coalition of HIV advocates who are dedicated to informing their political leaders about HIV and demanding action to end the epidemic. C2EA held the STAND Against AIDS rallies in conjunction with the first presidential debates that took place at the University of Mississippi. The intent of the organizers and the participants was to demand from the nation’s next president, whomever he may be, that a national AIDS strategy be formulated within his first one hundred days in office.

During the first day of the Atlanta caravan, the participants traveled to Oxford, Mississippi by way of Birmingham, Alabama, where they took part in a church organized rally led by Kathy Heirs of AID Alabama. Here, everyone expressed their individual concerns about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, in an activity called “Message in a Bottle”. Each participant was given a slip of paper where they were asked to write their name, as well as, three key points that they would like to be added to the national AIDS strategy. Each slip was then placed inside bottles bearing the C2EA logo, to be reviewed later. Some participants chose to vocally express the things that they would like to be added to the AIDS strategy. More affordable housing and more accessible health care, two of the main concerns throughout the rallies, were noted. Most remarkably, however, was a comment from 22 year old “Queen”, infected since birth, who remarked that see wanted, most simply, “a cure”. The caravan then left Birmingham, Alabama for Oxford, Mississippi where each group retired for the evening.

The next day, Wednesday the 24th, eight different caravans from cities that included Dallas, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee, and even a walking caravan that traveled 172 miles from Jackson, Mississippi by foot, gathered together in the town square of Oxford for a rally to promote their cause of a national AIDS plan and to garner media attention and attention from the public. It was here that participants took part in a brief media training session. If asked a question by a journalist, participants were encouraged to emphasize the intent of the demonstration: to demand from the next president that a national strategy to end AIDS be put into action within his first one hundred days of office. If they were to be asked a question that they did not feel comfortable answering, demonstrators were instructed to direct the interviewer to consult either the Campaign to End AIDS or the Center of Disease Control websites.

Next, a passionate rally, lead by the dynamic Dazon Dixon Diallo, of SisterLove, Inc was conducted. Participants stood on the town hall steps, holding the state flags of their hometowns. This was representative of the nationwide presence of the epidemic, and how the disease has permeated throughout every corner of the United States; visual testimony to the necessity of the immediate development of a national AIDS plan. The demonstrators enjoyed the speeches of several different emphatic speakers. Most notably were a poem about the HIV epidemic by Brandon Plain entitled, “Reflections” and a riveting civil rights narrative from “Larry” who compared the Campaign to End AIDS rally to James Meredith’s triumph infiltration of the notoriously segregated “Ole Miss” in the 1960s. The crowd was most moved, however, by the testimony of “Lisa” who stood heroically in front of the podium and spoke of her experience with HIV, despite being diagnosed only thirty days before. Throughout the rally, demonstrators fervently cried out chants of “End AIDS Now!”, “Ring the alarm! It is and emergency!”, and the organizations acronym “C2EA!” The rally was covered by local FOX and CBS news.

Later in the day, about 20 or so women gathered for the southern women’s caucus, also facilitated by Dazon Dixon Diallo. Here, participants were asked to briefly give a summary of their experiences with HIV/AIDS and to talk about some of the problems that face southern women in regards to HIV/AIDS. Five common problems arose. They included the stigma of the disease, lack of sex education in schools due to conservative southern attitudes, problems within romantic relationships like violence and dependence, a lack of attention to lesbian and elderly women’s issues in regards to HIV and a wealth of economic problems, like health care and housing.

The following day, the participants convened at a local camp to further discuss, more intimately, the problems that they face with the disease, with society, and with the government. To do so, participants dispersed into different affinity groups. The affinity groups divided into two sessions, one morning and one afternoon, and each was given its own facilitator. Here, participants were encouraged to talk about the problems that were unique to their own social group. The affinity groups included women and girls, heterosexual men, men who have sex with men, youth, African American, risk reduction, post-incarcerated, discordant couples, and fifty plus. Afterwards, the affinity groups dispersed and gathered collectively to talk about the problems they discussed. While each group listed several problems that were inherently theirs, most of the problems were universal. Most, if not all of the groups sited stigma, lack of education, feelings of being ignored, discrimination, and lack of funding as problems within the HIV/AIDS community that need to be addressed immediately. There was one common theme throughout the week that continued to arise, however, and that was health care. At every event and activity, everyone expressed a dramatic concern about the lack of health care, clinics, and treatments for HIV/AIDS patients. People sited that either health care was not affordable, inaccessible, not efficient, or nonexistent. Most devastatingly, however, was learning that in Mississippi, the very state that we were demonstrating in, fifty percent of those infected with HIV or AIDS were not receiving any type of treatment.

On Friday the 26th, the last day of the rallies, participants gathered on the quad of the University of Mississippi, at the heart of the debate. It was here that demonstrators, donning bright yellow STAND Against AIDS t-shirts, stood in the background of a live news broadcast of MSNBC and chanted their demand to “End AIDS Now!” Other activists taking part in the event included volunteers from the Save Darfur campaign, the Rock the Vote Campaign, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and a host of others.

My time spent with positive women in our caravan was extremely enlightening. Just meeting them made me self-aware of my own unrealized tendencies toward stereotyping in regards to HIV/AIDS and those that have the disease. I have to admit that, foolishly, despite my years of doing work involving HIV/AIDS advocacy, and my familiarity with certain aspects of the disease, that I was extremely surprised to learn that the women were HIV positive. Even despite having seen some of them previously at other HIV/AIDS events, it never even occurred to me that these elderly women were in fact HIV positive. Their delicate demeanor and sweet disposition were more reminiscent of my grandmother, not someone suffering from AIDS or HIV. Even when told that I would be spending the weekend with “positive” women, I interpreted “positive” as meaning optimistic, cheerful, and constructive, not HIV positive. This was obviously extremely insightful, allowing me to deviate into an unnerving point of self-actualization, making me fretfully aware of my own ignorance. Despite understanding that AIDS does not have a face and that anyone and everyone was susceptible to the disease, I, unfortunately had a misguided template of what I thought someone who had HIV/AIDS should look like. It also made me realize that while book knowledge is fundamental, experience is and all ways will be, the best teacher.

But outside of my own self-examination, I learned many other things by being amongst those that are HIV positive. Prior to this I wasn’t aware of the variety of problems that exist among those that are positive, as well as the unique problems that exist among the scores of socially communities within the HIV epidemic. I was just under the assumption that people simply faced the problem of having the disease and wanting a cure. However, I learned that there are many other intricately devastating problems that people who are HIV positive have to battle on a daily basis. Issues with inadequate health care, medicine, stigma and feelings of being disenfranchised are ones that chronically plague those that are HIV positive. Many of the same problems that occur among those of a lower socioeconomic status are then magnified by the ongoing reality of living with HIV.

Aside from addressing seemingly endless problems there was a sense of hope when trying to develop the solutions. While people shared stories about the ordeals they encounter and how they were infected, they also talked of where their kids go to school, laughed at each other jokes, and discussed their plans for next summer’s vacations. Conversations like this gave the weekend a more humane element. In a field such as this, while being bombarded with statics, facts, and figures, it is easy to sometimes forget that HIV is more than just a clinical virus whose effects can be measured with graphs and pie charts. It is a disease that affects people, people who are not dying from it, but living with it. There was an overall sense of love, pride, and above all, unity, that resonated that weekend. Unity existed in the sense that whether you were positive, loved someone that was positive, or was simply there just because you cared, HIV/AIDS is a universal problem that puts every individual at risk and will continue to be a problem until the epidemic is ended.

::: Websites for More Information :::

Campaign to End AIDS

SisterLove, Inc.