“HIV/AIDS was cured. Ain’t nobody even getting that sh*t anymore,” said Arqueece Martin, a customer at a local barbershop whose owner didn’t want his shop name mentioned for fear the “AIDS police” would come and do it harm.
“AIDS is real, man, but it’s for them folk up north, New York and all that,” responded Trevion “Smoove.” “It’s just them northern LGBQXYZs that still be getting AIDS. But it’s damn near on the way out.”
“Naw playa, the government has been putting that HIV virus in stuff our women, Black women be using—hair stuff, feminine products, etc.—so they get AIDS and then give it to us brothers,” shared Johnny “G-Plus,” explaining how his cousin “got” AIDS.
As you can see from these words, there are all kinds of myths about HIV/AIDS still floating around and potentially harming individuals who need healthcare system interventions. But according to health officials, the silence on the subject is deadly, too.
“There is a serious HIV crisis in Houston, especially among Black and Hispanic communities, even across the south as we know it. According to the Houston Health Department, African Americans make up over 50% of all HIV and AIDS cases in Harris County and Latinos comprise 29% of HIV cases,” said Southern AIDS Coalition’s Community Outreach Associate, Marnina Miller, a Black, queer, Houston-based woman and HIV activist who has been living with HIV for the past 10 years.
Miller believes the public doesn’t hear much about this issue because Houston resides in the “Bible Belt.” But it’s in the Bible Belt where HIV/AIDS is off the chain.
“The South has the burden of the HIV epidemic because over 50% of people living with HIV and AIDS in the United States are currently living in the southern region. The south is the wholeness of the Bible Belt. Also, there’s a lot of homophobia and transphobia. And then, 80% of those in Houston living with HIV are either Black and Brown. And we know that racism plays a huge part in the HIV epidemic as well,” Miller added.
BlackHealthMatters.com provided a list of seven HIV/AIDS myths that we need to throw out and replace with facts.
Myth 1: The “Down-Low” Is Why So Many Black Women Have HIV.
We can thank the trifling media, Terry McMillan, Tyler Perry and our own homophobia for why this lie continues to thrive. But be clear: The down-low is not fueling HIV among Black women—it only accounts for a small number of infections. No one is denying that there are Black men living double lives, but if we truly want to understand what’s behind our disproportionate HIV rates, look to the following: Having unprotected vaginal and anal sex with multiple partners or even one partner; high rates of incarceration that take men out of the mating pool and create a system of women sharing the same man; intravenous drug use; untreated sexually transmitted infections, which make people more vulnerable to contracting HIV once exposed to the virus; and people having unprotected sex, being unaware that they are positive and who are going untreated while highly infectious. Not to mention, gender inequality in relationships (i.e., who controls condom use in relationships) and lack of access to testing and quality health care.
Myth 2: Straight Men Don’t Have HIV.
If 87% of Black women contract HIV through heterosexual sex and it’s not the down-low fueling HIV, this must mean straight dudes have HIV, too. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms this: They estimated that in 2014, more than 2,108 Black heterosexual men received HIV diagnoses (compared with 4,654 Black women). During unprotected sex, the virus can enter through the tip of the penis or through a cut or abrasion. This risk becomes even more heightened if that man has an untreated STI.
Myth 3: I Can Tell If Someone Has HIV by Looking at Them.
You can’t tell if folk have diabetes or heart disease just by looking at them, so why would you think HIV would be different?
Myth 4: Magic Johnson Either Never Had HIV Or He Is Cured.
Really? Why would Magic disrupt his NBA career by lying about having HIV, especially when the stigma was crazy in 1991? Moreover, Magic has stressed constantly that he has HIV. And I recently wrote, no one is hiding a cure for HIV because sadly one doesn’t exist. Therefore, Magic is not cured. The reason he’s lived this long is because he is on a treatment regimen that works for him and keeps the virus in check.
Myth 5: Only Promiscuous People Contract HIV.
I have spent over 10 years writing about HIV, and doing that work has shown me anyone in our community can contract HIV—grandmothers, church ladies, wives, husbands, you name it. Yes, the more sexual partners you have unprotected sex with raises your risk for contracting the virus, but you’d be surprised how many women test positive while in monogamous relationships (or ones they believe are monogamous) because these are the type of relationships where folks become lax about using condoms.
Myth 6: The Meds Are What Kills You.
Definitely back in the early days of the epidemic, AZT—a form of treatment— was practically the only medication out there for people living with HIV/AIDS. And there were serious side effects, which made people appear to be sicker than they were before they took the meds. And its toxicity did, in fact, end in death for some who took it. But thanks to better and safer AIDS meds over the past 20 years, we’ve seen people with HIV live longer and healthier lives.
Treatment doesn’t take lives, it saves them.
Myth 7: AIDS Is a Government Conspiracy to Kill Black Folks.
Granted, I can understand why we choose to believe this one. All we have to do is look to our past and present to see Black folks haven’t had the best relationship with the medical community. As I recently wrote, we are fully aware of the Tuskegee experiments, the stealing of Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells and the forced sterilization of Black women behind their backs. Not to mention it’s clear this nation devalues black lives. Just think: The water poisoning in Flint, Michigan, to the devastating state and police violence blacks face.
But that doesn’t mean AIDS is man made. It just isn’t and to buy into that is counterproductive and doesn’t help us mobilize and fight this epidemic.
So now that you have the real facts, hopefully because you know better, you’ll do better and help spread the word, not HIV/AIDS myths.
(Source: BlackHealthMatters.com; Kellee Terrell, HelloBeautiful)