[BRIEF NOTE] The Plight of the HIV Seronegative

[rfmcdonald]

A LJ friend of mine has wondered whether HIV-negative gay/bisexual men need more support networks. HIV positive gay and bisexual men, upon recieving their diagnosis, often can access quite extensive support networks, helping them with day-to-day living, medical treatment, socialization and dating, and so on. HIV-negative men don't. William I. Johnston's online book on the subject, 1995's HIV-Negative: How the Uninfected Are Affected by AIDS, is probably the most readily available analysis of this question of isolation, though the work of psychologist and writer Walt Odets is also worth examination. I'm somewhat wary of the idea of constructing an identity around HIV seronegativity, particularly since the equation of epidemiology and morality is pernicious in the context of HIV/AIDS as with other plagues, but there is something to the arguments of Johnston and Odets that HIV negative men do need help in getting to access the broader context of GLBT society, to construct more positive self-identities and avoid infection in the first place. I was lucky enough to get help from friends over the Internet, lucky since PEI isn't exactly the most GLBT-friendly of Canadian provinces. For other people, education would be key, the earlier the better. Alas, this is wrongly controversial.

I wonder: How many people suffered or even died thanks to Britain's Claude 28 and its ilk?