I wore my HIV- shirt to the art festival knowing that I would be walking
amongst hundreds of people. I was interested in seeing the reaction to a
middle aged Caucasian woman wearing their HIV status on a shirt. The
festival was extremely crowded with most attendees in their own world
socializing with friends or bumping through the crowd. As I walked into
the booths, I could sense the artists reading my shirt but no comments.
Then I walked into the booth of an energetic and very social female
artist. She came up to me and introduced herself. She commented
that she couldn't but notice my shirt. She said, "we have come along
way; twenty years ago, a person wouldn't have been able to wear a shirt with
HIV on it".
"Good for you".
As the festival crowds thinned, people were looking at me and reading my shirt
without expression or concern. Was the artist correct, society is
accepting of HIV or was it only because my shirt indicated my status is
negative? I wanted to wear my shirt in another setting to see if
people would ask more questions or respond to my shirt.
As a clinician at Planned Parenthood of Heartland in the metro, HIV testing is
routine with all our patients seen for annuals and sexually
transmitted infection screening. There is no testing based on
lifestyle, risk factors, age, sexual orientation. Testing is opt
out. So I decided to wear my HIV negative shirt for entire clinic.
Not a single question from the staff as to why I was wearing the
shirt even though I didn't have my usual lab coat on. Not a single
question or response from patients. The only comment I received was the
fact that I was wearing scrub pants. We have come a long way, wearing HIV - was
very accepted both in the clinical and public arenas.
BUT what if it had
said HIV +???
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