Project Kengikat

ADAP…..The Work That Is Not Getting Done.

// June 28th, 2010 // HIV and AIDS

Today (Monday, June 28, 2010) was the ADAP National Call in Day and from what I saw and heard from many people infected with HIV or AIDS that depend on ADAP to get their life saving meds was simply depressing.

ADAP is the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program that provides life saving meds to people battling HIV or AIDS who can not afford to pay for their meds. Currently there are over 1400 people on waiting lists in 11 states. Now I am know you may be thinking that these people are on waiting list for meds that are no on the market, but you would be wrong if this is your thinking. The waiting list is for meds that are available. Over 1400 people in 11 states are on a waiting list for meds that are on the market.

Now this isn’t like sitting in some waiting area of a restaurant or in a some line waiting to get in a club. People don’t die in these types of lines or waiting areas, but people have died on ADAP waiting lists. People don’t die waiting to get into a club or while waiting for a table at some eatery. What is sad to me is that this nation and I am not just talking about the leaders of this nation, but this nation as a whole, will sit by and allow people to die while waiting for life saving meds. This sitting on the sidelines also applies to the “community” as well. No one is without blame or without fault when it comes to this major issue facing this nation.

While there is strong support for HIV and AIDS funding at the While House and on both sides of aisles, not one person is willing to stand up and take a real stand, the lead or force this nation to deal with the current crisis taking place. Moreover organizations that are supposed to be on the ground doing all they can to fight for people with HIV and AIDS also seem to be missing the mark in a major way as well. In many ways these organizations remind me of big banks, Wall Street fat cats or to paint a clear picture of this crisis that has been unfolding for sometime now, it is, in my opinion no different then the British Petroleum oil spill that is already devastating the our coastline, killing our wild life, affecting the lives of countless people, which will soon impact the entire nation as a whole.

BP is ADAP and the people with HIV and AIDS are our ocean, our coastline and the precious lives of countless people who will die and be greatly affected by this crisis that no one seems to be fully in control of, engaged in or even caring about. You can only look to what is already taking place in the gulf to know the final outcome of not having a solid plan in place should something go wrong, someone in control and a clear, effective and precise way to address it.

In the beginning AIDS was killing people left and right and today I always hear people saying “people are no longer dying” and this is not just untrue, but, it is a bold faced lie and a slap in the face to those families, friends and loved ones who have lost someone to AIDS. People are still dying and yes the number of deaths are drastically different then at the start of this epidemic, but one death to AIDS is one too many and we know that there are far more then just one death. AIDS still kills people and we need to not just act like we care, but do things that show we care.

In speaking with people, both gay and straight about the National Call in Day for ADAP, not one person I spoke with even knew about it. In speaking with people who work in the field of HIV and AIDS, not one of them knew about it. I must say this, I have to exclude my friends, because I talk about what is going on all the time, so they are fully aware and the heads up I sent out today reminding them to call wasn’t a news flash, but a reminder. I even spoke with two people who are on the HIV Commission here in Los Angeles and they too had no clue about what today was.

One person even mentioned the gay and lesbian organization they work for here in Los Angeles only to report that they heard nothing about the National Call in Day for ADAP. They went on to mention how the very high profile clinic where they get their health care also had no information about it either. Then there was those people who simply do not care and don’t do a damn thing for their selves unless someone is holding their hand, so the answers I heard from them was not surprising.

So how do we begin to change things when it comes to HIV and AIDS in this nation? How do we empower our leaders to do the right things? How do we empower people to stand up, speak up, show up and give a rats ass? How do we get organizations to make certain that the vital information is getting to the people who can help make change happen? How do we make things better when so many of us won’t even talk about the fact that they have HIV or AIDS? How can we ask our government to do something when we hide in our self imposed HIV and AIDS closets with the doors locked, lights out refusing to be part of the change? How has the right to profits and marriage taken the place of the right to life? Where did we go wrong?

I think the first thing we should do is stop living in the segregation of “community”, stop making HIV and AIDS about “community” when it is truly about HUMANITY. I have learned that when we make something about a certain “community” then it becomes hard for people to feel a part of and even empowered to take a stand for something that is about some “community”  Community separates us as humans, it divides us into groups of people who are different. To be perfectly honest I think the “community” play key roles in holding people with HIV and AIDS in the dark. The “community” says “come out of the closet” and “we’re here and we’re queer” but turns right around and encourages people with HIV and AIDS to run back into another closet and hide in shame. The “community” does an awesome job at making HIV and AIDS about gay people and that has only caused “stigma” and division.

Today I was able to get 60 people to call the White House and ask President Obama to address the ADAP crisis. I did this by getting people to see that HUMANS will die without life saving meds. I did this by asking people to care about HUMANS, not some community that they don’t feel part of. I did this by asking people to think of me, their friend, someone they care about. In doing so 60 people made the call because I made the “ask” about life, not “community”

Maybe we should living inside community and start living as humans, maybe we should stop making HIV and AIDS about community or being gay and make it about what it is, HUMANS. We need to come out of this “get all you can, can all you get and sit on the pot and poison the rest” way of thinking and begin to think of each other as equals. Not as gay or straight, but fellow humans who can become infected with HIV or AIDS at any time.

We will never totally and fully address the HIV and AIDS crisis in this nation until we work as HUMANS and not as “communities” If we really look at how things are unfolding, then we should see that this “community” way of doing things is not working and it is very much like Democrats and Republicans who cant get things done for this nation because they think inside the segregation of their “community”