From a public health standpoint, HIV is a tricky beast. How do you address prevention without demonizing those already infected? How do you show people that you can have a meaningful, fulfilling life with the disease without making it seem as if having the disease is a walk in the park?
The way Berlin deals with HIV is quite inspiring. On subway platforms throughout the city, you can see billboards with people who are HIV positive, and the message is always very empowering. This one says, in German (obviously): "I have HIV, and the respect of my colleagues." There are other variants of this billboard featuring fathers, older women, and gay men outing themselves as HIV positive. The message is always "you can have HIV and get on with your life."
These messages have a powerful affect on me. After I first came out in 2005, I was so terrified of getting HIV that I isolated myself from the gay community at my university. Whenever I was at a gay bar, I was afraid I would drink too much and have sex with someone and forget the condom and wind up with the illness. Sure, wearing a condom and not getting blackout drunk are two very important college lessons, but I took it to the extreme. I even tried to pass judgements on others based on whether or not it looked like they had the illness. I was one more gay dude stereotyping other gay dudes...I was part of the problem. It was even hard for me to make friends because I was such a nervous wreck all the time.
It wasn't until I joined Student Global AIDS Campaign and then later traveled to South Africa, that the fear began to lessen. I exposed myself to people who had the illness so I would be forced to see them as people, not diseases. I didn't have any desire to have unsafe sex, but I didn't want to be so afraid of people already infected. What was the point? It's not as if seeing them as real people would magically make me throw away all my condoms and head on down to the nearest bathhouse. Fear is important; we shouldn't ever pretend this is an easy disease. But scare campaigns can have huge, unintended consequences.They can further isolate the already infected, thus beating up on an already HUGELY stigmatized group. And for neurotic gay Jewish boys like me, they can make a trip to the gay bar a hair-raising and hellish experience.
Seeing those smiling, confident faces staring down on the subway platform made me happy to be living in a country that didn't equate sex with death. One could even argue that fear-based AIDS campaigns DISCOURAGE prevention because they make those who might be infected afraid to get tested. But a de-stigmatizing campaign which outs HIV-positive people as productive members of society is a much more humanistic approach towards tackling the illness. People with HIV are more than just walking illnesses! They actually have jobs and families and musical talents and stuff! What a novel revelation!
This particular poster I spotted while waiting for my train at Hermannplatz, a station which services the immigrant enclave of Neukoln. When I turned away, I caught a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf staring at the billboard while talking on the phone. Maybe the message was sinking in, maybe it wasn't. But it's hard to imagine that subconsciously this campaign isn't messing with people's perceptions. I could be stretching it big time here, but I think this kind of advertising really changes people.
What do you think?
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