I am a heterosexual American male living with HIV for nearly 17 years. I can say here that despite all the rhetoric and false compassion, the stigma of living with this condition is worse now than ever. I work in a demanding technical environment, I am middle-class affluent, I am healthy, responsible, etc etc...
We are not Newsweek cover stories anymore, we have dropped off the American radar yet there are hundreds of thousands of us standing in the same grocery checkout line as you, dropping our kids off at the same schools, voting in the same booths. Shame on the masses who are so compassionate when a story comes on TV about cancer or ALS or any other life-threatening disease but allow that dark shadow to cross their features when AIDS is mentioned. Yes, it a fight against not AIDS but people with AIDS. The ”not in my backyard” mind-set is alive and well. Trust me, after all these years I can call my voice one of authority on this subject.......