HIV Positive Student Denied by Private Boarding School
December 5, 2011
The Milton Hershey School, a private boarding school that provides an educational opportunity for disadvantaged teenagers, has denied a potential student based solely on his HIV status. A lawsuit has been filed, and the story was given legs due to the lawsuit’s timing- which was filed last week the day before World AIDS Day.
CNN picked up the story and interviewed the boy’s lawyer.
The school released a statement explaining that they have to be concerned with the health of the rest of their students, explaining that sexual activity does occur on their premises and that 1,800 students would be put at risk. On Twitter and on Facebook, former students of Milton Hershey are coming to the school’s defense. It’s much like home team sports fans, who’s only loyalty to a team is the fact they were born in the city the team plays out of. Some of the former students responses are so short-sighted: that the school can’t be wrong because they learned there. The most laughable thing I saw on Twitter was someone posting that everyone is stupid to be up in arms about the school’s decision, to the effect of, “It’s not just a school- students have to LIVE there!”
It’s not risky. This student is not a threat. The school’s concern speaks volumes about their lack of sexual education on the premises. There is a fear of teenage behavior that is quite revealing, it’s almost as if they are saying that teens are out of control and it’s just too risky to have someone with HIV around. It’s very sad. Of course I can relate to the boy because of my own experience of being denied schooling because of my HIV status. Even though his identity is anonymous at this point, the story is out there and I hope it’s not too traumatizing for him.
My hope is that the Milton Hershey School accepts the science of the situation and changes their position. It would be a great learning experience for an institution that has provided such for so many. It’s not too late- they could not only educate their current students about sexual health in the process, but also educate their former students on the virtues of compassion and the reality that we are all capable of making errors in judgement.
And correcting them.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Republicans VS. Planned Parenthood
March 4, 2011
One of the reasons why I’ll probably never be able to cast a vote for a Republican is because of their views on sex, whether it’s institutionalized homophobia (in which they obsessively cannot get the sexual imagery of homosexual acts out of their minds- hmmmm) or their opposition to open dialogue about safer sex.
Here, the Daily Show explains the most recent attacks on Planned Parenthood by House Republicans, who should just stay out of the way and let PP talk to their teenagers about sex since they refuse to do so.
I Am Uninsured
February 18, 2011
Yup. I have joined the over 50 million Americans who do not have health insurance. My private health insurance dropped the dead weight- me- at the end of last year. Here’s how it all went down…
Let’s start at the beginning. I was covered under my father’s health insurance and, due to hemophilia, I was considered disabled as a child. That means that I was supposed to be covered for life, even after his retirement in 1999 from his state job. At the time, I’d just moved into my own place, and Gwenn I had fallen in love. Also, I was very sick and unaware of any of the logistics of my health insurance. My main priority was getting my health back on track.
Somehow, the “covered for life” thing fell through the cracks with my father’s employer and Blue Cross. As a result, I was off my father’s insurance, and instead of righting the wrong, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield decided to cover me under an individual policy. Over the course of ten years, I was hospitalized twice, but based on my fairly high monthly premium ($1200) the company was actually making money on me, not losing it…
…fast forward to 2010.
During World AIDS Week in December, my busiest time of the year, I was late with my monthly payment by a few days. The payment was made, then a couple of weeks later when Gwenn went to pick up my HIV medications, the pharmacy informed her that I wasn’t covered. We called, and Anthem said reapplying was easy. We filled out all the info online, and then…
I was denied.
I was told it wasn’t due to HIV- it was because I’d been exposed to hepatitis C in 1994 and had hemophilia. Even though I’ve never had any problems with hep C, and that five years ago my doctor told me I was a non-progressor due to how many years I’d been infected with hepatitis C with no signs of increased liver enzymes or damage. They’d probably had me on a shortlist of chumps to be dumped, and jumped at their first chance to get rid of me.
So now I’m uninsured. I should probably be scared, but I’m not. On a spiritual level, I feel relieved to no longer be associated with corporate thieves. Sure, they covered me well when I was in a jam, and didn’t screw me over except for the fact that they didn’t honor the “covered for life” portion of my father’s policy and financially raped my beloved commonwealth of Virginia each month in my name.
