World AIDS Day 2009

Yeah, I’m a day late but I was in-flight back to the City under Red Sun and didn’t get in until late…

So….. December 1st is (was) World AIDS Day! A day to stop and reflect on the plague of our time and the terrible toll it has taken worldwide. To date, this scourge has claimed the lives of some 28 million people, and another estimated 33 million people around the world are currently living with the disease. There is no cure!!!

By now, we all now the devastation this plague has caused. But today (and EVERYDAY), perhaps more than ever, we really need to stop and reflect on this disease and our lives in the shadow of AIDS/HIV. Too many of us see AIDS and HIV as an African problem. Too many of us see it as a African American problem. Too many of us still see it as a homosexual problem. Somehow we always manage to map it outside our spheres, outside of our personal definitions of ourselves. Perhaps it’s because we aren’t African, or African American. Perhaps we don’t live in DC, NYC ATL or San Francisco. Perhaps we aren’t gay. Then again, maybe we’re too young to remember those truly terrible days, before the anti-retroviral drug cocktails, when an HIV diagnosis meant certain death, and when we watched helplessly as our best friends and family and our idols wasted away and died.

Those days a gone! The fear has subsided, and in its place a terrible new disease has taken hold. This disease…. complacency. Here in the City under Red Sun, as elsewhere, people just aren’t very concerned with AIDS. More than anywhere else, it really is seen as something that happens to other people in some other place in some other other time. Too many times have I heard that AIDS/HIV is alternately a gay, Black, or foreigner disease. And if you’re a gay, Black foreigner (such as myself), then you’re the living embodiment of risk. Largely separated from these at-risk “others”, Japan is lulled in a false sense of security.

BUT AIDS/HIV IS EVERYWHERE. AND EVERYONE IS AT RISK!!!

One thing that really strikes me… what scares me is how clueless so many of my friends here are about sexual transmitted diseases in general. So clueless in fact that they have a “take-it-or-leave-it” attitude about using condoms. No, I’m not saying that Japanese people are clueless. Far from it!!! It seems to me that everywhere there is this increasing ambivalence about using condoms and acceptance of barebacking…. that’s right, raw, skin-on-skin sex! In a city, where people swear by their face masks to prevent the spread of colds!!!

At the risk of putting all my business out there, I’ve done it. And it feels, ummmm….. AMAZING. But it could also be DEADLY! I’m very fortunate that I haven’t gotten up with anything penicillin couldn’t cure.

But not walking away from my stupidity totally unscathed, the other thing that strikes me is how difficult it is to get tested. The last time I needed to “visit the clinic”, I was told that that hospital did not administer the AIDS test. Instead, I had to find some place in the City that did! I could be wrong here. I hope that I’m wrong here, but to my understanding, AIDS tests are not readily available at hospitals for on-the-spot requests nor is are they covered by the Japanese National Health Insurance. Readers, if I’m wrong please correct me! In my case though, I called Tokyo English Life Line, and was directed to a free and anonymous testing site in Shinjuku. It wasn’t easy to find, but I was determined to have that test and “know my status”. It took a week – no, apparently the same-day tests are NOT available in Japan – but with my secret code in hand, I learned that I was in fact HIV negative. I’ve been back regularly since in an effort to better know and respect myself, my partner and the memory of my lost brother.

On this World AIDs Day 2009 – and everyday! – love and respect yourself enough to protect yourself. Use condoms! Use them EVERY TIME!!! And get tested regularly…

Know your status!

Tokyo
Minami Shinjuku (南新宿検査相談室)
3F Tokyo Minami Shinjuku Building,
2-7-8, Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
Tel: 03-3377-0811
*English help available!

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5 Comments

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  By locohama, December 1, 2009 @ 5:10 pm

  “Too many of us see AIDS and HIV as an African problem. Too many of us see it as a African American problem. Too many of us still see it as a homosexual problem.” who is this mysterious us?

• 

  By young city extraordinaire, December 1, 2009 @ 8:06 pm

  When I say “us”, I’m referring to everyone who continue to see AIDS and HIV as other people’s problems, as if we all aren’t affected and shouldn’t take the necessary preventive steps. I didn’t want to point anyone or any particular group of people out. But I know people who believe that AIDS is a Black problem or gay problem but never a Japanese problem. I know other sexually active people who don’t use condoms or other known preventive measures. I know people who despite being sexually active haven’t been tested ever. I know I’ve made some very stupid, potentially deadly mistakes in my own sex life. And as honest as I try to be in this blog, there are some ignorant beliefs that I’m embarrassed to admit I held. So I’m including myself in this “us” as well.

  But my question is: do you know your status?

  BTW, I love your blog!

• 

  By cleon dann, December 2, 2009 @ 12:37 am

  World aids day is a gr8 social day for all of us to remember all victims of HIV or aids world. We can spread and gain knowledge about aids world to cause awareness about this menace.

  regards
  cleon dann

• 

  By Allison, December 2, 2009 @ 8:23 am

  I’ve read a lot about broad ignorance in Japan about STDs in general. They’re sitting on a huge epidemic as a result of a lack of sex education. I remember asking my Japanese boyfriend before we got intimate whether he had any STDs, and he was shocked that I would even imagine he could have such a thing.

  Not to mention, according to my high school policeman host father only foreigners in Japan do drugs, so of course dirty needles wouldn’t be an issue…

  Getting tested is important! Whether you think you’ve put yourself at risk or not. I just wish the message would spread in Japan. They have enough population problems as it is…

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