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Monday, December 1, 2008
How has AIDS impacted your life?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. We’ve come a long way from the early ’80s when an AIDS diagnosis was a likely death sentence and carried a stigma. There were few treatment options then, and many Americans were terrified of people infected with HIV.
Today, AIDS in the United States has become a chronic condition to be managed. Americans with the disease are stronger and healthier, their concerns fading from public view.
Like many other people, I’ve lost friends, family and colleagues to the disease. I recall fondly one friend, a fashion designer, who in 1990 made my wedding dress and those of other women even as he battled AIDS, a battle he eventually lost. At his funeral, the church was filled with women who showed up in the wedding dresses he had designed for them. He was a talented, lively, lovely young man who left us way too soon.
How has AIDS impacted your life? Have you lost someone close to you to the disease? Do you know someone living with the disease? What is your own experience?