But hey, sometimes those facts slip through the cracks. Sometimes ethics slip through. And people, too.
Just like me.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
Belgian Gay Couple Waiting For Son
February 17, 2011
UPDATE from Roel regarding blog post below: *** GREAT NEWS TODAY! *** Press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium (February 18th 2011) Following the recent ruling by the Court in Brussels on Samuel Ghilain – who currently resides in Ukraine – Foreign Affairs will comply with the court order to deliver a passport to the child. it seems the battle for Laurent and Peter to get their son home is finally at it’s end! -roel
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Found out about this heart-wrenching story thanks to a reader of this blog, Roel. Watch the video, and sign the petition to help rectify this miscarriage of justice. – STD
“Belgian gay couple Peter and Laurent have a son, Samuel -age 2 1/2- who is trapped in an Ukranian orphanage. Laurent is Samuel’s biological father. The little boy was conceived through insemination with a Ukranian surrogate mother. “Because adoption in Belgium is so hard for gay couples, we chose a surrogate mother in Ukraine, where it’s legal,” says the couple.
But because Belgium has no law considering surrogate mothers, the two dads are unable to bring their own child home.
People do not choose to be gay, should they therefore ignore their deep desires to marry, have their own children, create their own family?!
Let’s hope this finds a solution, and fast!
So that Samuel can get home to his loving family!”
-Roel
Watch the video. It’s 10 minutes long, but can you imagine waiting two years to have your child returned to you? This story is yet another reason why we have to fight homophobia. People in positions of power will use it as long as we allow it as a society.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
Talking About Sexuality Does Not Cause STIs
February 9, 2011
Colleges and universities in the New England area were recently spammed by conservative groups, who blamed the appearance of sex educators on campus for HIV infections rates… absolutely absurd.
“In yet another attempt to shut down access to quality sex education, South-Eastern New England conservative advocates hit the sex panic button in a multi-state, email and phone campaign to colleges all over New England last week.” -read full article here
I don’t understand this mentality, which suggests that not talking about reality is the best way to solve a problem. Or that sex is so dirty that it should only be used for procreation and not recreation, and that anyone who does so gets what they deserve. It’s never spelled out so bluntly, but make no mistake that this is the message behind the concerted effort to shut down any discussion of how people can engage in risk-free sexual contact by being aware of the importance of testing and proper condom usage.
Human sexuality comes naturally, yet the ability to discuss sexual matters does not. I believe that the suppression of potentially life-saving information- or at least info that can make peoples life’s less difficult- is subhuman. These “people” should be ashamed of themselves, for their actions are far more vulgar than any of the sexual acts that give them nightmares and boners.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
In Depth Super Bowl Analysis (via Twitter)
February 6, 2011
For more real-time musings and outbursts of anger, click on the tweet above and follow me on Twitter.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
Let’s Talk About Sex Education
February 2, 2011
My life is pretty damn good- as a default setting I walk around on Thankful. The universe has taken care of me every step of the way and, although I’ve had some serious obstacles along the course, there’s never been the absence of a giant safety net underneath of me. Whether I could see it down there or not.
That’s how I survived childhood. As an adult, I’m proud of the work that Gwenn and I do in HIV prevention. For the last ten years, we’ve been speaking at colleges, and pretty much started up the minute I was healthy enough to do so after starting on HIV meds. We’ve shared the realities of living with HIV, and dispelled the fears of transmission for couples like us by discussing how to use condoms effectively and not to fall into the trap of “I can tell someone has a Sexually Transmitted Disease by looking at them”.
Most of all, I love breaking down the stigma of sex and sexually transmitted infections. Above all else, I feel like this is what I was meant to do. On a personal level, meeting Gwenn has been the highpoint of my life. She’s such a great presence in my life, that I almost feel greedy to have her by my side as both my best friend and my lover. But beyond the personal, I’m glad that we met as educators, and have been able to shed a new light on HIV/AIDS by talking about what a lot of couples like us already know- safe sex is possible. Healthy relationships and the presence of HIV are not mutually exclusive.
