November 21, 2019 - World AIDS Day is December 1 - ATN Responds

A commitment to a community and a commitment to a cause. With World AIDS Day approaching December 1, people from across the ATN share their thoughts about HIV prevention and care for youth. 

Press play below to view. A text transcript is below. 

 

 

Text Transcript

The younger generation is trying to find love, and they're trying to find acceptance, and you can't love and accept someone else if you can't love and accept yourself.

We need to make our youth more aware. We need to increase interaction with care and services. We need to involve them in advocacy so they can help their peers.

It has to be done...and if not now, when, and by whom?

You need to be aware of who you are, what it is that you have going on in your life, so that that way, you can live the best life.

It shouldn't be more about what they think. It should be more about your safety, your health, and how you feel about it. 

To be able to say those words out loud, to say that out loud, that I am a young woman living with HIV, and HIV is not my defining characteristic. 

I'm 25 years old and I've been living with HIV for 7 years.

I am HIV positive, but that is not all to me.

But it really is a commitment to a community, and it's a commitment to a cause.

I feel so lucky that I've learned through the ATN of how to...about other communities that I never thought that I could be a part of.

You're not alone in this. You're not...you know...someone that people have forgotten about. 

There is a roadmap. There is a plan...a blueprint that all the investigators are working on... continuously...regardless of treatments or cures...that they haven't forgotten about us.

Not race. Not ethnicity. Not socioeconomic status. Not the arms you find love in. Not the "you" they don't understand. Not none of it should ever be justification for wilted flowers. Our tomorrows deserve all our efforts to help them grow.

 

End of transcript

(Note - video was filmed in 2019 or earlier.)

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