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I’m the typical “helper.” Actually that’s really good therapy, it makes you reflect upon yourself. I was an activist in the ‘70s, in gay liberation, and then I was part of the first UK response to HIV in 1982, 1983, and set up organizations and help lines and things like that. I never had a […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Europe, Male • Tags: England, United Kingdom
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People were just dying in ’83 and ’84. All my friends were dying around me, and then a very good friend of mine was diagnosed with it in ’84. And he moved home to his place in Taroma. Some people shunned him, but I never did. When I was told that it was HIV, I […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Asia-Pacific, Male • Tags: New Zealand
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Sometimes, I allow myself to have a wallow day. But it doesn’t happen much now. It used to happen. I cried a lot in the first years. I find now that it’s very difficult to cry. I seem to have hardened quite a lot. And I guess it’s just about, you know, you see a […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Asia-Pacific, Female • Tags: New Zealand
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I first learned that I was HIV-positive in a letter from a doctor. I’d been working in a little hospital in rural Africa, but I had to go away somewhere else to find a GP to take my blood, because there was just the risk of too much scrutiny, and confidentiality – I didn’t feel […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Asia-Pacific, Female • Tags: Australia
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When I started working in 1984 as a doctor, I saw so many people whom I now know had AIDS, but we were never trained – it was not there during that time from ’79 up to ’84, when I went through the medical school. So, I worked – I’ve worked with hundreds, thousands. I’ve […]
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I always wanted a big family, you know – four to six children. My career was in childcare. I found out that I was positive and pregnant at the same time. My partner came with me, and we found out that he was also positive. And they basically said three things to us: “Don’t tell […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Asia-Pacific, Female • Tags: Australia
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Doris: I was caught up in my addictions, and I thought the weight loss was connected to my substance use, until I started seeing other complications with my health. And that’s when I went for an HIV test. While waiting for my HIV test, I made the decision to go back home, because […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Female, North America, Trans / Non-Binary • Tags: Canada
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I just remember being very naïve, you know, and people would tell me to do something, and I would do it. I didn’t know any better. The good news is is that they told me– this is when AZT was the only treatment. And they put me on AZT and I just took it, because […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Female, North America • Tags: United States
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It’s strange to say: I was living in Sydney in the 1980s when the newspapers, every week when they came out, they had dozens of people dying from HIV. I didn’t know of any of them, and so I must have been moving in a completely different circle of friends. Whereas other people, they knew […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Asia-Pacific, Male • Tags: Australia
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Edward: She used to follow me around all the time. I was 15, she was 11, so I looked at her like a kid, like my little sister, and she became my best friend. Andrea: We lived in the same neighborhood in New York. Long Island. I’ve always been in love with him, […]
Categories: Age 50-54, Age 55-59, Female, Male, North America • Tags: Couple, United States
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Ron: I found out my status when I was incarcerated, as a result of seeing a dentist. The dental hygienist dropped one of the tools and it pricked her on the leg. And as a result of their protocol they asked everybody who had saw the dentist that day to take an HIV […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Female, Male, North America • Tags: Couple, United States
by admin
HIV has a– una connotación mala, negativa. Pero para mí, creo que HIV has given me everything. Everything. A new life. A change, a dramatically change in my life. In Spanish we say, I gave “un giro de 360 grados.” “A 360,” and my life now is very full, I feel very… full. Once, my […]
Categories: Age 55-59, Male, South America • Tags: Ecuador