We’ve reached a lot of people in a lot of different ways- via this blog, our talks, magazine and newspaper articles and My Pet Virus. Ultimately, I wish we could do more- but the sad truth is that the demand for sexual health education isn’t a huge priority for colleges and universities, and getting into high schools is a real tough sell. We also speak at HIV/AIDS conferences and AIDS Service Organizations, but often times the budgets don’t allow for the travel costs (plane tickets, rental car, hotel) it takes to get us there. It’s why I laughed when a couple of morons on Facebook said that Big Pharma was flying me all over the world.
Recently, Gwenn applied for a full-time job doing something other than HIV/AIDS. I know it’s tooting our own horn a bit, but I think that’s fucking stupid. Not of her, of course, but that we aren’t speaking as much as, say, a juggler or magician is being booked to entertain 19-year olds with tricks that are more suited for toddlers. But it shouldn’t be a surprise, our country’s relationship with sex has been a joke for quite a while. We use it to sell everything, but never speak of the realities of sexual health or admit that teenagers have libidos and sexual curiosity.
When Obama was running for president, he spoke about addressing the issue of sexual health with younger people, as a means of making it more likely that children could report instances of sexual abuse. The intelligent and honest addressing of a serious issue was met with an attack- and he was scolded for “wanting to show children pornography in public schools”, or however moronically it was framed by his opponents. As president, George Bush made federal funds available for abstinence-only education, and the nation thought that was a great idea I guess, until teenage pregnancy rates went up.
These days, we blame teenage pregnancy on an MTV show, as if it never happened before 16 & Pregnant aired. We don’t blame ourselves for taking sex education out of public schools, or ignoring the facts about when we as adults had our first thoughts and questions about sex.
For me, HIV/AIDS education is the only thing I feel qualified to do. For Gwenn, she had a life and an education before she got interested in HIV, before she fell in love with a guy with a pet virus… she has the kind of mind that any business would love to have on their team. She’s the one who figured out all the ways that we could educate together, and was smart enough to pinpoint the topics we should address with college students. That’s why I encourage her to see what else is out there, because she deserves to be doing more than just twiddling her thumbs while I blog…
Which, at the time, is my main way of educating about the virus. I’m honored to do it, I’m lucky to be alive and I wish that everyone with HIV could find the happiness in their lives that I’ve been able to find in mine. I want to do more, I’m always on call.
It’s just that the phone isn’t ringing.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
Facebook Group Claims to Cure HIV
December 10, 2010
The Red Ribbon Army has called attention to a group on Facebook called “From HIV Positive to HIV Negative” in the hopes of having it removed from the social networking site. In order to help do so, click on the group’s page, scroll down to the bottom left and click “Report Group”. Check the “Scam” box.
Why draw attention to this? Why pick on a bunch of self-starters just trying to make it in the world? Isn’t it their right in a soon-to-be capitalistic world to offer an alternative to big pharma? Well, it’s all in the packaging. I have no problems with alternative therapy or thinking, but when you claim to cure HIV, that is an issue.
Make no mistake- these claims are very dangerous. It’s snake oil. It’s preying on the desperate. To defend this group, as some have, is asinine. People who go for this juice and believe in it are less likely to seek out actual medical care. There’s a big difference. And telling someone who is HIV positive that there are HIV negative makes it way less likely that person will use protection when they engage in sexual activity. HIV is preventable- not curable at this particular moment in time. Anything that takes away our power to pursue the former is a problem with me, and I’m not open to discussion about the merits of idiots and thieves who claim they can cure HIV with a juice box. They are in it for money, not to help people.
And they can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.
To help shut down this group, re-read the beginning of this post and follow the instructions.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
LIFE IN PHOTOS
I have joined Vine- how's my bio? Open to suggestions, folks.
$30 to inspect the light, which has randomly turned on before (when fuel is low) and been turned off by them. $391 to fix? No thanks. Nice knowin ya, Brown Subaru!
"You look constipated." - @gwennbarringer in our latest #YouTube video. #vlog #HIV #AIDS #sexualhealth #funny #twitter #twidiots
Happy birthday Gwenn. :) :) :)
Speaking About Sexual Health
Since 2000, Shawn and Gwenn have been speaking about sexual health together, sharing their personal story and empowering others to be safe. If you are interested in having them speak at your event, fill out the Contact Us form.
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